June 2nd

Brad was fixing some fence around the pasture and Vincent had gone with him.  Joel and Cecilia were not happy that they didn’t get to go along on the 4 wheeler to fix fence.  They insisted we follow along, so we climbed into the pasture and hiked out to where they were.  When we got there Joel wanted to walk to the golf course.  I told him we weren’t going on the golf course but we could go down to the bottom of the pasture and look for golf balls.  He was happy enough with that, so Cecilia and I followed him through the woods and down the hill.  Once we were down there they both decided they were leaving.  Joel turned to me and said “I go to Grandma’s house.  See ya!” and took off running.  I wasn’t too concerned because he had to make it up the hill and past Brad before he could even see Grandma’s and I was pretty sure that Brad would have stopped him.

The three of us got to Brad at the same time.  Vincent and Brad were done burying the electric wire and were filling things in and needing a few supplies from the farm.  Joel, Cecilia, and I took the 4 wheeler and headed to the farm to grab a few supplies.  Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong things, so after Brad informed me of that I took Cecilia and headed back to the farm.  Joel was busy practicing using a hammer on a tree, so I didn’t bother to tell him what I was doing.  Plus I would be back in literally 4 minutes or less.  I was just getting back on the 4 wheeler at the farm and Brad called me to tell me that Joel was on the other side of the silo.  He wanted to warn me so I could give him a ride back.  I thought Brad was exaggerating, so when we turned toward the field I saw Vince running toward the farm, but no Joel.  That’s because Joel was already at the silo!  Brad was far behind both of them. 

Joel ran all the way to the farm, holding his little hammer, and crying because I left him.  I felt terrible, but I was also really impressed that he could run so fast and that he knew where I was going.  On the other hand how did he get away from Brad.  Brad said that Joel said “See ya!” and just took off.  Brad didn’t realize he was serious, until it was quite obvious that he was because he was running away and quickly.  The poor kid didn’t stop crying until I had apologized for leaving him, he was not happy with me.  I was happy though because running is clearly something that Joel is good at and we may need to encourage that ability as he gets older.