Last weekend we (the wife Pat and I) kept our grandson Liam. It was the first time in nearly two months and he had turned 5 since then.
We saw him over the Labor Day weekend right after his birthday, but it’s always a privilege and pleasure to have him for a couple of nights.
Fortunately, he and his mom and dad (our daughter Meghan and sonin- law Terry) live close enough that we get to see him and them fairly often.
It’s only around a 45-minute drive to Norman.
Pat and I are always a little sad the day after we keep him for a weekend. She was mentioning the other night that she wished we would have been able to have another night with him and I quickly agreed.
But with both of us working still, that’s just not in the making quite yet. Sometime in the future hopefully it can be.
When Liam is here for the weekend, we have certain routines. There’s particular restaurants he enjoys and eating out places that are his favorites, so we accommodate that.
On Saturday morning I drove to our favorite place for donuts. He always requests certain kinds and includes getting some for his mom and dad so when we take him back home late Sunday afternoon we can take them some to have.
This last weekend we broke from our normal routine a little and did a little something different than we’ve done in the past.
After lunch on Saturday, I decided to see if I could eliminate some of the pesty gophers that had been digging in the backyard. Since we’re out of the city limits, I can use a shotgun.
I spotted one digging and mentioned to Pat that I was going to see if I could do away with it. When Liam saw me pick up the shotgun, he wanted to know what I was doing.
I told him and he was all about helping me.
But first he had to grab a pair of binoculars he’d been messing around with for a while so he thought he was seeing it.
As I approached the hole, the gopher was still digging so I quietly moved closer. As I was about to fire a shot, Liam stayed back several steps and held his ears.
I shot over the gopher and missed it. A few minutes later Liam told Pat, “My daddy would have shot it.”
I was a little upset for missing it, but we retreated to the patio and sat and watched a bit. As he looked through the binoculars Liam told me there was one out there, and of course there wasn’t, but we went back out and I shot telling him I knocked it back down the hole.
We fired a couple of more shots in the early evening. He was really getting into the gopher hunting.
Sunday morning that was what he wanted to do following donuts. After taking the hoe and leveling a couple of dirt piles that had come up during the night, we waited, even going back inside the house.
Sure enough, a little while later, one started digging. He grabbed those binoculars when I told him, we went outside and sure enough I eliminated one this time.
Pat got the hoe and a sack, he had to use the hoe by himself to put it in the sack while I held his binoculars.
Our gopher hunting was done for the weekend, but we may have started something for future visits.
We’ll just have to see.