Ryan's Perspective

Sometimes I kind of miss having a separate blog for each of the children, so I decided to do an individual post for each of them about our trip to the Redwoods. They are two completely different personalities and temperaments, and they each approach life from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Ryan is not really a nature lover. Though he loves camping and the adventure of it, he doesn't have the appreciation for the wildlife and plantlife that the rest of us do. Still he does like seeing new things and playing outdoors, and he was so excited for our trip which we have been planning for a year!

Ryan enjoyed the cave tour, but he wasn't too enthused about hiking the trail to the top of the mountain until we told him he would get a button for completing it. He's a bit competitive, that boy.

He tolerated our hike through Ladybird Johnson Grove, but mostly because we had told him that they filmed Return of the Jedi in the Redwood forest. So every stick he found was a light saber (which is fairly typical for him anyway) and he fought his way through the forest. He gathered new light sabers at the beach and on each hike we took, building up quite a collection by the end of our stay.

The highlight of the vacation for Ryan was the day at the beach. We were celebrating Ryan's Day (anniversary of when we finalized his adoption) during our camping trip, and he asked to spend the day at the beach. He adores the beach, and he had a blast playing in the water and sand, digging and rolling around to his heart's content.




The only negative to his day at the beach was one that made Mommy's knees shake. I had just returned from getting snacks from the van when my hubby pointed to a very large log beached on the shore and informed me that Ryan had been hit by it when it was floating in the waves. My husband couldn't even lift it because it was so heavy! He seriously could have been killed by that log rolling over him, so we are so grateful that all he received were a couple of scratches. It was after the fact, but still my knees started shaking just thinking about how badly he could have been hurt.



Ryan was a brave boy (not a typical trait for him!) and didn't make a big deal out of his injury, but he was still shook up enough that he decided to take a break from the surf for a while and play in the sand a bit.


Ryan desperately wanted to find a friend at the campground, but since we were not at the site very often and we had an awesome site with lots of privacy, he never did get to meet any little boys to play with. Thankfully, he and his sister got along quite well most of the time and enjoyed exploring and playing together.