Ending a record-setting, horrendously busy election season by spending a long weekend in the woods with friends was a good choice. The moment the kids were buckled in, car (and trailer) packed with warm clothes, healthy foods, good books and bicycles, and we pulled out of the driveway, we all started taking deep breaths and coming to ourselves again.
Of course, I didn't take a single picture of our time there. We were too busy chatting with friends, taking walks, having adventures, learning to fish, chopping down dead trees, reading by the fire, washing dishes by hand, building forts, and roasting marshmallows to pull out our camera.
Our highlights:
- Stratten caught a beautiful Rainbow Trout (his first fish ever!). His attempt to catch and release failed, and when he saw that the fish wasn't going to live, he walked into the ice-cold river up to his thighs and got it. Alec (our soon to be 12-year-old outdoor expert friend) had the fish cleaned in less than a minute, and we fried it up for breakfast. It was surprisingly mild and quite good!
- Caroline conquered her fear and rode on the zip line with me...after some tears because "she wasn't brave, even though she wanted to be and tried to be brave!" I reassured her that brave didn't just mean riding a zip line or skiing the tallest mountain, and told her many of the things she has done already that are incredibly brave (having a cochlear implant, going to school when it was scary, speaking in front of our whole church during the children's program). She calmed down and quickly decided she was ready to try. We both whooped and screamed all the way down the line---with huge smiles on our faces!
- Susannah and I had such a peaceful time as we took a walk to the river and spent an hour or so throwing different-sized rocks, twigs, and sticks into the water. She chatted about the sun, the rocks, the water, the trees---and spent some quiet moments listening, too.
- I loved not having the Internet, television, cell phones, or any other "noise" for a few days. Riding bikes down a dirt road, listening to water running and leaves rustling in the wind, seeing the stars at night, and sleeping in a pitch-black room (with all my family snuggled in close) were just what I needed to "heal" from our two months of total craziness.
Being all together again, without a care in the world, helped me remember what is real and what is important. Thanks to our good friends who invited us to share their paradise for the weekend and love us just the way we are!
