Took my 4 year old on his first deer hunt

I just cant quit looking at the pics and video. It was the best hunt ive had.

Ive been nervous about it because I wanted it to be something he would enjoy. I made the mistake with his older brother of thinking seeing deer would make the hunt more fun. Looking back maybe I should have just let him have fun and not worried about seeing deer.

This time I I went in with the thought of making it an adventure more than a hunt. We packed snack, Nintendo DS, Nook, and drinks. I asked him if he wanted to bring his own gun (toy) and he said " No daddy cause you still have to teach me how to shoot one". We talked about what we were going to hunt and how we would do it on the way to the lease. Coyotes, deer, bobcats, squirrels, rabbits, and pigs were all fair game. We got to the lease at about 4pm where I parked my truck 100 yards from the plot. Normally id park further but didnt want him to tire out walking. We got our whisper voices ready and headed out. On the walk we stopped and talked about acorns and deer tracks. I showed him the clover in the foodplots and he pointed the pig 'boobytrap" and game cameras that he had been with me to put out. He was fearless climbing the ladder to the stand but that may have been due to the death grip i had on his camo overalls. Once in the stand he was amazed at the view and pretty giddy about it. That soon faded to mouth fulls of peanuts and the loudedest crunching chips ive ever heard ( Bugles that look like little tornados according to him.) He swung his little legs that couldnt reach the footrest and fidgeted and rustled around until dark. I assumed as it got close to dark he would get scared and want to leave like his older brother but he hung in there. We didnt see any deer but heard some owls and watched chipmunks play. Right about dark I asked him if he was ready to go. He thought about it for a second and turned to me and said what I never expected but loved to hear " Daddy, its ok we didnt get to kill a deer. Maybe next time we can"