Happy Mothers Day!

A very happy Mothers Day to all the Moms, Grandmothers, Godmothers, Aunts, Mentors, and all women that nurture a love of the outdoors in children.

Thanks for baiting our hooks, having hot chocolate ready after sledding, kissing our boo-boos, baking in the sun at 3-day rodeos, and biting your tongue when your vacuum finds spilled B.B.s.

Thanks for tolerating pet frogs, untangling zebcos, reminding us to wear sunscreen, having your 110 ready to document our 6" bullheads, and remembering to check our pockets for ammo before washing our jeans.

And for hauling canoes, saging us home when the wind is stronger than our legs, buying enough flashlight batteries to power NYC for a year, cooking every species of wild game that roamed the plains, getting up through the night to check on us in backyard tents, and for checking us for ticks.

Also for admiring pop cans peppered with B.B. holes, asking landowners for permission when we're too shy, remembering where we left our gloves, advising us a camp fire under the fuel barrel wasn't a good idea, and for shutting off the T.V. and sending us outdoors.

Least we forget calling all the neighbors to find where we wondered off to this time, airing up flats, breaking the news to dad about his tools lost at the fort, and giving back the fish hooks lost in your carpet.

And for doing it all with love, pride, admiration, and an understanding of our need to be in a place bigger and more beautiful than our minds could comprehend. Thanks for being an outdoors mom, even when you didn't have to.