Take Me To The River
Matt and the boys and I went camping this past weekend. We were invited to go on an annual group camping trip that some friends of ours organize. This was year 5. They pick a different spot each year and this time it was Richardson Grove. We went there last year with Shaun, Maya and Milo and loved it. It’s right off of the highway which can be a little weird but once you make your way to the river, life is good! Living so close to such amazing beauty is truly a blessing.
We packed our car, to the brim, and headed north three and a half hours to the beautiful Eel River. (If I thought Mason or Miles could have lasted holding something for the ride I would have packed another bag or two. 😉 On our way we passed the Real Goods solar living store in Hopland, CA. At the entrance of the location is an incredible sculpture that I had to stop to photograph. There was a similar piece at the 2007 Burning Man. The one I saw there was of a woman and child. It was amazing. Water poured between their hands by day and fire by night. Simply amazing. They were built by 180 people over the course of 2 years. This piece in Hopland’s name is Eileen and she along with the 7 other figures this team created stand 38 feet tall and weigh between five and ten tons each. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re passing that way.
On this camping trip there were 17 of us all together. 11 adults and 5 children. Our family arrived a day later than the rest of the gang so we had some making up to do. I think Matt played that out by eating his fair share of toasted marshmallows and s’mores Saturday night. I spent my time by the river enjoying the sun, watching my boys play and catching up with my friends. Mason had fun playing with his friends, eating and rafting with Matt and Miles spent his days throwing rocks into the river. The boys were in heaven.
The rocks were SO beautiful. Mason came up to me on Saturday and gave me a heart shaped rock. That seemed to be a theme for the weekend. It was fun to look for them hidden among the ground. It was like finding a gem each time. Here are the photo’s of the one’s that we collected. I love finding love in nature.
It wasn’t super hot but the river was cool, clear and refreshing. There were a few spots of “rapids” that you could cruise down. Easy enough to take the little ones down the river a bit. Plenty of rocks to collect and skip. In fact the guys skipped stones for a while on Sunday.
The photo’s I’m posting were taken with my trusty point and shoot. I have a Canon Power Shot SD750. I really love the size of this camera and it takes really great pictures for being an itsy bitsy camera. On the post production side, Light Room is my new best friend. Once I download the images, I just import them and make my adjustments and wow, the images look amazing. Praise to the developers of Light Room!
All in all I have to say, there’s nothing quite like spending time with friends, laughing, soaking up the sun and sleeping under the stars. (I must also send a special thank you to Cassandra for, uh hum, how shall I say, the creative way that you ate your s’more.)
Thank you, thank you, thank you to the group, for your time, your laughter, your helping hands with watching our boys when we were doing other things, for organizing the trip and of course, for your friendship.
See you next year!
Click here for the slideshow if you want to view.
(For those of you tracking Mason’s development as a photographer, the last shot in the slideshow is his. He just keeps blowing me away.)
