North Country

We were long overdue to a trip up north to visit the Grammy-Papa duo and some very missed cousins.  We hadn’t paid a visit this year to date, and the last time we’d seen any of the Taylor home town gang on their turf was Thanksgiving.  Summer is always the finest time of the year to go, seeing as though the weather is the epitome of July perfection, with enough sun to make you long for the water and enough of a breeze to make you sigh deeply every ten minutes or so.  And as nice and welcoming as Jake’s parents’ home is, fun in the outdoors excites me far more than being home-bound, no matter where I’m landed.  Summer, of course, is the time when that all goes down too.

Let me tell you, it’s hard to imagine what a summer in America looks like without imagining this weekend.  Because we do it all without even trying.  Complete with moments not even pictured like Dairy Queen pit stops, falling asleep under the stars in a two-person hammock with your one-and-only, Jake riding a tractor to help his dad shovel dirt, kids on the front of a ride-on mower with Papa at the wheel, and perhaps many other token moments I have already forgotten but will be sure to repeat in the not-so-distant future.

Ari begged to swing in this tree swing.  There will come a day when she no longer fits in the thing.  I wondered if we may have pushed our luck a little as it was.  Every year she’s loved it, once in it, but this was the first year she asked for it in a way that we could understand her, using pointing and sounds that are difficult for me to describe but that I am becoming supremely in tune with (happy to say).  Little tangent here, but it needs to be noted that I can understand a whole lot of what she tries to tell me these days, and she can understand basically every single thing that we say to her or in her general vicinity, including and especially the things that we don’t care for her to hear.  We need to be increasingly aware of when we talk about her in front of her, because she frequently protests against things that we say within her earshot.  For example, I said to Gabe when we were in the pool, “Gabe, Ari gets to float on the raft, because she doesn’t know how to swim”.  Ari clearly did not approve of that message and made it known to me in her own little scolding way.  I corrected myself, “Oh, Ari, you are a great swimmer, and you still get to use the raft.”  Much happier with this, she nodded her head, smiling in agreement.

 

An old friend of ours, Mackie and his wife Nim returned home from a several year stint living in Thailand, with a wobbly little toddler, Sam, in tow.  Mackie, for the record, took Jake and I on our first and only whitewater rafting trip down the Kern River in California (he was our river guide).  It was the most exhilarating weekend of my life hands-down. 

The trio stayed for dinner, and we all ate al fresco on the back patio as the sun was setting.

  

Mackie’s wife, Nim, had never had a toasted marshmallow in her life!  I’m amazed when I hear things like this.  Amazed and kind of honored to be a part of their first experience with the thing.  Some American customs that we take for granted as much as say, parades (ahem, Goran) or sparkling cider (ahem, Adam), actually can go un-experienced by many Americans.  I get so excited when they do the thing (whatever it is) for the first time.  Which makes me a very excited parent, because of course, everything is new for someone who has only lived for two or four years. 

  

Clearly, my children enjoyed themselves thoroughly.  I, likewise, enjoyed their enjoyment.

    

The next morning, I stepped outside in search of my little Ari and she was jetting around as a passenger in the Ranger.  Happy little daredevil that she is, she needed far less convincing than my other two to ride (and enjoy it!).  Gabe and Bella did eventually come around, but not like it was immediate or anything as with my big girl.

 

Bella, although she has the athletic genes in the family, opts to spend her time enjoying the finer things life has to offer, such as sparkly jewelry, flowers, and copious amounts of stolen lip gloss.

 

It had been a few summers since we had been to Clear Creek.  If memory serves, we haven’t been to Clear Creek since before we had children.  I remember Chewy was with us, and he wasn’t easy, but he was nothing compared to the demands of babies, so we had to take a canoeing hiatus for a little while.  I was itching for a return visit, and from the sounds of it, Grammy and Papa had found a secret little spot that is in the opposite direction of the way we usually head down the creek.  It is a little sandbar perfect for picnicking, surrounded by shallow water perfect for little swimmers.  So we loaded up two grandparents, two parents, three small children, two dogs, and some packed lunches in two canoes and headed down the creek for a little adventure.

Ari was a little spooked at first by the unsteadiness of the canoe (she was in her plastic chair – best $20 purchase I ever made by the way), but she settled down after a bit.  My other two wanted their autonomy from Jake and me the whole time, selecting Grammy and Papa’s canoe over ours, even though theirs was full of soggy doggies, perhaps because theirs was full of soggy doggies, come to think of it. 

It was beautiful, and I’m sorry but the photos just don’t do it justice.  I didn’t bring my camera with me, and I just hate when I leave my camera behind.  I mean, if we capsized, I’d have bigger worries than a wet camera (like Ari).  So these were taken on Grammy’s point-n-shoot which, (I keep telling myself) captured the moment and that’s all that really matters anyway.

We had our picnic on the bank of the creek.  Actually, make that in the middle of the creek on the sandbar.  We saw a school of about a hundred baby catfish who had no idea where to go, so they just swam around in a cluster by our canoe the whole time.  Among the kids, there was a little apprehension about the muddy bottom of the creek, but they got over it completely and wanted to be in the water for the rest of the time.

     

Notice the little legs splayed in the air in the background of the right side of this picture, ha.  Gabe’s smiles are looking more like his Uncle Rob’s all the time.  Funny how two people can resemble each other so much even when they’ve only met once in a lifetime.

 

My water baby reveled in that creek down to the last moments.

And Grammy reveled in the mud :).

 

The cousins and Uncle Ryan got back from scout camp that night so we ate dinner together and then played on the lawn, eating hand-scooped ice cream cones, having wrestling matches, and kissing frogs (yes, literally).

  

This lucky little feller got much love that night.  Bella and Ari wouldn’t stop petting and kissing him, much to my repulsion.  It’s been a couple weeks now, so as far as warts go, I think we’re in the clear.  As far as princes go, sadly I think we’re in the clear there too.

  

Just when you think you’ve run out of ideas of fun things to do in one place, someone announces that the “big Toy Story ball” is blown up.  And whatever could that mean?  I’m thinking like a big bouncy ball or something like that, which would hold kids’ attention for about five minutes.  But it was a quilted, inflatable ball in which you roll around inside, being pushed up and down the hill by a Grammy with a whole lot of energy.  That kind of ball can hold the crew’s (boys + Ari the daredevil) attention for the whole morning!  And it did.

   

Meanwhile, did I happen to already mention that my little Bells prefers the niceties of life?  Here she is again, this time in full garb.  She dressed herself without even so much as a suggestion of assistance, I assure you.  She just was blessed with good taste.  Her younger cousin, Kendy (just turned 2), made a lovely shopping companion.

 

Bella graced us with her legendary curtsy.

 

Ari is also charmed by dress-up… almost as much as she is by her more raucous activities.

   

Bonfires, s’mores, picnics, canoe trip, creek swimming, tree swings, ranger rides, ice cream under the stars, amphibian play, lawn toys, and bejeweled fairy dressing amid the trees.  I’m delighted to say that the childhood bucket list got some checks that weekend.