Camping Adventure

The South of the James Homeschool group had a camping trip this past weekend and all six Hudgins packed into one tightly stuffed minivan and headed to Westmoreland State Park.  Westmoreland is close to the childhood homes of George Washington and Robert E. Lee.  It is outside of Montross, Virginia.  Virginians should be proud of our state parks and our tax dollars at work because our state parks are beautiful, well kept and an educational.  Retreat into nature.  Tim Kaine's ads for the the state came to mind often.

Houlder, Dell and Will kayaked in the morning and dug for fossils on the beach.  They came back with a few shark teeth and and a cool rock.  Being in the water only whets Houlder's desire for a kayak.  

Midday we went with the Bolins to the beach where the Potomac feeds into the Chesapeake.  Houlder and Henry romped in the sand while Dell, Frazer and Houlder learned how to cast fishing rods from Alex.  Dell and Lucy climbed the rocks to cast out broadly into the bay.  Frazer hung a bit closer and repeatedly kept trying to successfully cast.  He is a plugger.  The sun was warm, the waves gently lulling a peacefulness into my body and mind.  The rush to gather and collect the fixings for a weekend in the woods for 6 people who are not seasoned campers was past and the sound of the surf made it easy for each person to sink into the place he or she needed to be.  William seemed to think that car camping was not tough enough yet he had never camped.  And spending time like that was memorizing enough to provoke the comment, "We could come back here."

Houlder is Nature Boy.  Setting up the tent in the dark, I found we hit a synergy.  The other four were in our way.   I love his spontaneity and curiosity.  We had fun and joked at one point that we could ditch the others.

Dell too enthusiastically tried to set up for dinner the first night which frankly was a disaster.  Fortunately I brought prepared at home pasta and pesto.  But his sheer glee at being with all of us together on a new experience had him bouncing off the trees.  He redeemed himself in the morning preparing bacon and eggs with William over a fire and on a propane grill we borrowed from Cheri.  He loved building the fire and having Lucy quiz him on arcane things which he surprises us by knowing.  He is a head scratcher.

Porter just was himself.  Adventurous, playful and willful.  He questioned us about a bear coming and what animals or creatures might visit us and he willingly watered every tree near camp without a care to time of day or who was around.  He ran in the waves and rolled in the sand and ran.  What more is there?

Frazer was with his "friends" as he said but he has yet to engage enough to know many names.  He hung on the outskirts of interactions pondering how to insinuate himself yet determined not to have me make introductions or help him.  After time spent with the Bolins who he knows so well he figured out a way to connect with the broader group-- s'mores fixings at the Benway's camp fire.  For an hour or so he played and shared so joyfully.  I doubt the kids knew how happy he was to be in their midst and be able to offer something.  As his peers have physically outpaced him, those kids who have not had the chance to know him for a while disregard him as a young child.  Frazer has not figured out how to maneuver socially to the point that he does not seem impulsive shouting about Bakugan or something he was thinking about that no one else knows.   The thoughts he has, he offers to so many but often they are out of context and not easily discerned by others.  The good news is that he does that with me one-on-one so that we can work on practicing background and delivery; the bad news is that he will have to navigate through waters in which not every audience is kind.  Fortunately, his peers were kind if not confused by his gestures and announcements during this excursion.

It rained during supper Saturday which was not a deterrent.  We felt we would stay even though the weather did not look promising.  However at 8:30 during a pre-bedtime family meeting with we discovered out tent had three leaks.  Not being wiling to get wet we made our hasty departure in the dark.   And while it would be easy to note all the work that went into one 24 hour period at the park, there is no doubt that we relaxed into each other as a family an found beauty around us to pause in this month, the busiest of all.  It was divine.