Bear Hunt Tradition

Are you looking for a special activity to do with your kids or grandkids?

My husband’s family has a tradition that is pure delight.

When the kids in the family are around the age of 6 or 7, Mamaw and Granddad invite them over for a sleepover. Since the family is large, there are usually a few cousins around the same age that are invited together.

The sleepover invariably includes building a fire in their fire pit to cook hotdogs and S’mores, stories around the campfire, and sleeping out on the trampoline under the stars.

In the morning, after hearty breakfast, the kids gather round Mamaw as she reads them the delightful story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.  Then she gives them a gift package that includes a cork pop gun or bow and arrow set, binoculars and a water bottle.  She tells them, “You are going to need your new supplies, because we are going on a “real” bear hunt.”

This is were a little planning ahead comes in.  There are numerous caves in the mountains along the Wasatch Front where we live.  A “helper” bear delivers a special gift for each child to a pre-determined cave early in the morning of the expedition.

The kids and grandparents then set off on their hike… traveling swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy, until at last they find…

a deep, dark cave… where the “real” bears have left soft and snuggly teddy bears and notes for each child.

My children not only cherish the bears from their bear hunts… but mostly the memory of the adventure with Mamaw, Granddad and their cousins.