Hidden Valley

Our offspring and family arrived last night. Everyone was tired and ready to rest. This morning, we got off to a late start. Nicolas and the girls went on an excursion up the aerial tram while Susan, I, and their Mom, Lydia, slept in. Lydia was feeling a bit under the weather, and rest is the universal prescription when we are not feeling well.

Later, we decided it might be a good day to visit Hidden Valley in RMNP where the park rangers are running a Junior Ranger program this summer. Before we were ready to go, I found Celeste, our younger granddaughter, tickling the ivories. She’s only four, but by next year, she’ll be completing her first symphony, I’m sure.

Nico made sandwiches for the girls; I made a sandwich for Susan and me to share. Then we set off for Hidden Valley. We arrived to a very light drizzle. Nico walked the girls up to a place where the park rangers were conducting the Junior Ranger event. A nice, female ranger told Elise and Celeste about the park animals and gave them some materials describing the plants and animals of RMNP. Then there was an induction ceremony into the Junior Ranger Corps.

The ranger asked Susan and me whether we too wanted to be Junior Rangers, and I responded that we had been coming to RMNP for several decades, and that we adhered to all the required junior ranger tenets. “It’s like the marriage ceremony and actually being married,” I said. She smiled.

We took our lunch to a covered area that sheltered several picnic tables, and we ate our sandwiches. Afterward, Nico and Elise went for a short walk, and Susan, Celeste, and I returned to the car to wait for their return.

We returned home to find that Mom Lydia had finally felt sufficiently better to awaken – at least partially recovered from her malaise. We chatted a bit. The girls began to work on a puzzle that Susan and I brought for them. I fired up the grill in order to cook some corn and steaks. While I was grilling, I spotted a bunny. The girls have them in their backyard back in Omaha.

While I finished dinner, Lydia helped the girls set up their art projects.

We chatted about sibling dynamics and conflicts over dinner. I offered that watching the young parents negotiate and mediate their offsprings’ conflicts was very satisfying – “Having grandchildren is a parent’s best revenge,” I said. They laughed.

“Sometimes, I hear my mother’s voice when I tell the girls to leave one another alone,” Lydia said. I know exactly what she means. I used to hear my father speaking when I would ask a pre-adolescent Nico, “Would it kill you to turn off the light when you leave your bedroom?”

Sigh. What goes around comes around. 🙂