Rest and Recreation

Love my guys

Sunday is the day of rest, and we take that seriously around here. I have to confess that I love naps. I'd much rather get up early and go to bed late and nap somewhere in between than sleep late. Now, I know I'm supposed to use my kids' naptime as a time to "get things done"...cooking, cleaning, doing crafty things with textiles. These are the things A+ moms do, right? Most of the time I force myself to put them in bed and move on with the day's tasks.

But on the weekends...I'm very easily persuaded to hold one or the other of them close and drift off with them. And I don't waste any time feeling bad about it. I just revel in the feel of them. I know that these days are all too fleeing and that soon enough their naps will be over and they won't want to cuddle with me with me anymore...they'll be too busy playing and learning and growing into independent "big kids". So I snuggle my babies and every second is another prayer of gratitude for the sweetness of motherhood.

Today I fell asleep with Graydon resting against me. I could feel his steady heart chugging away and the soothing (and reassuringly SLOW) rise and fall of his chest against mine. His chubby little belly was pressed tightly to mine and I could feel the sleepy rumblings of his tummy almost as if they were mine. He had one fat dimpled hand tangled in my hair (his favorite toy) while the other plucked sleepily at the folds of my shirt. He was coming as close to purring as a human baby can, humming with a low satisfied noise as he drifted deeper and deeper into sleep. Addie was sleeping peacefully in her room, Tim was drifting off in his favorite chair, and Graydon and I were stretched out on the couch. And as my family slept, I was able to fall down the deep well of sleep, secure in the knowledge that all was well in our household.

Our happy boy! Thanks to Aunt Sylvia for the cute hat and "Happy Camper" onesie!

And of course it helped that my body was abso-frickin'-lutely exhausted from our hike yesterday. Holy smokes. You think you're in shape until you start climbing. Then it's like a cold hard slap in the face from reality which says "oh hi, your thighs are the general consistency and toughness of uncooked biscuits from a can."

Let me back up here and explain that we went to Whitewater State Park for a family hike. Tim and I love hiking. Back in the pre-baby days we used to hike a lot and we were in pretty good climbing shape. We did some really neat hikes in the Northeast (Monadnock, Blue Hills, Killington, and Falls Trail) and out West (Zion, Bryce, Natural Bridges, and the Grand Canyon). And then we had kiddos. And also moved to southeast Minnesota. Where, let me be frank here, the hiking kind of sucks, for reasons I will explain.

Much of Minnesota is quite flat because it was well scraped by glaciers many eons ago. Remember the famous Laura Ingalls Wilder novel "Little House on the Prairie"? Yes, that's Minnesota. Lots of prairie land and also lots of lakes left over from the immense squishing (technical jargon, this is not) of the glaciers. However, Minnesota is also quite large (the 11th largest state in geographical area) and some parts of it are not flat at all. Notably, the North Shore, and also what is known as "Bluff Country", which is where Whitewater is located. So it is not a lack of scenery or height that kills the hiking down here. On the contrary, Whitewater is beautiful and the bluffs offer excellent views.

It's the fact that the bluffs are so darn abrupt. You're either in the valley or you're climbing straight up. And I do mean that you're climbing straight up, via seemingly endless flights of stairs, which are generally quite narrow and crowded with other "hikers" aka "stair walkers", many of whom inexplicably choose to break right where the stairs are most narrow and force you squeeze past them with your two kids and your two dogs and your two laboring lungs and your two Grands-esque biscuit dough thighs which are shrieking for mercy. And when you're on top there is really nowhere else to go. So you look at the view and then you go back down, this time with your knees keening in agony.

GrayJay got carried and he loved the whole thing. Like his sister, he is a born outdoorsman.

If life is metaphorically about the journey, hiking is actually quite literally about the journey, and the journey up to the top of the bluffs...well, it sucks, like I said. There is no time for contemplating nature or joying in the exercise. It's just a brief period of extremely hard work and then it's over. And it is definitely not the easiest thing to do with an 18 pound baby in a Bjorn and a 25 pound kiddo in a backframe because there is nowhere to rest (without being a PITA) and nowhere that is safe for a two year old to run around. And you cannot let your dogs go either, because of the aforementioned crowded nature of the stairs.

However, none of this is to say that you shouldn't go to Whitewater. The park itself is fantastic, with a great swimming beach and wonderful scenery. It's well worth a visit and even a trip to the blufftops, as long as you prepared for what it is going to be. And we had a great day. Once I'd recovered from my "near total state of physical collapse", we had a lovely lunch and enjoyed watching Addie run around and find caterpillars.

Eating a sandwich for the first time. As opposed to insisting that the sandwich components be given to her separately as meat, cheese, and bread.

More cute baby G

Then we went for a drive, and had one of those wonderful moments of serendipity where you stumble upon something ravishingly beautiful and totally unexpected and unplanned. We took a dirt road and found ourselves following the winding course of the Whitewater river as it meandered through the bottomland between bluffs. It was beautiful in a way that our pictures really don't capture.

The road

We were in awe. And while our bodies were hurting, our spirits were refreshed. And good old Minnesota laid down a few more little roots of affection in my heart. And of course a good nap allowed me to stay up late to write this post. Win/win/win in my book!

The river