Cousin Camp 2011: Outer Banks Style

For our third annual Cousin Camp, Akie and Poppy decided to have a destination vacation at a place that we have great family memories of, the Outer Banks of NC. Although we didn't get back to Emerald Isle, the house mom and dad rented between Duck and Corolla was fantastic with plenty of space for all of us. It was beautiful but strange to go back as an adult when we haven't been in over twenty years! The dunes seemed smaller and more grown over and there weren't as many spectacular seashells as mom and I remembered; Jes did manage to find whole sand dollars, though! I love how each day began pretty early (because of the four early rising kids, of course!) with a walk on the beach to collect shells. Jes thought to bring little canvas bags that they each decorated with their name, and they were perfect for dropping all of their shells into. Some of the memorable highlights:

• the fox that we watched for several evenings at dusk who came sneaking though our front "yard",


• The Outliers family book club even though everyone made fun of my prepared questions,


• watching the kids splash in the tide pools during low tide,


• cooking for each other and enjoying all of the delicious food,


• Myrick getting some prickly pear needles stuck in her foot at Kitty Hawk and howling like she was dying,


• enjoying a trip to the Wright Brothers Museum with Poppy


• lifting the kids over the waves with the kids in between Akie and me


• Pender crying on the beach every time Nate or I would walk towards the ocean,


• making sand castles and moats with Myrick and Nate,


• using the outdoor shower to get the LOADS of sand out of the kids' bottoms before heading inside,


• and of course turning around to see one of the boys with his britches down peeing into the sand bank - hilarious!
  

Thank you mom and dad, for a great Cousin Camp - we will be talking about it for years to come. As much fun as it was for the adults, however, I know Myrick really missed being in SC at the place that she thinks of when she thinks of Cousin Camp and Akie and Poppy. Next year will have to be back to the place that she loves the best!

Sorting her seashells into organized piles - Mommy and Poppy approve!

Decorating Chris's and Jes's birthday cake

Maddox, Myrick, and Nixon - did I get the boys right, Chris???

Happily and safely in his chair - Pender didn't like the sand very much...

Focusing on decorating her sand castle with seashells

My trepidatious son - the waves were also not his favorite!

Low tide

The Gift of an Ordinary Day

Honoring the Kids' Summer

Excited to be in the wood shed

Picking the beans she planted

Helping Daddy stack wood

We put them to work young here in New Hampshire

Myrick enjoyed it and didn't react too strongly when the Wicked Witch of the West made her big entrance

Past his bedtime, but what a trooper - he loved it!

Waiting for the show

Pender before "The Wizard of Oz" in Prescott Park

Berry stained mouth

Nate and Myrick having tent time

First time camping out in the backyard - just a tad excited!

Tub time

Playing among the birches

Pender enjoys the blueberry buffet

Ready for a romp in the berry patch

I was reading an article in today's local paper about how kids these days spend their summers versus kids in the past. The article contrasted today's kids as being over scheduled and overstimulated to those in the past as having hours upon hours of free, unstructured time. I'm leaving out a lot of important details, but the simplified 'moral' of the article was that there is much to be gained from providing kids with both: the structured time and activities do keep them physically and mentally active while the unstructured free time opens up their creativity, self-motivation, and imagination. I liked how the article talked about striking the right balance during the summer with your kids. Looking at how our summer has shaken out, I think we've done a pretty good job with this. We've had lots of family time while away on vacation, Myrick has some structured summer activities like swim lessons and tee-ball/soccer camp, and we've had several playdates to keep her socially engaged. At the same time, I cannot even begin to count the hours we've spent among the wild strawberries, raspberry patches, blueberry bushes, and blackberry patches just wandering, searching, being amazed at the sizes, shapes, smells, and tastes of the things we 'harvest'. Both Pender and Myrick have spent a great deal of time outdoors this summer occupying themselves among the blueberries or playing with sidewalk chalk in the driveway or building canals and castles at our local beach. One thing that has amazed me is how Myrick has managed to occupy herself with books this summer. She started waking up pretty early and was waking up Pender, too - this was not good for Pen, so we devised a strategy to get her out of their room and into ours if/when she woke up early. We made a cozy book-nook on the love seat in our bedroom and leave a stack of books next to it. She has regularly spent an hour reading to herself quietly in our room, and around 7am she will walk over to my side of the bed and kiss me to tell me it's time to get up. Amazing that she can do that and that we get extra sleep! Anyhow, here are some shots of summer around the house.

Summer Self/Other Self

Although it has been a wonderful summer, I have been so disconnected from our blog for so long that I have found it a challenge to find a writing rhythm these days. I thought summer would be the cure for that, with all of the extra, unstructured time, and although I think about writing often, it has been intimidating to actually sit down to write.

So, here I am, the last day of July, which in some ways feels like the last day of summer vacation for me. Nate and I have been updating our August family calendar, and as usual, every single day is filled with one thing or another. This pattern happens every year; August looks deceptively blank, but once we get back from vacation travels and look reality in the face, August is truly a short and full month. August always greets me with a new wave of stress-induced worries and preoccupations, mostly related to beginning a new school year. I want so badly to hang onto my summer self, the me I like so much better, but then reality presses in, and there is no time to argue - instead only appointments to make, prep work to be done, and chores to tackle. Ugh.

I wonder if the changes in me are noticed by others as much as they are by me. As soon as school wraps up, 60 hour work weeks fall away, and the summer stretches before me, it only takes a week for my body to fully register this change: my shoulders creep back down below my ears where they belong, tension knots disappear, fatigue takes over, and an exciting list of summer goals gets written down all ready to be satisfyingly crossed off. It takes longer for my sense of humor to recover itself, but eventually even that part of me makes a come-back. I am better able to be in the moment to enjoy my kids and laugh at even their worst moments. Nate and I get to reconnect, finding things to do together that there wasn't time for during the school year. I feel less intense, less apt to argue, less touchy and overly sensitive and dramatic, more able to find my mellow self. I'm less grumpy, less resentful, more patient and forgiving. It's very clear which me I'd rather hang out with if given a choice, and it seems that others must sense this big contrast in me, too.

So of course the question becomes, how do I preserve this better Emily - this part of me that is so obviously healthier than my other self that I morph into during the school year? How do I keep all the qualities about me, about our summer rhythm, and about the quality of our time sustained as the school year zooms at us? How do I set and maintain boundaries between my home and work life? I don't have answers to these questions, only strong desires to do this year better than last - to find that magic balance.

My Handsome Fellows

Pender Sings

The newest American Idol?! Pender has picked up the timing and one word in the tune "Pop Goes the Weasel".

Myrick's First Riding Lesson

Myrick loved going faster in a trot and didn't seem concerned or nervous in the least!