So we’re headed off into the woods again. Heading off into the woods has become what we do to relax, because what’s more relaxing than taking two small, hyper children into remote backcountry by canoe and chasing them around there for a day or two?

It is relaxing, just not in any of the ways that one usually associates with relaxation. It’s relaxing because it takes away from all of the noise of our life: it takes us away from televisions and satellite radio and iPads and computer games and all the buzz and hum and distraction that goes along with those things. It takes us away to somewhere where we can be by ourselves, with each other, with nothing to distract us from each other but the lap of waves and the music of the wind through the trees and the brightness of the stars. And also mosquitoes, but you can swat those.