5 Days Unplugged

For the first time in a long, long time we took a real family vacation this summer.  By real vacation, I mean it was just our little family, we stayed for more than two days, we totally unplugged from work (the significance of which cannot be overstated - Nate NEVER gets to really unplug from work.  In the past, the stress of being away has almost negated the benefits of going on vacation...but this time it actually felt manageable -- and we savored it immensely).  And we had so much fun!  We went and stayed at my parents' place on the Umpqua River.  Their little house is about 5 miles down a dirt road, so once you get there, you pretty much just stay.  And that's what we did.  We left one time -- to go to church.  But other than that, we just explored all the places our feet and our paddles and our swimming arms could take us.  And considering the pace of life we keep at home (especially the pace Nate keeps with work), this was THE MOST WELCOME change of pace we could have imagined.  Truly heavenly.  We played  blanket tag in the living room. We had family Connect 4 tournaments. Nate taught Henry the winning strategies for Risk.  We read Harry Potter out loud.  We cooked and cleaned up our meals together.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire in the backyard and let the million twinkling stars dazzle us with their brilliance.  We threw rocks in the creek and gathered the few wild flowers that have withstood the end of summer heat.  We rode bikes and hiked and explored the creeks and trails in the hills around the house.  And we played on the river every day!  We caught hundreds of pollywogs and a few crawdads, too.  We swam across the river.  We stood on the big rocks and fished for small mouth bass.  (I caught two!  Never thought I'd love to fish so much...but boy, is there something peaceful and good about standing at the edge of a calm river, casting your line in).
At the end of the week when we were all packed up and pulling away from that dear little house on Lutzinger Creek road I couldn't help but cry.  In so many ways, we needed that time together, that space apart from the anxieties and issues that had beset the previous weeks.  I kept thinking about that song "peace like a river" -- the river really does have a peace all its own.