KnightMar.com

I know, it’s been months. Three-and-a-half, to be more precise. Believe me, I have a full essay written in my mind entitled “Why I Suck at Blogging,” because I’ve given that topic more thought than I’ve given actual blog-post planning. Counter-intuitive, I know. But, like my two novels (yes, count them, two) I’m working on, you’ll never see that essay, because, well, most of my ideas are still locked up in my brain. 

Anyhow, in the spirit of being more productive in the evenings (instead of watching hours of TV shows like Scrubs, Friends, Burn Notice, or Psych and playing solitaire, or my new obsession, my old Nintendo Gameboy Advance), I figured I could get around to posting some stuff. Because if I don’t now, I won’t ever. (See, I really think blogging might be another one of those things that, when you do it poorly, you just feel guilty. Like scrapbooking. Or doing photo books. Or even just taking photos. Yes, all part of my Why I Suck at Blogging theory.) 

Anyhow, last fall we did a bunch of camping with family. In September, we did Zion with Mel, Kate, Steven, and Shawn. The boys all went and did the Subway, and the girls wandered around the park. Addie finally let me put her in her backpack for longer than five minutes. (Oh, and she single-handedly ate an entire bag of “natural” white cheddar cheetos during the trip. Who knew.)

At the end of September, we headed to Arches with the Forreys and Knight grandparents. It was sunny and warm, and then the wind (and sand) kicked up. The hike up Delicate Arch on our last day there was quite blustery, but of all of us, Addie had the best time on the hike. She sang and laughed and pulled my hair the whole way, even though the rest of us were just struggling to stay upright in the strong gusts.

Happy Camper indeed.

Everyone came back to our house after the camping excursion, and Addie had a blast playing with her cousins. (Well, ”playing with” is a bit of a stretch – but Maci and Jacob were good at entertaining her.)

And Aunt Beth gave Addie her first haircut!

Not too long after this trip, we headed to San Diego to go camping at the beach with the Noltes and Knight grandparents. We do this trip every year, and someday, Addie will love the beach. Once again, however, the sand freaked her out, and this is the closest she and I got to actually spending time on the beach itself (lasted about 20 minutes), and this was as close she could stand to be to the sand. (In her defense, she was at the beginning of what you might call a train wreck series of illnesses, so she just wasn’t a happy kid in general.)

Addie was happiest when she got to ride on the bike with her dad. And I’m sure her dad enjoyed that part too. We sure look forward to this trip every year!

Addie didn’t get much of a traveling break after that (maybe a couple of weeks), but I’m going to save that for Part II. 

I think an episode of Psych is now in order.