Weekend adventures

The best adventures happen without plans. When Saturday morning's field trip left us with the rest of a sunny day hours from home, we happily filled it with exploring.


State parks in pre-vacation-season are one of my greatest loves. The quiet and emptiness is intoxicating. It's all a charade, of course, but you can almost pretend and that all the amenities and hiking trails and picnic tables were put there especially for you. You feel superior, you feel invincible. You might even find yourself wanting to stay all day.

Patrick took this one.

Everywhere and all around, there were small signs of celebration. Don't the ferns look like they're dancing? Spring is in full swing, and everything is delighted to be welcoming it back.

So are we.

Once home, after the water bottles were refilled, the muddy jeans were changed, and the shoes were banged together on the porch, the newest member of our family was unpacked:

Yes, newest member of our family. See, when you live with a musician, you recognize that while you may not recognize the new instrument as a member of the family, your husband adamently does. In Patrick's mind, we have seventeen children. Seventeen? Oh, yes, but they all have names like Taylor and Fender. See?

This one here is a pedal steel, an exciting addition to the collection. And I speak from experience when I tell you, there is no finer nap-inducing sound than timid, warbly pedal steel played by your sweet husband. He may be learning, but he does a mean Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.