caught red-handed

while josh and his cohorts were "working" on their "chores" last week (remember, this means they were playin w/and cleanin the various guns on site), they discovered two important tools: the training batons and the "red-man" suits.

side note: game wardens carry batons just like city police officers, so a training version of these batons is kept at the academy. also, for various training exercises, they have to wear protective gear. this gear is compiled of several pieces of padding they strap on (knee pads, elbow pads, helmet, etc). the gear is red, thus the nickname "red-man" suit.

back to the story....so josh and the guys find the training batons and red-man suits. bein full-blooded boys, what did they do? well, they strapped on the red-man suits and went after each other w/the trainin batons, of course! let's all enjoy a chuckle as we picture this.... now for the best part. they get caught! yep - their lieutenant walks in and sees these boys disguised as full grown men, dressed from head to toe in the red-man suits, w/the trainin batons in hand. seriously, is there ANYthing to be done in this situation? no excuse, no explanation, no far-fetched story could get them out of this one. can you imagine? now i'm laughin!!! fortunately, their lieutenant was probably just like them 20 years ago...he simply shook his head and reprimanded them w/an exasperated, "boys, boys..."

we all know whose idea this was... even the rigors of the academy can't subdue his playfulness!

this was just one of the many stories josh's folks and i got to hear this weekend. we laughed and laughed. he's learned so much already. his regularly used vocabulary is changing, as he's delving into penal codes and wildlife law. he's slightly more organized, as he's responsible for all sorts of coding and time keeping. and he's havin a ball...he's just eatin it up.

although, i don't know that he's actually eatin enough food. i don't know how much weight he's technically lost, but it's more than enough to make his pants baggy...even straight out of the dryer!

it was such sweet time w/him for those couple days. probably won't see him again until thanksgiving, but he'll have several days off then. we're already lookin forward to it.

he's doin so well...