When we arrive my mom unloads the car at an unusually fast pace. I’m pretty sure nit is because she’s really excited for my grandpa and me to “Boys Time.” I, myself am not really excited about the bird watching part of the day because my grandpa doesn’t really talk much when we are bird watching. All he talks about is how the birds are going to be migrating south soon. I’m a red headed, four foot, scrawny eight year old boy. How am I supposed to know the migrating patterns of a western meadowlark? I just learned multiplication for goodness sake.

Although, I am a very smart second grader, I’m at a fourth grade reading level. My mom gave me these really cool, long-glasses-thingies to look at birds with. She calls them binoculars; personally I think that is a silly name for them. Today my grandpa and I are looking for a special kind of bird that is native to Oregon. I live at 1706 Whales street, Portland, Oregon. When we go bird watching we drive for a really long time! My mom says its only two hours but I am able to build 27 Lego castles by the time we get there, and that’s a lot.

When we finally arrive in the woods behind my grandpa’s house, we have to walk up this huge hill. Although it’s kind of fun, he lets me put all of the rocks I want in my backpack. See here’s some aren’t they pretty? But, after a while, it gets really heavy. That’s why I have to leave my backpack on the ground when we climb the trees. When we get to the top, we wait and watch. Then finally he sees it. He gets this huge grin from ear to ear, literally. He also smiles like this when he sees my mom.

He loves my mom. One time he told me that she is still his little girl. But, to me my mom is really old. She is 25. When he spots the special bird, he takes lots of pictures and lets me look though his big binoculars. I guess mine can’t look as far as his can because when I look through mine I can see never see it. It’s really pretty, but we can’t look at it all day. Although, I’m pretty sure my grandpa could sit here all day.
My favoritist part of spending the day with my grandpa is when we get home my grandma always has her famous dumplings ready for us. They’re mine and my mom’s favorite. My mom is usually drinking tea on the front porch watching the pretty orange and pink fluffy sunset when we get home. That is my favoritist spot in the whole world, sitting on the porch, eating my dumplings, listening to my grandpa explain to my mom how pretty the bird was that we saw today and me sitting there holding my grandma’s wrinkly hands. Even if all we talk about is birds on the porch, it is still my favoritist spot. And, that is my favoritist memory ever.

“That was great Tommy. I have never been bird watching before. Everyone, give tommy a round of applause! Ok now…who’s next?”