This past Labor day weekend John, Isabella, Melanie, Ellie, and I headed out to our wooded property in North Eastern WA. We left on a Thursday afternoon and planned a 5 day trip lasting until the following Tuesday.
The day we left, Melanie was just 5.5 wks old. We knew that the 4.5hr drive (each way) would provide quite a challenge. I remember when Isabella was that little. She would sleep for short drives but if she woke up and wanted milk then there was no calming her down unless I stopped the car and took the time to nurse her in a relaxed fashion. Road trips at that time would have been near impossible. This time we came up with a solution that made us feel pretty damn brilliant, if I do say so myself. It worked like this - Isabella's carseat was strapped into the passenger seat up front next to John. John bought a bunch of sticky velcro and secured a DVD player onto the dash board in front of her. He put all the movies handy up front so that he could change the DVDs while driving! Also, he packed up a water bottle and a couple of small baggies of snacks for her and kept them up front so that he could hand them over when necessary. She was completely entertained and fed without him having to stop the car! On Melanie's end - I put her carseat in the back and sat next to her. Before the drive, I used my trusty breast pump to pump out as much milk as possible (see previous post on my breast pump - I love that thing!). When Melanie stirred during the drive I just popped the bottle in her mouth and she was totally happy! No stopping, no waiting. The result - a lovely relaxing drive with no crying, no fussing. Anyone who is a parent knows that a 4.5 hr drive with no fussing is a true achievement. Yay us!
We arrived at Mul-acres that evening and John proceeded to setup camp. I have to day, there was something so sweet about our first campfire of the trip. John had a bunch of wood split already from our last trip, so he just brought it out of the shed and lit a blazer. Aaahhhh... big fire on our big piece of land. Yay. Late that evening, some clouds cleared and we reveled in the simple joy of gazing upon the stars. Even the Milky Way was visible. So there we sat, warm by the fire, gazing up at the Milky Way. Yay and Yay again.
The next day, Isabella woke up very ready to run around and play. She got out her butterfly net and started chasing bugs. Ah, the simple joy of running after flies, butterflies, and grasshoppers. Isabella was just delighted. See below for her up close with the grasshopper she caught.
As Isabella frolicked with the bugs, John proceeded to lumberjack. He began by chainsawing a tree into rounds, then split a bunch of rounds he had seasoning in the shed, then split the unseasoned rounds he had chainsawed that morning. GO JOHN! Is it just me, or is a sweaty man swinging an ax incredibly sexy?
On my end, I spent a lot of time doing what moms do - nursing my sweet babe. It was quite lovely, in fact - sitting in a camp chair in the sunshine, nursing Melanie out in the woods.
As far as Melanie was concerned, she was happy as long as she had lots of cuddles, access to Mama's milk, and sufficient swaddle blankets. It was COLD! It got down to 30 degrees in the evenings, but Melanie was always snug as a bug.
Ellie, of course, was the happiest of everyone. She ran, ran, and ran some more. This trip, we discovered that Ellie is a natural cattle herder! The Oakanagon area is a free range cattle region, which means that you have to fence your land if you want to keep them out. We have a fence but it is broken down in a few places, so twice during our trip cattle came onto our land. No problem, though. Ellie took care of it! When the cattle came onto our land she started barking, growling, and chasing them. If you know Ellie, you know this is unusual for her... she really doesn't bark a lot. You could tell that she had a clear sense of the land as her territory, and she let the cows know too. Sure enough, they left pretty quickly and did not stay to graze. Yay Ellie! See below for her herding them out. Ellie is in the bottom right corner.
On Saturday night, or friends Ray, Jeannette, and their daughter Sylvie showed up. Yay for camping with friends!
And then our good friend Heath showed up late on Sunday night. By Sunday night it was getting REALLY cold, but fortunately Heath had all the right gear and was toasty in his tent. Monday morning Isabella woke up delighted to find him around, and they proceeded to have many sweet moments hiking around over the next two days. Look closely at the second picture below for the caterpillar on Heath's hand.
All in all, good times. I'm delighted that we continue to be a camping family and that a newborn isn't slowing us down at all. Yay for family, yay for friends, yay for being out in the woods, yay for our newest baby who will grow up always knowing camping as a way of life. Yay and yay again.
