(I’m listening to “OTW” by Khalid, 6LACK & Ty Dolla $ign)

This year, we spent the 4th of July visiting my wife’s family in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  It’s always fun to go up there because the wife and I were married near where her mother lives. Since August of this year marks 10 years for us, we took a little detour to Siren, WI to check out The Lodge and the spot in which we got married.

It’s amazing. It literally has not changed. The Lodge looked exactly the same; the cabin motif and the outdoorsy charm. The reception hall was exactly how we remembered. Even the arch way we got married under was still out back. It was like going back in time, except with two living reminders that 10 years has passed. We had our 4-year-old (soon to be 4 and three-quarters by her calculation) and our 2-year-old in tow.

It was great to show our kids where mommy and daddy got married. Our 4-year-old understands what happened there. She knows what marriage is, even though she says she wants to marry daddy, but she gets it. It was fun to see her connect the dots between her mom and dad and this place. I don’t know if she knew her mom and I had no idea what was going to happen in the 10 years after we said, “I do,” but, it was fun to explain to her that’s where our family began. On the other hand, our 2-year-old was just tired of being in the car and wanted to run around.

As we were looking around inside The Lodge, our little trip down memory lane took a detour for our 4-year-old. You see, one more thing about this place hadn’t changed and all of a sudden, Littles was connecting some sad dots.

Like I said, The Lodge is in Wisconsin’s “cabin country.” There are a lot of outdoor activities to do there, including hunting and fishing. To match the culture of the area, The Lodge has a lot of taxidermy on its walls. When I say a lot, I mean multiple pieces in every room. It’s like a zoo of still-life’s.  Bears, fish, deer, you name it, it’s in there.  As Littles was looking around, you could see the gears turning. Then, she finally asked, “Mommy? Daddy? Are these animals real?”

Oh man. The wife and I looked at each other with frozen looks of slight terror crossed with faints smiles.  We knew what was coming. She might as well have asked us how she was made. We shrugged our shoulders and the wife said tenderly, “Yes they are, honey.”

More gears were turning. “So this bear is real? So this deer is real? So this fish is real?” she asked. “Yes, honey. They are real,” we replied. “And now they’re dead,” she asked sadly. “Yes honey,” we replied. A look of gloom fell over her face. “But, but, but, this is so sad, I love nature,” she said with her crackling little voice. We tried to explain why people hunt and fish for food and how animals are on earth to help feed us, but it wasn’t enough. This was beyond comprehension for her. She loves animals, and has a room full of “stuffies” to prove it, and couldn’t understand why people would kill them. She stood in the lobby frozen in sadness. She wouldn’t move, she stopped looking around, she started getting tears in her eyes. We told her it was okay to be sad and finally got her to walk towards the door.

As we went to walk out the door, she pointed to some wooden ducks and asked if they were real. We said they were fake. We also explained how animals like chickens and cows make eggs and milk for us and it doesn’t hurt them. This seemed to restore a little of her faith in humanity, but she was still sad as we walked through the parking lot to the car.

She had learned a lot in the last half hour. She learned where mommy and daddy started their family and also learned we get a lot of our food from animals. As we drove away I said to the wife, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.“ The wife replied, “Yeah, that was a bit rough.” I said, “Our poor little tender-hearted kid. She’ll be fine though.” And after a few minutes, she was.

We stopped by to celebrate 10 years and show the kids where our family began. I guess it’s kind of fitting it turned out like this. I couldn’t have predicted this visit turning out like this just like I couldn’t have predicted our lives turning out like this 10 years ago. I’m not even going to try to predict what the next 10 years will be like, but Lord willing, I know who I’ll be with, and that’s enough for me.

Happy early anniversary, honey. And Littles, you keep being that tender-hearted, sweet kid.  And Tiny, stop eating dirt.  Yucky.