Black Bears, Tacos and Guitar Lessons

These are all first time things for my 8 year old Emelie.

We started our morning off on the April 28th with a trail run in the National Park. We took off down a trail and we talked about bears. I let my daughter in on a secret that I really want to see a black bear. Not right in front of me on a trail, but off in a distance. About a mile into our journey we hear a scream. It really threw me off because my car was the only one in the parking area so I didn't expect to encounter anyone. We look toward the scream and a baby black bear came running down the trail toward us. It looked scared and was running very fast, so my reaction was to step off the side of the trail and let it run past us. When it got to us it took a right turn off the trail and down hill into the woods. It was only a few feet from us when it took that turn. We hurried down the trail to see if the person that screamed needed help. She was okay and only screamed because the bear jumped out behind them to mess / play with her two dogs. She was mainly a little shocked and was protecting her dogs. Her reaction to seeing us was "How did it feel to see a bear running toward you?" I told her that just minutes earlier I told my daughter that I wanted to see a bear from a distance and never expected to see one running toward me. We were shocked, but stayed calm, so we reacted in the best way. Most of Emelie's friends would of screamed and ran which might of made the bear chase them. I explained to her that we reacted well to the situation and that we would take the Black Bear class at the National Park in a few weeks, so we know more about these bears. It was awesome seeing a bear up close and yes it looked like a Black Teddy Bear, because it was a baby. It was a little bigger than Molly.

Emelie had her first taco yesterday. She has been asking for weeks to try a taco. I made the deal with her that if she ran well that I would get her a taco for lunch. After the bear incident no matter how well she ran I was getting her the taco. We went to Taco Bell and she had her first soft taco. She loved it.

Emelie also had her first guitar lesson yesterday. She has an awesome instructor with over 30 years experience in playing the guitar and has played professionally. He was in a Metal Band in the 80's. After only a half hour with her, she understands the parts of the guitar and can play the beginning of Jingle Bells. By the time she takes a year of lessons I'll learn how to play too. I was very impressed on how well he does with kids, he is a very patient man that communicates well.

That is our day with Bears, Tacos and a Guitar.