It has been the tradition in our family for Kent to
take the boys on special Father-Son trips when they
turn 10 and again at 13. It has also been the
tradition for me to take the girls on trips at
the selfsame ages. However, up to this point,
since we have only one daughter and since she is
the baby of the family, I've not had the opportunity
to do so.

This past week, though, I finally got my turn and Hattie
and I went on a jaunt to celebrate her being 10 years
old.

We had a marvelous time. We talked some about what it
means to grow into a woman of God. We touched on issues
such as not drawing too much attention to ourselves with
our speech and actions, dressing modestly, and feelings
we might be facing in the next several years. I didn't go
overly heavy on such things though, because these are
topics that are best dealt with in the heat of the moment.
Since I am blessed with getting to spend hours of every day
with my girl, I can deal with these things as they come up
in a very natural way.

We visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder home, we went shopping,
and we stayed in a motel. We are not very good shoppers.
Hattie said, as we were driving to Springfield, "So what's
a mall anyway?"

I did splurge on her though. At the Wilder gift museum she
fell in love with the bonnets, so, after trying them all on,
I bought her the one in the picture. And, at Kohl's, she
stood in front of a cute little shirt, and said, "I wish I
didn't get so many hand-me-downs that I never need to buy a
new shirt."

We walked out of Kohl's with one new shirt (and some socks).

The highlight of our trip, though, was eating pizza in bed!