Camping Activities

We did spend most of the time in the pool, but we also got out a bit.  My aunt Shirley brought her painting supplies and set up to paint on Saturday.  Dylan came with us to pick her up when she was done and he was absolutely amazed.  He wanted to get started painting just like her immediately.  I told him that next time we'll bring paints for him, and he settled for coloring in a Thor picture with markers instead.











While she was painting, the rest of us took a little walk up to the waterfall nearby.  I thought it would be more of a hike, so we packed a lunch.  We ended up just walking back down and eating on the tables near the main cabins.

The little Sultan

The Falls

I had a very hard time keeping Dylan out of the big puddle and creek that crossed the roadway between us and the rest of the church campers.  He couldn't get enough of the water, in spite of it being super super numb-your-feet cold.

 

The camp also had some fun little toys, and Dylan was very excited about catching butterflies.  We were successful, even though the net was too small and had multiple holes.  Go, mommy!

 

Everyone helped me keep Dylan occupied.  His favorite game turned out to be "special delivery" - thanks to my aunt, who established the game in the first place.  He would stand at the window in the door of my parents' trailer and accept or give special delivery items.  It was a great way to get dirty dishes into the person washing dishes after meals!

dirty boy

Special Delivery

Live at Camping

We had an awesome, if tiring, weekend camping with my folks this past weekend.  It was a hectic start - my dad asked me to come up the night before sort of last minute and I had to cram purchasing and changing the fuse for my car lighter, a quick trip for bug spray, cleaning out and loading the car, and getting the animals and plants ready to do without me for a few days all into 4 hours with Dylan instead of an overnight while he's sleeping.

I didn't hook up my drip system right, and my crazy neighbor terrorized my cool neighbor and then got the management company out to the place at 3 in the morning.  They went in and disconnected the whole thing.  I also forgot to send an updated spreadsheet to my friend that I'd promised her.  Both pieces of news came to me as an odd set of text and message BEEPs emanating from my phone just as we topped one of the mountains.  I lost my signal before I could resolve either, so I had to just put those things to the back of my mind and enjoy what I had.

Katherine, Dylan, and I went on ahead and picked out a great spot and set up.  Dylan settled in with a movie (we know how to rough it!) while I organized.  Then, we went to take a swim in the pool (hot springs heated) while we waited.

We ended up having to relocate because the management wouldn't let the trailer in where we were in spite of the fact that we were parked next to some permanent trailers larger than ours.  Ah, well.  It was still BEAUTIFUL!

One night, Dylan snuggled in close to me in our (cold!) tent and said, "I love camping, Mommy.  Can we live at camping next weekend?"

Tea Party

  My mom introduced Dylan to tea parties ages ago.  She bought a cute little tea set and the rest was history.

Dylan & I love to have tea parties in the kitchen or on the patio.  It gets pretty messy, but it's only water. We pretend conversation (usually it's telling stories) and drink lots of water.  Of course, congenial conversation generally degenerates until something completely socially unacceptable.

This is a story that we acted out.  Dylan told me about a dinosaur that came to school to eat up all the kids.  I said, "What if you sang a song and the dinosaur started dancing and forgot all about eating the kids?"  We both agreed that would be pretty funny, and I couldn't resist recording him acting it out.  In reality, we took turns being the dinosaur several times until he tired of the game.

Now that the weather is nicer, we can have tea parties on the balcony.  Same difference...eventually the polite conversation is all over, but he's so cute I can't be upset.

-Rachel

Fishing

Because I am, for all intents and purposes, both mother and father to Dylan, it falls on my shoulders to teach him the things that kids might normally get from their dad's.  Things like tools and sports.  While I'm not much for watching sports on TV, I've done my best to fill in the gaps left from the lack of a daily father figure.  For example, my son knows the difference between a Phillips-head & flathead screwdriver - as well as the difference between a regular wrench and an Allen wrench (although, admittedly, we call it a hex wrench 'cause I can never remember).  My boy loves to play in dirt (or puddles!) and knows a ton of dinosaur names and characters from X-Men and Avengers.  On the flip side, all this extra female attention does mean that his favorite color is still pink and he enjoys having his nails painted HOT pink regularly.  He "mothers" his Avenger dolls and loves a great snuggle.

But, this past weekend, I added another great activity to our list of things we like to do...FISHING!

It was a free fishing day in Eagle at this little pond out back of an office complex.  They had all the poles and bait ready - just cast and go.

I wasn't sure how it'd go and decided that as long as Dylan enjoyed it, we were successful.  To my surprise and joy, he loved every minute of it.  We only stayed like 45 minutes and didn't catch any fish, but it left a favorable impression on him, so now I can do it again maybe for real.  I just need to buy new poles and bait...Ivan got ours from Sacramento.

My favorite part was that he loved the worms.  He wanted to keep putting them on the hook, so I told him to just put them in his pocket "for now."

He did set them free before we headed home, though.  I was worried they'd get all squished in the car seat.

Rachel

Visitation LA - 2012

It's been almost a year - and we are gearing up for another road trip to the Oregon Country Fair soon.  Funny that my activity practically restarts with a repeat of the last blog entry.

love!

He picked these glasses himself

Dylan & I just got back from a visit with his dad.  We all stayed with Tia Claudia and Tio John (which is actually quite difficult to say because I want to say Tio Juan, but that's another issue entirely).  It was a great visit overall.  It took Dylan a while to warm up, but by the end he was giving out kisses to everyone. 

I had 3 things I wanted to accomplish on this trip, and I think that happened for the most part.  First, I wanted Ivan's mom to get to enjoy Dylan & for Dylan to have some memory of his Abuela.  He won't remember this trip, of course, but now that I have pictures and stories to tell, he will remember her as a feeling at the very least.  I also wanted her to get a chance to experience Dylan because she feels the joy of children and Dylan is so full of joy.

The second thing I wanted was for Dylan to build more of a relationship with his dad.  This part was simply amazing.  It boggles my mind how important and natural the idea of "Daddy" really is.  Even though Dylan hasn't spent much time with his dad, he accepts that Daddy is a central figure in his life.  I was able to turn all the daily responsibilities over to Ivan and Dylan just went with the flow in a way that he doesn't even with my mom & dad who see him all the time.  "Daddy will do that."  It was so easy!  They got some quality time in together - and Ivan now understands first hand how utterly exhausting (albeit rewarding) it is to care for Dylan.  Plus, now I have total props from Ivan - he let me know he thinks I'm a great mom.  Our relationship is way better than it's been in years.  Now, if he would just drop the asking me to marry him again, we could be comfortable around each other.

Soccer kings

Got you!

The third thing I wanted was for Dylan to get a sense of family.  Through his father, he's got such a huge connection and I want him to start thinking about how he fits into the whole picture.  He really fell in with the idea that these people belong to him and he somehow belongs to these people.  He understands that with my mom & dad, but because everyone else is so far away, I don't think it's actually sunk in with anyone else until this trip.

Cousin Tina

Cousin Valerie

In addition to all this fabulousness, I got the chance to fulfill a promise I'd made to Dylan that "someday" I would take him to a museum to see the dinosaur bones.  I took Dylan and Ivan to the Natural History Museum.  It was perfect - not too big and just enough to see to keep Dylan interested.  We even got to do one of several hands-on projects offered complementary with entry by the museum.

Making a clay T-Rex

T-Rex!

I also got to experience a little freedom.  It was SOOOOO wonderful to announce to Ivan that I'd be heading out with Tina & Claudia and that he was in charge for the evening.

Yum

The Ladies

 In addition, as a super special unexpected bonus, my good friends Stacey and Jeff just happened to be visiting Disneyland with their kids.

Dylan and I drove down to spend the evening with them while Ivan went to a Dodger's game.

-Rachel