There will be mud

When the child wakes up and is raring to go before 6am, it's always a long day.  I know I will be exhausted by the end but there is not much I can do but muddle on through.

We spent the morning on the island exploring the beach and picking raspberries from the trail.  We traveled by trike.  Highlights included watching a backhoe remove some old cement and finding a few hermit crabs in tide pools along with meeting a kind kayaking family with a big shaggy black dog named remedy. 

Lunch was early as I was starving and then my little guy marched right into bed declaring "nap."  He went down in a flash and I decided what the heck, I'll have a soak in the mini hot tub.  Very relaxing and marvelous.  I wouldn't mention but it makes the afternoon activity more funny.

After nap it was time to drop off some of moms old stuff at goodwill and check out the local playground. Whew what a lot of cool things to do there!! I am sure I'll be back and maybe take photos but maybe not because it was all I could do to spot my adventuring climbaholic.  When we saw some kids scramble up a near by stream I knew that would be our next stop.  While it was uneven and rocky as the cold water curved back and forth down a steep bank, I thought well this is why we are wearing water shoes.  Together we ventured up that stream stomping along and climbing rocks.  When we got to the top and saw the exit was more then 10 feet up a muddy bank I definitely thought I had made a mistake.  The little eyes looked up at me and I said,"you wanted to be a big boy! C'mon, we can do this!" There were no hand holds or trees growing, just slick clay up up up.  And half way up we slipped and slid down several feet on our stomachs.  My dear one began to cry and my dress and legs were covered it mud. "It's ok buddy, mom fell too, we will just have to rest and try again."  He stopped crying as I held him and held my shoes like is asked him to.  I scrambled up that bank with my clinging little guy, humbled by his misfortune.  We came out of the weeds triumphant and got many looks from the other park patrons.  We were really covered in mud but I felt satisfied that we had really done something together and I let Owen be brave enough to climb a stream without knowing how we'd get out.  This is childhood, trial and error.  It's thrilling to let life have some question marks and get a little (or a lot) muddy.