Saturday, July 30, 2011

Goodbye Rocks

Tonight Harper's rock collection was re-released into the wilds of our yard and gravel driveway.  It has been years in the making.  I remember mornings at Sopris Park long before she could even walk she would scoop up handful upon handful of pebbles with her tiny hands (and then usually jam them into her smiling open mouth.)  Going to Waldkinder Preschool only fueled her enjoyment of maintaining a rock collection.  Most evenings when I finally got to unpacking her backpack, along with half eaten pieces of jerky and leftover apple cores I'd find a good number of dusty rocks from a hike that day.  Considering the Waldkinder philosophy is to carry your own pack for your hikes and bike rides, you'd think Harper would reign the rock collecting in, but no.  She gathered them, she painted them, she polished them, she piled them high in the "rock basket" in her room.
Tonight, after the creation of a small rock garden around our mint plants and one short but sweet speech, the rocks from numerous hikes, walks around town, vacations and days at preschool returned to the outdoors.  Harper's last line, "Good bye rocks.  I'll miss you when I travel, but I will visit you again as soon as we park our car in front of the house another time," captured both the depth and hilarity of the sendoff.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Getting Ready

Here is our first attempt at getting this blog up and running...

We are in the home stretch here! Packing boxes. Making drop off runs at Miser's. Pawning off stuff on unsuspecting friends. And trying to eat up all the food in the house and the garden. (Danny has deemed every meal from here on out to be served over greens including a healthy sprinkling of frozen pecans and vital wheat gluten.) Who knew the garden, basement freezer and baking cabinet would be so difficult to get through?

We'll keep writing as our travel date grows nearer. First stop is a midwest roadtrip to say farewell to family in Madison, Chicago, and Ohio (and maybe Kentucky if we really feel adventurous!)  Before we throw the kids into a whole new culture and language we thought it would be nice to tank up on Grandma Mary's oatmeal cookies and swim in Lake Michigan. We hit the road in less than three weeks.