I think it’s fair to say I’d always wanted to have kids.  I was one of those little girls who dreamed of having my own babies (I told my mom once that I’d have two and give her one!)

Often in my misspent youth, when faced with a challenging situation my criteria for the ‘right thing to do’ would be:

1) What would my mom do?
2) What would my future children think of it?

Sometimes I’d wonder what my future kids might be like, but any preconceived (literally) concepts  I may have held have been blown out the window by my two teens.

Max is introspective, sometimes a bit of an introvert, skilled in ways I could never dream and, ironically, always seems to have a friend around when he wants one.

Hannah is extroverted, lively, chatty and independent.  But in spite of a tight group of friends, she’ll often find herself wanting a friend to hang out with only to find they’re otherwise occupied (planning is not her strong suit, and we live a distance from her ‘group’)

Tonight Hannah gets home from her longest trip away.

She’s been canoeing at Quetico in the Boundary Waters (BWCA) in Canada for 22 days, hanging with the same group of girls, working hard and being part of a team.

I’m so eager to see her, so anxious to hear how everything went, certain that – once again – she’ll have grown in ways I can’t even imagine.

The first time she went away to sleep away camp, she came home so confident and mature.  Gerry and I were blown away, and Max was in awe.

Ironically, the first time Max went to camp in the boundary waters, he hated it and got Lyme disease.  Go figure.

Hannah is definitely in her ELEMENT when she’s at camp.  I cannot WAIT to see my girl and meet the person she grown into this time.

In other, just-as-important-news, Max received his FIRST paycheck from his part time job at SPNN (St. Paul Neighborhood Network, our local access station) and proud enough for two boys! 

Sorry the picture’s so bad, sloppy photographer!