Camping

This weekend we took Scott camping for the first time! Luke and I enjoy a night or two tent camping -- we went at Lake Bryan with friends early in our relationship and again outside SA while Scott stayed with my parents before Christmas -- and it was cool to make it a family thing. There's a great group out here called Stroller Hikes that invited us. The camp was in Soquel, just south of Santa Cruz. We met really great people, ate really great camp food, and made a really great decision to cut our trip down to 2 days instead of 3 when Scott and Luke came down with colds.

Somehow ALL of our camping stuff is orange. I really like the color but sort of feel like I should paint a maroon stripe on the tent, a la College Station Whataburger. It also kind of reminds me of middle school, when my friend-boys (NOT boyfriends) always called my hair orange and I would insist it was AUBURN and they'd say "Yeah, auBURNT ORANGE."

In the wild (outdoors or in large groups of other kiddos), Scott is TOUGH. He loves exploring places seeing other young ones. He crawls and toddles all over, eating dirt and spreading pine needles and eucalyptus pods around the forest floor like a good baby bear. (Eucalyptus trees apparently grow great out here and seem to keep bugs away from the campsites. Funny!) He was definitely meant to be a tribe baby.

In the creek with this super cool lab

Last night we drove home, showered, slept, and woke up feeling much healthier.

He's walking away in this picture, little toddle-Scott

We're approaching the end of the first year of parenting. So much has changed. We moved across the country. We're no longer students. At the beginning, parenting mostly just required perseverance: the perseverance to keep on rocking, or stay awake, or to pull myself out of bed at 5 am to go for walks to soothe screams. Now discipline is being introduced. Luke seems to just deeply and easily know how to do it, lovingly guiding Scott away from behaviors that are unsafe or wrong. (Luke groks discipline.) (Me, not so much. I'm learning.)

What has remained is the (sometimes overwhelming) love I feel for both Luke and Scott. I think every day I have at least one moment that takes me aback and fills me with joy, and thanks, and praise to God, and pleas for wisdom to be a better wife and better mother. Tonight, at bedtime, I was rocking Scott and he curled into my shoulder, with his feet folded by my hips and head nestled in my neck. His arms were draped around me as he fell asleep and I draped mine over him, my hands huge across his small back and my mind amazed that this little body was our son. He is so precious. I pray and know that God is refining me and watching over Scott as we see him develop into the man he will be. (Amen!)