Harvest Beauty: Scrambled Thoughts XIIIb - Let's Talk About More Vacations

SANTA CRUZ, CA
(Me, Katie, and Cindy)

1 - It's a sure sign of Burn Out when you start a happy little dance that your plane is delayed by 30 minutes, because you're all by yourself!

And now you have a full half hour to stroll, unhindered, through the airport with your camera phone to see what there is to see! Listening to no one and thinking about nothing! Solving no problems, cleaning no messes, following no instructions... just free. Free to be, and to see, and to breathe, and to fill your camera roll with art you love.

But then, of course, when you get to where you're going and see the people you're coming to see, you forget all about how burned out you are and spend so much time talking and listening and thinking and solving and soaking up the wonderfulness of friendship that you entirely forget that you're carrying a camera around in your pocket at all, and never use it once to get a snapshot of you with two of your very best friends. Girls' weekends... there should be more of those around.

But you do use your camera when you're stopped breathless by the beauty of the ocean.

And by the flowers near the ocean.

And by the cutest stranger couple cuddling up close to each other with a backdrop of the ocean.

2 - If there is such thing as a Universal Bucket List, I would add: Find yourself on a boat that is surrounded by a giant pod of wild dolphins.

Because, amazing. Amazing. A-mazing. And, the best part was that there were babies. Babies! See the cute little guy below on the right side of its mama? The babies swam right alongside of their mamas and warmed my little mama heart with their cuteness.

Also, there were whales. They were quite impressive themselves, though I have to say that the dolphins were just too cute to be beatable. I will have to go back someday. And that time, bring my real camera with a zoom lens. Though, kudos to my little camera phone!

SEDONA, AZ

(Alders, Larsons, and Paxtons)

3 - Hiking is way more fun without shoes.

This picture is of Miles... and it scares me. Because just yesterday, I pulled the giant toenail clippers out and he said, "Uh, what are those?"

Wait. Okay... so, first of all, I don't clip my kids nails very often. But, second of all, what Miles really meant to say was, "Uh, those look like fingernail clippers, but they're much, much bigger," because, really, he does know what fingernail clippers are. It's just that he's always had sweet little boy toenails that got along happily with those fingernail clippers until just recently, when his toenails underwent a sort of growing up phase in which they now respect only the strength that comes from the giant ones.

Anyway -

"Uh, what are those?" he asked.

"These are just like fingernail clippers, but they're toenail clippers," I responded.

He gasped, wide-eyed and afraid, with a hand protectively sliding over his toenails. "But... but I like to bite those!"

Oh son, please don't bite your toenails. Because you like to do things like hike without shoes on...

...well, he can't be bothered to worry about things as trivial as sanitation when he's in the middle of climbing a giant rock and posing like a cheetah. Because, apparently, cheetahs pose like this, I was informed.

4 - If you're lucky enough to be able to hike in Sedona, you're lucky enough.

It has such a fantastic mix of red rock and green. And pink, when Juli wears her pink pants.

I don't have a wide enough lens on my big camera to get shots like these, so I have to trust my phone. I am almost always happy with the results... but once in a while I get a picture uploaded onto my computer and notice that the focus was off a bit. Usually I just delete those pictures, but this next one was so beautiful with the light and the kids and the colors that I just couldn't slay it... Just pretend those beautiful kids are in sharp focus... ah... now isn't that lovely?

5 - The debate is over. Girls are more pain tolerant than boys. McKenzie, Emily and Elise settled that matter once and for all.

These girls even outlasted Brian in the stand-in-the-freezing-cold-water-for-as-long-as-you-can game. Teek's little feet weren't bothered much by the cold water, either. In fact, none of him was... there was a point where he'd stripped down to nothing but his T shirt and began doing push-ups to dip the tip of his nose in the water. So, maybe I should say that Girls and Teek are more pain tolerant than boys... ?

Though, maybe not, because mostly he just liked to throw rocks in the water and watch them splash.

6 - Rocks are nature's toys.

7 - Apparently there is something invigorating and exhilarating about being submerged in freezing cold water. I. do. not. get. it.

Some might say that makes me boring. I say it makes me smart. Eventually this boy was dripping wet from the roots of his hair down through the numbness in his feet. Insane, I tell you. Insane.

8 - Sometimes the picture of joy and invigoration and exhilaration that you are poised and ready to capture as your son comes careening down slippery rocks on his backside turns out to be different than you'd expected.

I guess slippery rocks can be a bit unpredictable. And so can 5-year-olds.

He gets over things quickly, though. Finding holes to stick your entire arm into helps.