Simple Morning Beauty

Remember how we went camping in NH this past summer?  I never did finish posting pictures from that trip, and since I don't have photos for the next food post I want to do, I'll post these instead.

It was the last day of our trip.  Bill and I were packing up the tent and everything else, and the kids were helping sometimes and running around on the beach other times.

At one point, Alex came running back to the site.

I was focused on just getting everything packed UP.  No time for dawdling.  Vacation was over, time to get moving. 

Alex told me there was something I just had to see on the beach.  It was beautiful.

And I said no.  I was hunkered down in the packing and organizing and loading into the truck.  I had no time for whatever it was that was beautiful on the beach.

I sent Alex back to play.

As I type this I'm just shaking my head at my crabbyness.  Great job, crabby mommy.

Fortunately, my son is persistent.  And he knows what needs to be done, even when I'm too tunnel-visioned to pay attention.

He came back.  And in his sweet, insistent, gentle voice, he convinced me that whatever I was doing could wait a minute, and I could follow him.

So I did. 

Julia was waiting there, where the beautiful thing was.

I could see that Julia was looking at something, but I couldn't tell what it was.

Until I got a bit closer.

It was a web.  On the rocky, gravelly sand along the banks of the Saco River.

I looked closer.

So cool.  So pretty.  Covered with tiny dew droplets.

Beautiful.

I love my kids.  I love the fact that they didn't simply kick at this little web, or throw rocks, or bury it in sand.  I love that they saw the beauty of it and came to share that with me.  (And to tell me to bring my camera.)  I'm so lucky.

Alex spotted the little weaver of this web, right inside the little hole near the center.

I got down on the sand with the kids and looked closer.

 
She (or he) just crouched in there, waiting for breakfast to come along. 

Hi little arachnid!  Nice web you've built!  I'll leave you alone now.

I had to get back to the camp site and finish packing up.  Bill should be back any minute now with our coffee.  Pretty soon we'd need to get back on the road.

The kids wanted to practice skipping stones, so I left them there a bit longer, and headed back through the trees.

Comments

[jomamma]

Your cool kids are a reflection of you.