I miss the woods, especially this time of year. It's weird for me to think of our son growing up in an apartment building in the middle of a city. Getting to grow up where I could constantly be swimming, exploring, ice skating in the winters with my little sister and faithful dog by my side - it was pretty idyllic. Country enough that we'd occasionally get snowed in, but civilized enough that a friend's house was only a bike ride away. Of course, I couldn't wait to get out. The second I graduated high school, I took off for the big city. As it should be, I suppose.
I wonder what Vince's childhood is going to be remembered as. I hope it's happy, secure and fun, but it'll be different than what I knew. Every so often, though I get to take him out in the wilderness and show him a tiny bit of what I remember.
These paths all crossed this past week when Matt's profession held a conference at Breezy Point resort. After securing a room upgrade (thank you gracious front desk woman!) Vince and I drove up to spend a few days with him. Driving up 169 and into a very familiar landscape, I was flooded with fall time memories. Although it's no where near my hometown, all the trees and water brought me home.
I'd never been to the resort before, but it was beautiful. I loved all of the different cabin styles. There were rustic old cabins, condos, a full hotel like lodge and even a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
The first snow of the year had just fallen, dusting everything. The day we drove up was rainy and windy, but our first full day there, everything was still, freezing and lovely.
Outside our bedroom window there were these bowing birch trees, what looked like an Oriel's next dangling from one and this small channel. In the storm the day before, a large canoe had broken free and lazily drifted between the shores all day.
At one point I looked out the window and there were three deer, two does and a young male. I got so excited that I practically flung Vince at the window babbling, "Look! A family! Do you see the deer family? Look Vince!" He did not really care. I decided to grab for my camera to document the cuteness and completely missed it. Instead I captured a black squirrel. Exotic, but not quite as thrilling.
While Matt attended classes all day, Vince and I played in the very large room and went for a swim in the ginormous jacuzzi tub. We didn't need to bother with the pool downstairs when we had that in our room. I filled it with bubbles and felt like Arthur bobbing around in there. (Just as diminutive, but much less drunk.)
I later bundled him up in his new hat and took him outside, exploring. Unfortunately for me, he was working on some new teeth and wasn't in the best of moods. I tried to show him how cool the frozen beach was, but he just wanted me to hold him as we walked around. I bribed him with a juice packet.
The sugar helped for a little while.We've also been working on words this past week. While in Duluth the weekend before, he'd figured out how to say, "AH!" and turn the light switch on then, "Aahf" turning it off. Great fun. I keep hearing him say words and it seems to be in reference to what I think he's talking about, but I don't know how much of this is his actual language development and how much of it is just me knowing what he's trying to get from me. Either way, it's pretty cute. I loved the rustic vacationing with my boys.
It'll be interesting to see where Matt's career takes us - if we stay around here and my boy is an apartment dwelling, metro transit usin' city kid, or if he'll be able to tell that it's about to rain by way the wind blows, or what kind of poop an animal has left behind. Hopefully having the two of us as parents, he'll get a little bit of both worlds.
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