barefoot childhood – Cannons to Cruising

What the Hoh?

In the last two weeks, we have become a camping family.

I didn’t grow up in a camping family. In the infamous words of my mother, “Why would I take all my regular work to a less convenient place?” I, too, never understood the appeal of getting all the gear, packing, planning, and meal prep just to sleep on the ground and pee in the woods. Then you pack it all back up and come home to five loads of laundry that all smell like smoke. What a vacation.

Conor grew up in a camping family and has many fond memories of boy scout trips and hiking in Philmont. This is why the boat was the perfect middle ground—we could travel and adventure, but all our stuff came with us. Since moving back to the PNW, Conor has embraced the hiking and outdoor lifestyle again. He wants to recreate experiences with the kids and, you know, ensure their survival during an apocalypse. Considering the fact that I am unable to light a fire and lack even a basic internal sense of direction, I told him that if the zombies come to just leave me where I fall. However, he insisted it is not too late for me and blah blah something about “formative memories for the children”. Hence, our back-to-back camping weekends.

This was the car for three adults and two children:

Three adults? Our wonderful friend Corri came with us on what was admittedly an ambitious first camping trip. When she was visiting us back in December, after one whiskey too many, Corri booked a single night at a campsite in the Hoh Rainforest for Memorial Day weekend. Corri lives in Florida.

Logistics aside, we were bound and determined to pull this off. By this, I mean a 4-hour car ride to the Olympic National Park, a 2-hour wait outside the Hoh rainforest, screaming kids who refused to go to bed until 10pm, and a vomit incident on the way home the next day. But damn, if it wasn’t the most magical place I have ever seen. Full-on fairytale. And suddenly, I started to ‘get it’.

I thought it might have been a fluke, so I went into Conor’s birthday camping trip the next weekend with hopeful trepidation. A sunny, gorgeous visit to Dash Point with my bestie Kelly and her fiancée Arlyne, where the kids played at the beach and in the woods, where they went to bed at a reasonable hour, and where we spent the rest of the evening laughing and drinking by the fire under the stars.

Not that it was completely smooth sailing (heh). After all, there are no vacations with kids, only trips. But I think these trips are more important than I realized.

Love,

Taylor

Milestone Moment

We have achieved a milestone on STORY TIME. After two and a half years of planning departures and returns around nap time or bedtime, we returned to our slip while W was awake and in the cockpit.

I was a nervous wreck as we approached the dock. We spent the night on another incredible anchor out, and our return time didn’t match up with nap time. While Conor and I have docked the boat with our daughter awake before, it has always been with an extra crew member or two to wrangle her and keep her occupied while we worked. This time, it was just the two of us.

With all that can go wrong during docking, it was always the easiest choice to have her asleep and out of the way in the past. I didn’t want to think about her grabbing the wheel while Conor was backing up, or tripping on deck while I tried to catch a line, or especially going overboard so close to the dock. All of this flashed through my mind and Conor had to remind me that she wasn’t a baby anymore.

This was the natural next step. W knows how to behave on a boat. She knows what she is and is not allowed to do, ingrained from her earliest memories. She knows where her safe spot is to sit and, most importantly, STAY when Mommy and Daddy are busy.

We talked it up the whole trip back to the marina—expectations, what was going to happen, and what we needed her to do. I am also not above bribery and set her up with a lollipop to entertain her while she watched the action.

As parents we cannot let our personal fears interfere with our children’s opportunities to rise to occasions. They often prove to us that they are ready before we think they are, and when given the chance, can blow us away. We chose to live aboard to provide growth and development opportunities that are unmatched in a traditional home. When faced with such a choice this time, I had to take a deep breath and trust her.

milestone — Explaining the docking process. She knows it is serious!

And guess what? W did AMAZING. She didn’t move, or demand attention, or grab anything. She sat quietly and watched, a feat I assumed to be nearly impossible for a child under three. I think that within the next two years, she will graduate to throwing and catching lines! She is well on her way to becoming a productive crew member in her own right. This comes just in time to start all over again with baby brother in a few months! At least he will have W to show him the ropes.

Love,

Taylor, Conor, W, and Baby

ISR

Stroller. Life jacket. Sailing harness. Elephant leash. Lillebaby backpack.

W does not leave the boat without one of these devices. People make jokes when they see my toddler on a leash but Scout running free on the docks. My response? “I trust my dog more than I trust my kid not to fall into the water.” Also, Scout can swim. Little kids are complete egoists with no semblance of self-preservation. Their curiosity knows no bounds. They also like to do the exact opposite of what you tell them.

I encourage W to test her limits daily. She climbs, falls, runs, swings, and plays harder than any kid I’ve met. She makes mistakes and learns from them. Part of this ‘run wild, my child’ mindset is fostering a way and an environment where she can do that independently—but not around water just yet. That’s why I signed W up for ISR.

ISR is a swim program that teaches survival swimming to infants and toddlers. It is an intensive course that runs Monday through Friday for 6-8 weeks straight. Lessons are only 10 minutes per day, but at the end of this program W will be able to fall face-first and fully clothed into the pool, flip herself over, and float on her back. She will learn how to save herself. Here is a link to the website for more information. Be aware, some of the stories are tear-jerkers!

Of course, ISR training is NOT a substitute for child supervision around water. It will just add extra piece of mind in case, God forbid, she ends up in the river. As scary as it is to consider this happening, I need to give my child all the tools I can to support her, especially considering our lifestyle.

We’ve got one full week under our belts. I say ‘we’ because the time and money commitment to this as parents is no joke. W is also understanding that sometimes we must be comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to learn new skills. I just know that it will all be worth it in the end, and she will be SO PROUD of herself for learning to swim.

ISR

We’re proud of her, too.

Love,

Taylor, Conor, and W

Through A Child’s Eyes

We had a fantastic boating experience with another family this weekend. We invited one of my writer friends, her husband, and their two kids to come sailing with us on Sunday morning. This was their first time on a sailboat, and they were eager to learn!

Aspects of boat life that have slowly become mundane to us over the last two years were put into a new and refreshing light when explaining them to a six and eight-year-old. Getting off the dock became more than throwing lines and getting out to sail as quickly as possible. It turned into a fascinating explanation of WHY for everything. Why are there so many ropes? Why do you tie them that way? Why do we throw that over there? Why does the engine make that noise? Why do you have to look for water coming out the back of the boat? A five-minute process turned into twenty, but it enriched the experience for everyone.

rope1 — This pic is my favorite (posted with permission from his mama!)

Out on the water, the kids steered the boat, learned how to trim the sails, and found out how the navigation equipment worked. We even hung out with some dolphin friends!

dolphin2

dolphin1 — So close you could touch them

Though he has had a great career in the Marine Corps, I really think teaching will be somewhere in my sweet husband’s future. Watching him interact with W fills my heart, but also seeing his ‘teacher mode’ with older kids makes me excited for the years to come. I can’t wait until W is old enough to go from “keep her from falling off the boat” to “active crew participant”.

It just amazes me how kids soak up knowledge and dive into new activities without hesitation. They aren’t afraid to do it wrong or ask questions. This makes sailing even more enjoyable because it snaps adults out of autopilot. Kids make you live in the moment; to stop and think about what you are doing, and most importantly, WHY you are doing it. And the answer is usually, “Because it’s fun!”

Love,

Taylor, Conor, and W