Another First?

 

In the beginning of September, we celebrated Angeline’s 17^th birthday. It was the first time she, our youngest child, celebrated a birthday that we had not celebrated with either of the boys. Neither of them made it to 17 with us but Roderick made it just past 16.  Those firsts are beginning to be rare, well maybe not though if we consider this a first then almost everything that Angeline will experience from now on, graduation etc. will be a first so maybe this wouldn’t really be considered a first but it meant something all the same.

Last Easter I made a small pillow to put in the Easter Basket for Angeline. I sewed three small bunnies on it; a red and blue one with a gold one in between. We all knew that red is for Roderick and blue is for Tyler but I'm not so sure about Angeline's colour. Jake and I decided gold was perfect for Angeline. She can be so funny, adventurous, chatty, curious, and boy does she have an imagination, it's incredible the things she can imagine up, if that's even a term, but these to most people are hidden treasures like gold that you have to find or dig for, usually she keeps that treasure locked and hidden in a box, but at home she opens it up and we so enjoy those treasures. Every once in a while she will open it up elsewhere but mostly she keeps those locked away while displaying only her sensitive, quiet, kind, composed and beautiful self. One day she will leave that treasure chest open for all to see, and throw away the key. 

We went camping to Kakabeka Falls for her birthday. I did not know we had such a beautiful big waterfall so close by. The campground there was beautiful as well. We did not tell Angeline where we were going so when she got the first glimpse of the water fall her face lit up “A Waterfall?” she exclaimed. She had only once before been to a small waterfall close up in Hawaii.  We decided that would be a place we would like to go back to sometime in the future.

There is this three-kilometre hike that the people used years ago to portage around the waterfall. At the end of this hike is another small waterfall in the trees, we spent a lot of time on this hike and took many photos. While hiking I kept thinking what it would be like if Roderick were there, how many times would he climb the fence, how many times would he walk to close to the sharp drops and how scary would that be, but then, before he left I wasn't nearly as fearful as I am now. What would he even be like at 20, how different are 20 year olds from 16 year olds? It was a bit chilly in the evening but we had a beautiful day to hike. It rained the day we arrived but stopped before we got there and rained the last night as well, but it was a good trip.

                                               

     

We have done quite a bit of camping this summer, more then we’ve gone before and five out of the six times we went to campgrounds and parks we hadn’t been to before. I enjoy these relaxing weekends in nature. Twice Angeline didn't go with us so that was another first this summer, leaving her at home by herself overnight. That's not the easiest thing to do, anxiety wants to rear its ugly head but it is a joy to see her grow up and become independent and she sure doesn't mind it. 

If you are new to this blog and wonder what happened to our boys you can find it in the post titled Our Story, on the web version it is featured on the right side of the screen.