Weekend With The Girls

Covenant Women hold a retreat at camp every September. Women from our church and others in the conference escape from responsibilities of daily life -- and from family, as there are no kids allowed. No Cheriths allowed, either, (since Calvin was born) as retreat weekends are busy times for camp, and therefore for Eric. So while Eric had a weekend with the girls, Calvin did too; we went to my mom's.

Grandpa was out of town for most of the weekend, so Calvin really was with just the girls. We played around the house with Grandma's good friend, Julie, but a highlight was a trip to the Morton Arboretum. They have a children's area that is out of this world! They've created a play land that highlights the natural wonder of the outdoors with ponds and streams and a suspended walkway up into the trees, Swiss Family Robinson-style!

As expected, Calvin was drawn to every water feature. Whether it was a giant marble sphere brought to life by its water base or a rock pond with spitting frog fountains, our little guy was all in. But it was a stream that actually drew him into the water. We could hardly get his shoes off before he waded in with Grandma, and the two went "creeking" for the first time.

A word about creeking: Grandma is a (capital "C") Creeker. She, too, gets her feet into any body of water nearby, as if a life source. So when we learned that we were pregnant with Calvin, we gave her a pair of kid's boots, encouraging her to share this passion with our child. Turns out she didn't have to work hard at this. Calvin finds these boots on his own when he visits Grandma's house, and even puts them on to walk around the house. They might have come in handy for this first creeking expedition if we had thought to bring them along.

Yes, this was a weekend with the girls, but the Caldwell girls. No shopping. No primping. Just good, old fashioned, boot-stompin' fun.

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