Up and Running Once Again

Ah, vacation ... a few moments of peace and relaxation and then it's over. We are officially back home now fully immersed in our daily grind, swimming in loads of laundry (wasn't I just swimming in the ocean? A beautiful mountain lake?) and dealing with two cranky kids suffering from adventure-withdrawal. The ho-hum daily routine seems quite ho-hum indeed, and my kids are in full-blown rebellion today. Not to mention my husband has had his own reaction to the post-vacation-letdown: a cold. Yippee. As for me, I'm exerting great effort to hold on to my feelings of rest, and peace.

So the tail-end of our vacation was spent in New York State, at a lakeside home nestled in the Adirondack mountains. "Gorgeous" doesn't even begin to describe our surroundings. For me, it was just nature in all its splendor, speaking to and soothing my fairly withered soul. For Don, it brought back a sense of groundedness, a return to his roots. Having spent most of his life in the wilds of the Poconos, this setting is what he's used to. For him, it was a sense of completion, of familiarity. It was good.

And our kids ... well, we have two future Grizzly Adams' characters in the works, two lovers of nature (although Grace much more so than Aidan). Aidan was in his glory just being able to play with his cousins, so he was one happy little camper. He was brave, too, trying things new to him as he mimicked the older boys. His biggest feat: getting dragged along behind the boat in a two-man tube at full-speed, full of giggles and smiles. A trip in the kayak was a feather in his cap as well. Uncle Jim even let him steer the boat for a while.And Grace ... well, I will say that after this week's vacation and her introduction to the ocean and a gigantic lake, we are fully convinced that our girl is going to grow up to be some sort of extreme outdoors sportswoman: a white-water rafting guide on a raging river, the next generation world-traveling guide on GlobeTrekker, etc. She was, in a word ... nuts. She was far beyond the youthful lack of fear, to the point of sheer recklessness. Her two trips on the ultra-speedy boat were full of her screams of protest, as Daddy clung to her safety strap lest she climbed off the back (which she so desperately wanted to do, for some insane reason). If only this photograph had sound, you would hear her screams. Big boys going for a kayak ride? Wait for me! Oh, a paddle boat ... quite tame, but I'm on it! This is absolutely new territory for me as the mother of this sort of child, and it produced quite a few heart palpitations over those few days.
So we're back, tanned (well, sort of -- as much as a red-headed girl like me can get), refreshed (somewhat) and happy that we were able to relish our first vacation in many years. Now the whirlwind starts, with Aidan's 5th birthday coming up in a few days, a work-related trip to Colorado for Don next week (oh, how we're dreading that), school starting the week after, and -- believe it or not -- a few writing projects for me to tackle ... lots on our plate. Lots to write about. The next leg of my journey is gearing up and I have no idea where it will lead ...