light my fire

If you were to peek in through my living room window this morning you would find me holed up on the couch with this and a cup of hot tea.  The soundtrack I'm enjoying is B on the classical guitar with my moptop reading on the floor and quiet rain tapping the windows.  Not exactly a summer scene but one I'll take happily any day.  Our big girl headed off to VBS and came home with a cowboy hat and a minute by minute playback of her day.
You see we're a good ten days on the other side.  Ten days of co-parenting, solo errand running, spontaneous napping, and general rambling about.  Ten days for our home to fully transition (most days) from complete chaos to the scene of a victorian novel.  Except for VBS and swim lessons we are all together and the masters of our own schedule.  It is the jam in my doughnut.
This past weekend we packed up the car and grabbed a campsite with some good friends for the night.  I have to admit that camping seems a little more work than it's worth, and honestly who enjoys peeing in a freezing outhouse at 7am?  But I've come to realize that those kinds of memories are hard earned.  There's just something about the way food tastes straight off the campfire.  The air is breathed in a little deeper and the views are like buried treasure.

This was year 2 at Trillium Lake.  I love that's it's only a little over an hour away and the campsites are huge and perfect for exploring.

Getting ready to unpack the gear

Little man "helps with the tent assembly

Taking the boat out for a spin


I finally got to play with my new camera lens and took about fifty pictures of the lily pad fields

and jagged trees

And birds

but this one is my favorite.

The hammock:  A series

Not sure what was so funny here

but then Ian got to licking big sister

and didn't like getting licked back.  "Don't do yat Ava!"

Ater three hours of trying to coax out a working fire we finally had dinner.

Waking up in the tent light

The 2 mile hike around the lake is perfect for slow walkers.  Luckily Karl and Abby took Ian out on the boat so we didn't have to carry him, endure the whining, stop and pick up every stick and then pretend to have a pirate fight with our new swords, could enjoy some alone time with Ava.

Ms. A braved the cold waters and swam like a fishy all afternoon

Mr. Ben found his perfect summer moment with the waboba

I was entrusted with rowing Ian out to the middle of the lake to get his nap on.

He easily caved.

Our nature whisperer caught multiple "new best friends," but her favorite was this salamander which unfortunately wiggled out of her hands and landed on a rock, sending her into tears and two nights of "newt nightmares" from which we are still recovering.

So the first summer fun activity realized and even though we set the bar pretty high I think we're all aware of the gift of just being together in a coffee shop on a Tuesday afternoon.  The new rhythms are temporary but man do they knock my flip flops right off.