Adventures in camping

Camping.
Camping is like the equivalent of happy childhood.
Or at least is was for me growing up.
so it must be true for my kids, too, right?

Well, we're definitely trying to create the circumstances for it to be and maybe we're at least a little successful, because the boys seem to like it quite a bit.

Last year was our first year to get into the swing of serious camping. We were warriors of the storm, removers of leeches, killers of mosquitoes and finders of ticks. We were on our way to becoming rangers or something.

This year, we started our season in another torrential downpour at St Croix State park. Apparently that's how we do it. I'm pretty sure the mosquitoes were as thick as they are in the summer in Alaska and that the 8 ticks just in our first trip made for a great start! Even so, even with rain and cold and ticks and bugs, we still love it. All of us. Its a great time to hangout in nature and explore. Its a great time to learn about each other. Its a great time to be a family.
 
Collin even learned to ride his bike on our first trip without the training wheels, but that of course, is another post all of its own.
Our second trip was nestled in the 4th of July weekend at Governor Dodge state park in Wisconsin with Anna and Agnes-Grace, which was loads of fun and excitement, the sun gods blessed us, we took the boys canoeing and in good karmic spirit, there was not a mosquito to be found. There was however, my new friend Ricky the raccoon.

The first night I slept next to Owen on a air mattress. He was closest to the tent wall, and I was on the inside. In the middle of the night I woke up to the characteristic chatter of a raccoon. This racoon was chattering like he had things to say, which was annoying and woke me up, but not a huge problem. Not until he decided to harpoon the tent side.
Ricky, my friendly raccoon was insistent that our tent was a better place to hang then the bushes outside and repeatedly chattered and ran into our tent, battering ram style. Now, as you know if you are a mom, the idea of a wild animal getting between me and Owen is not my idea of a fun. So first I pushed the racoon away. But apparently it took this as a cue for a game of Ricky Raccoon ping pong and came back again with more intention. At this point I hit it, hard, in the face, three times, but the damn thing kept on. And then I yelled to Drew, on the other side of the tent (sleeping next to Collin) to wake up, and do something about Ricky. Just as I yelled to him though, the little asshole raccoon wandered away.  To top it off, after being awake during this fun adventure, I noticed the air mattress must have a leak, and I was now laying on the hard floor. It made for a fabulous rest of the night.
Ricky wasn't done with us though. The next night he visited our food tent while we were sitting by the fire and put his scrubby little paws up on the table and stared down Drew, to which Drew responded with loud phrases to scare him away. Ricky was un-phased and decided to just circle the wagons until we went to sleep. To top it off, we headed to a local town for the 4th of July fireworks while camping, and when we got back to the site the racoon was INSIDE Anna's tent!
And so, I woke up on day two and thought: I'm done with the tent. Its time to get off the ground. For reals.

 Since we plan to have more babies, the idea of going rouge to get a camper wasn't exactly alien. Changing diapers on the ground doesn't sound very much fun, so its been brewing in my mind. We're camping purists though. Camping doesn't feel much like camping without tents, so we had to think on it for a bit. We rationalized that a pop up was as close as we could get to camping, and so we decided it was time.

A few weeks and a bunch of craigslist ad reviews, and voila, a camper!
The boys adored it and we were anxious for our first trip. Off to Lake Itasca we went. The trip was wonderful- amazing biking trails, a day of canoeing, beautiful fires, the Mississippi headwaters, no bugs or mosquitos, but alas, even with the camper, I had a visit from a raccoon. 

Feeling rather accomplished one night I was walking back from the shower house to the camper and sure enough, there under the camper was another Ricky, trying to get into our garbage bag. I yelled across the road to Drew about the raccoon, which he thought was rather hilarious, while I took the raccoon visit as a personal attack from all MN raccoons.The rest of the trip was fantastic though, and it made for a great third adventure.

We took the camper to Forestville/Mystery cave for our final camping trip of the year and luckily, there were no racoons! The caves were very interesting and while the park doesn't have any bike trails, it has great sites and nice hiking trails (although poor Owen got stung by a wasp while we were hiking). But wouldn't you know it, we got back from our trip and that very night, in our own backyard was a big old raccoon lumbering across the fence. At first I was confused as we've never seen a raccoon in our yard before, but there it was. And so, I'm convinced its me vs the raccoons.

Until we meet again next year Ricky.

Our first graduation: Kindergarten here we come!

I didn't cry. Thats a start, right?
This sort of sneaked up on me. Not really I guess, since I've seen it right before my eyes for 2 years, but Collin finished preschool this year and there I was, sitting among all the other parents, wondering for the 498th time how we got here and how it happened so fast.

I'm so very proud of him, proud of his many accomplishments and triumphs, proud of him for working hard and making tremendous growth, overcoming obstacles and trying new things.

This is the moment where my work slows. I've done all I can to get him ready for kindergarten, and now, he is indeed ready. Its amazing and heartbreaking all at once. And so, I sat and watched him sing songs, and smile, and be proud of himself as he goes over the first major hurdle.

Let the celebration continue

Collin's 5th birthday was similar to many others around here. It lands right as we are welcoming the warm weather and is close enough to Memorial day weekend that we almost always make it a weekend affair. But, because the weekend is always so busy, we gave Collin his choice of restaurant (our birthday tradition) the weekend before. He chose the Rainforest Cafe, which is probably the last place on earth I'd pick, but caters right to the 5 year old crowd, so off we went!

During memorial day weekend Drew's parents and my parents, as well as Uncle Chris came to celebrate. We enjoyed the sun with a picnic at the park and soaked in loads of rays with the start of summer in Minnesota. Collin asked for a smores cake and worked to assemble more legos than he knew what to do with all weekend long.

Collin's 5th birthday

Not too long ago I listened to a Ted talk that argued that we are not the same people we were 10 years ago. That is, the speaker argued if we measure ourselves against external metrics as a “self today” and “self 10 years ago”, they’d be entirely different people profiles. It’s probably true. He went on to argue that even in 5 years a whole profile can begin and end.

 

It’s interesting to think about that story as I reflect on Collin’s first 5 years, because for me, 5 years seems like such a blink. It feels so recent. Yet for Collin, 5 years has made a world of difference. It’s a strange thing how time affects us all so differently.

Here we are then again, 5 years into my baby boy’s life.

Dear Collin,

It has been 5 years since the warm sunny day you made your way into this world. You greeted the sunshine with your very own glow of happiness. Since were born you’ve carried happiness in your heart. Always with a smile and effervescent excitement to be with people. Always a twinkle in your eye.

At 5 years old you’ve brought so much joy to our lives. You are at the cusp of fully discovering your own identity, I think. A journey that’s taken all 5 years.  There are magic moments that happen more often these days where I see you take all of the things you’ve learned over the past 5 years and make independent decisions that are characteristic of your own style, your own connection to empathy, and your own personality. I find myself beaming with pride more often these days than I ever have in your life. Sometimes I wonder how we got so lucky.

 

Of course, it wasn’t (and isn’t) always roses and butterflies. There were times when I wondered if you could possibly be any more impulsive, or wondered if you actually had a hearing issue because I was making requests five times before you seemed to even acknowledge them. I wondered what on Earth we were doing wrong, or why you evaded my dozen or so strategies to modify your behavior.

That’s the thing about parenting. When you have a baby the common notion is that you should know what you are doing, but the reality is everyone is learning all the time. And we were learning all the time. We still are. We’re a bit better at it now though. I’m glad we made our first journey of it with you--you’ve been a pretty gentle teacher.

At 5 years old it’s hard to describe what you are like because there are so many things, so many facets that make up your personality. I’ll try to capture the things that stand out, but I’m confident there are new exciting parts of you hiding just below the surface now, waiting for the ripe moment to become part of who you are.

So often you share your compassion with the world. Everyday, somewhere within the time we share I hear you spontaneously say, “guess what mama?”, “I love you”. Its so sweet and endearing and I’m so proud that you carry empathy and compassion as such a strong characteristic in your heart.

You are wanderer by nature. You flit and flee from thought to thought. I have to admit it took me a long time to figure out how to see this as a strength. It used to drive me crazy that your attention was so fleeting and that I couldn’t get you to focus intensely on any one thing for more than 10 minutes or so. It wasn’t until I took a step back and realized you are JUST LIKE ME- easily distractible and always observing that I could see it as something more than a challenge. At the same time, when you are moving your attention elsewhere, you are often problem solving on the spot, which is hard to fault you for. So your wandering ways, in some regard reflect your intense curiosity in the world, your love for exploring new things and for finding new ways to explore, which is a great way to approach life, I think.

 

You are inquisitive and curious about science and nature. You love being outside, you love worms, and dirt, plants and bugs, dinosaurs and lizards. You adore going to the nature center and the aquarium, camping and heading to parks and you’d spend all day there if I’d let you. Its amazing to see you follow behind your dad, excited for trips to the greenhouses at the University, doing “science” in the garden by finding worms and observing them. Helping to prepare and plant the garden. If I had to guess I think you’d say the outside was made for you, your perfect complement.

You are affectionate. Every day I hear you say “can I have a hug” and you still snuggle up when I head to your bed to read a story. You snuggle in next to my neck, grab your favorite pillow (turtle pillow, still), and listen intently to the stories of the night; usually four- two from me and two from your dad. You are patient and curious about books.

You are a reader. Knowing letters and sounds, putting them together in words, comes easily to you. I work with you on preparing for kindergarten, and you yawn and give me the “do I really have to” look when I ask you to read. You often guess words correctly, which surprises me and makes me wonder how much you know that you aren’t telling us! You love to have things read to you and I imagine in the near future you’ll start independently reading of your own volition.

You are kind and generous of heart. You say hello to everyone we know, regardless of where we are or the circumstances.  Sometimes I have to remind you that not everyone can stop to chat all the time. You are willing to try though, and I often hear you say “Hi (friend)! How are you?” from across the parking lot, or through the aisles of Target.

You are a concerned citizen of our world. Everything has to have a purpose and reason, and you are so insatiably curious that you constantly are trying to figure it all out. This weekend it was about mosquitos. “Momma, God made mosquitos on accident.”

Me: “No Collin, lots of others animals eat mosquitos, so it wasn’t an accident.”

Collin: “But momma, they bite us and we are trying to kill them all. “

Me. “True, but that’s only because we don’t like them. Its not reason enough for them not to be on Earth.”

Collin: “If we kill them all will they not be on Earth.”

Me: “Killing the ones in our tent is not them all. There are millions of mosquitos. Don’t worry.”

Mostly though, there are hundreds of ways you are unique and amazing, but now, in its all in the context of being 5. I can barely believe it. When I see you now, a little pang in my heart makes me wonder how soon it will be that you are ten, and I’m looking back fondly, with another profile of our life.

Happy birthday baby boy. We love you so very much.

Momma and Daddy

Easter!

Easter! It came and went and I forgot to post pictures of our fun adventures.

First, we dyed eggs. Lots of fun on a Tuesday night while Drew was at softball. The boys were very interested in what happens when you dye an egg that didn't fair so well in the boiling process and is already cracked.

Then of course, the easter bunny came. He hid eggs, which the boys had a great time finding. They would giggle with joy each time they found one. Then they found their baskets, which led to more giggles and excitement. To top it off the day was gorgeous: 74 and sunny. We even had easter dinner on the back deck!

Then, possibly the best part of the day, was that we found a church that suits us well. We visited for the first time on Easter, so we had no idea what to expect, but have been back since then and really like it. As it turns out, we've found our home for faith in a super liberal Episcopalian church. I'm thankful that we've found this place, it seems to help us all see this season as a turning point.

and so, even if its late, happy Easter. Celebrate new adventures, new life, new reflection on happiness. Whatever it may be for you.