Okay, jumped the gun. Julian has one loose tooth, but he is still really excited. Hasn't fallen out yet though.
I think we all remember the excitement of having our first loose tooth. Wiggling it back and forth with your fingers and pushing on it with your tongue all day long. Excited for the moment it falls out. And unless your parents thought the tooth fairy was from the devil like mine did, the excitement of getting money under your pillow.
Julian has been eagerly awaiting his first loose tooth and as a reward for his wait, he has two loose teeth!
His 2 front lower teeth are loose. One is really loose and the other just a bit loose. He is ecstatic. Last night he asked me to pack an apple in his lunch for camp the next day hoping the apple will help loosen the tooth... or even pull it out. He also took his little tooth holder in his lunch box so he can save the tooth when it falls out.
So great being a kid.
If only I got so excited about my hair falling out.
I'll post pics when the tooth, or teeth, finally fall out. And yes, the Tooth Fairy will drop off some cash under Julian's pillow.
Oak Creek cuts a canyon through millenniums of rock and sediment exposing sheer cliff walls the color of rich burnt seina with pine trees hanging on for their lives on the tiny ledges where somehow sediment stowed away and seed landed and held long enough to grow a tree on the precipice. We camped at Manzanita just north Sedona, Arizona, known for the towering red cathedral rocks and spiritual vortex that attracts metaphysical visitors from around the world. But our camp rested at the bottom of these red rock walls under the pine trees with highway 279 on one side and the rippling Oak Creek on the other and a fishing hole with trout and mudsuckers down the creek and Mariachi music upstream the other direction of the camping grounds but we managed camped in peace with our friend Tim and Linea and their two children, Lilia and James.
It took everything in me to get here. The temperature dropped in Phoenix from 109 to 70 followed by torrential downpours on Friday then on the Saturday morning we planned to leave brining on an onslaught of allergies filling my eyes with invisible sandburs and my lungs with fire and my sinuses with slimy balloons that made my mood like hugging a ball of poisonous spines but I knew how much it meant to my Debbie and Julian and our friends and did everything I could not to image how misearable I was going to be and how much I felt like I am wasting precious moments of my life away just to go sit in the woods and burn shit which I knew would only make my allergies worse and fearing the cold (since it is always colder up in the mountains) as well that might make me sick for real.
But I went anyway and yes, it rained on the way there and our blankets in the roof bag got soaked (but saved by the propane heaters we packed) and the camp host pulled a power trip for a few minutes about the second vehicle even through it said right on the sign that you can have a second vehicle and we set up camp, started a fire and talked and tried to stay warm.
We did something smart though... we bought cots and unlike our camping trip in Tuscon with air mattresses that was 90 during the day and 40 at night and it felt so cold my eye sockets hurt, the night was warm in our sleeping bags and blankets and I put Julian to bed and then I remembered what it is about camping that I love... it's not the great outdoors, it's not getting away from it all, it's suddenly, with all other distractions gone, the TV, Wii, chores, phone calls, you know the drill... suddenly with all that gone I can finally really look at my son and truly be with him in the moment and it seems that camping is the only time I can really be with my Julian and Debbie and have the family time that all the family books tell you you should find. Camping seems to be the place I find it.
I'm going to go on record and say camping is not my most favorite activity - or at least not the packing and unpacking and no showers - but the reward of this time with my family is worth it. And Debbie and Julian love it.
So we camped and went for a hike at the Call of the Canyon trail below the red cliff walls past the ruins of an old lodge and walked the creek and came back to Manzanita and walked the creek and found a fish stuck in on a lure in the middle of the creek and let it go and tried to fish and stood on a high red rock and watched the fish almost bite but swim away at the last minute and Julian and I went for a Dad and son walk and crossed the river on a log only to have mom show up shaking her head at me for taking Julian across the river that way but it was a bonding moment for us - or maybe not for him but for me - and then crawl into the sleeping bags and blankets with him and and listen to the creek while he drifted off to sleep.
So now it is night and I am writing this by firelight and looking up at the stars listening to Linea and Debbie talk and wiping slimy sticky discharge from my left eye, but it's worth it all to have my family together like this.
You can check out photos and videos of the trip in the collection:
Oak Creek Camping - Memorial Weekend 2008
~ Christian
Congratulations sis! I am so proud of you for sticking it out, working your ass off and making it the four years through John Carroll and graduating today. Today, sitting in the auditorium listening to the different speakers share their pride for John Carroll and what it means to be an alumni of John Carroll, I suddenly felt for the first time what it must mean to graduate from college and the sense of pride that can come with it (of course, I still don't want to go back). But most of all, when you danced across the stage with your diploma it made it all real to me that my sister was really on stage with a diploma in her hand from a prestigious university. You're the first one to make it and I am so glad I came out to Cleveland to see you on dance walk across the stage (and prove once again that we're not just any family). I love you so much sis! Congrats again!
Christian here.
I'll be in Cleveland from May 14th till the 20th. I'm excited to see all my family and friends there... but most of all, my sister Katie is graduating from John Carroll on the 18th! I am so proud of her and can't wait to celebrate this fantastic accomplishment (especially considering she's blind in one eye in deaf in the other)! The only down note to the trip is Debbie and Julian won't be able to make it... can't afford to send the whole family right now and I will miss them and I know everyone else will too.
If you're in Cleveland, I'll see you soon!
