Category — Adventures

Starting at Labor Day weekend, Joel had two weeks off. We went camping. We weren’t sure how it would work with the girls, but we wanted to give it a try. So we bought a big tent, loaded up the van, left town, and hoped for the best. We thought it might last for a couple nights at most, but it went well enough that we spent eight nights in the tent. The girls seemed to enjoy it, and they experienced many new things, such as swimming in a lake, lots of bugs and caterpillars, being around lots of trees, seeing how dark it gets at night, and eating marshmallows every day. The weather was perfect for camping, except for three nights that we spent in a hotel due to thunderstorms in the forecast.

We wanted to know if camping would really be a relaxing enough way to spend an away-from-home vacation. We found it to be a lot more work than just staying in a hotel, but it was worth it in so many ways. We learned a lot about each other and working together and communicating. . . imagine that. . . even after ten years of marriage. We made memories for our family that go way beyond what you could ever experience in a hotel vacation. . . even just getting the chance to be outside all day, cooking outside, enjoying campfires at night, and waking up inside a tent every morning.

I think our low-key approach helped make it work. . . if it’s going to thunderstorm, then we’ll stay in a hotel tonight. . . if this campground’s too noisy, we’ll move to a different one. I have to admit that Joel’s iPhone really helped us with our on-the-go trip-planning, mapping, laundromat and grocery store finding needs.

We also learned that all the New York State Parks have really great playgrounds, at least the ones we visited.

More to come.

With the college girl friends, that is. This trip was truly wonderful, for a lot of reasons.

• It was the longest that I’ve been away from home by myself since I became a mom. It was a nice break from my normal routine, not that my routine’s all that normal.
• Spending time with some of my best life-long friends, who came together, literally, from around the world.
• I got to drive around in a ‘67 Camaro with one of those best friends, in an off-the-beaten-path adventure to surprise-visit another close friend, who I called up out of the blue after not keeping in touch for several years, praying that her phone number would still work. It was so great to catch-up, reminisce, and to see where God has taken us since them. So many ways he’s blessed us and worked things out. . . amazing. Thank you, Jane, for letting us use the car! I got to cross one item off my list of things to do someday. . . drive a classic muscle car.
• It was amazing that even though eleven years have passed since we got to spend this kind of time together, it didn’t feel like it had been that long. We’ve kept up, to varying degrees, through e-mail and quick visits for all the weddings since then, but there’s nothing like actually being together. Right away, I felt completely comfortable in my own skin, being exactly myself. There was no pretense. There is nothing like being loved and encouraged by other women, and being free to be exactly who I was made to be.
• I was kind of caught off-guard, as we shared our stories, about all the pain and hard things that we have collectively experienced in the last eleven years. I shouldn’t have been surprised, because I know that life includes both amazingly good and heart-breaking difficult times. It is what it is, but there’s so much more that we can’t see unless we are looking for it. Our lives are in God’s hands, his perfect and loving care, even through tough things that we don’t understand. I left Oregon with my heart burdened in ways that I didn’t expect, but I hope that this will motivate me to keep in closer contact with my friends, to encourage, pray and help each other along the way.
• I will always be an east coast girl at heart, but I did like Oregon, and I got to spend three days on the Oregon Coast, see Multnomah Falls, and drive down Klickitat Street.
• Clam chowder.
• Jane’s cooking.
• Oregon has little drive-up espresso places everywhere. Really, everywhere.
• Even though we got a flat tire on the way to the airport and I missed my flight, I made it home an hour earlier than my originally scheduled flight.
• I got to watch “Chuck” on my iPod on the plane.
• I got to use the bathroom all by myself for six whole days. Really.