Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real: A (rapidly growing) boy and his Grampa

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ Every Thursday at Like Mother Like Daughter

We have the joy of living about 2 miles away from my parents, who still live in the house in which I grew up. This means, among other things, that our kids reap the blessings of having loving grandparents who are very much involved in their lives.

My dad has always loved fishing. He used to go all the time as a boy with his father and I can't help but wonder if he was ever sad that, as the father of four daughters, he never had a child who was eager to go fishing with him.

Being a quiet and private man, he never said anything about it.  But, whatever his feelings may have been, his solitary fishing days are over now that Calvin is growing older!

I think Calvin made his week by calling him up on Saturday and asking if they could go fishing!  The Viking and I were quite busy, making preparations for Easter Sunday, so we were rather glad of the opportunity for Calvin to go and do something fun and spend quality time with Grampa in the process!

Calvin is the first surviving boy to be born into the family since 1948.  He's one of only two grandsons on my side of the family.  And we have always joked that Dad has an 11-year-old boy's sense of humor.  So, now, these two are quite the pair. They get each other laughing in no time at all and have a rip-roaring good time together!

Dad wasted no time in coming over to pick Calvin up once he got the call and I just sat on the couch, watching them prepare, watching a grandfather pass knowledge and passion on to his grandson.  And I couldn't help but detect the beauty, happiness, humor and reality of it all so I grabbed my phone and snapped away.

They didn't catch anything, but they came back smiling, red-cheeked and contented.  A day well-spent, after all.

P.S.  These are the shoes I bought for Calvin a few days ago.  He LOVES these silly things!  But scroll down a bit...

To give you a reference point, that's one of The Viking's shoes next to one of Calvin's new ones (carefully aligned along the desk chair mat for accuracy).  Calvin is 11 and suddenly wearing a Men's size 8 shoe!  Can we say, "growth spurt"?