When Home Calls - The Little "Before Baby" Getaway

The 9 month journey through pregnancy is filled with a great variety of emotions.  Some feelings spark unexpectedly within us only to fade away as quickly as they are felt.  Others, rise up then settle in down deep, stirring steady like an undercurrent, and those are the feelings that must be attended to.

I can't explain this desire I have had for the past couple of months to go away.  Not on a big vacation (although I love to travel and can't wait to take the family on an adventure soon) just a little jaunt somewhere easy, familiar, uplifting.

Home.  That's where I wanted to go.  Home.

"No traveling after this week. I want you to stick around, okay?"

Those were the doctor's orders last week during my routine pre-natal appointment. Right away, I knew that this would be my last chance to go anywhere within reasonable distance before the birth.  Leaving the clinic, I called Steve and asked if we could head north for the weekend to visit my family.

I am so happy he said yes.

{Peyton Jean, the girl who's not afraid to keep up with the boys!}

Going home is all about family.  It's the familiar things that I look forward to the most: good food and good conversations, easy evenings of story telling over glasses of wine, cousins camping out in the basement or running wild over every inch of acreage, and little jaunts back and forth from the place we call the farm, the homestead where my dad grew up, the place where my brother, Scott, and his family now live.

{My younger brother, Scott, his wife, Stephanie, and their daughter, Phebe.}

On Sunday evening, Scott's wife, Stephanie, fixed a feast for all of us to enjoy out at their pond. 

While the adults sat and savored BBQ sandwiches and ranch potatoes, our boys, along with their two sweet cousins, Peyton and Phebe, found more exciting adventures in the water.

Henry and Peyton became the mud runners.  They ran endless laps around the little lake, laughing as they leaped along through the cool, squishy mud - mud that climbed across their little toes, past the ankles and up to the knees.  Is there anything better than the heart of a child, delighting in the outdoors, innocent and free??

Beside the pond lie an old flat bottom boat.  A boat without oars.  It was only a matter of time before someone decided that boat belonged in the water.  It's in the nature of a boy to not only seek out adventure, but to recognize a challenge and to do everything in his power to conquer it.

Without hesitation the older boys shoved off into the shallow waters, trying with all their might to steer the rig across the pond against the current, using planks of wood they found in the wild brush.

To their great disappointment, all of their energy advanced them only a few feet beyond the starting point.  Unwilling to give up, Ben and Andrew muscled the boat around the perimeter of the pond up to a spot where the current would help carry them back down to our camp.  

Uncle Scott, such the boy scout, jumped on the four wheeler, lending a little steam to the situation.  They were quite the sight, gliding along the green banks behind the hum of help!

George discovered three sections of pvc pipe in a stock tank by the windmill - brand new oars for everyone.

Veni, vidi, vici! We came, we saw, we conquered!!

Then, there was Charlie and Phebe.  The two gentle spirits became quite the duo over the weekend...

Contentedly perched in their lawn chairs, we kept referring to them as the geriatrics.

So, ya wanna go cool our bunions in the lake?

Can't you just imagine them one day, old but sassy, sitting on the porch, sipping iced tea, strolling down memory lane together? I'm still smiling just thinking about the sweet pair!

With the sun tucked down beneath the trees, we said our good-byes and, pulling away from the farm, I grabbed Steve's hand, happy, content, thankful, peaceful.

*Sigh* Okay, honey, I'm ready to have the baby now.