Massadoah Moments
The children and I have had two solo trips to Massadoah so far. We stayed in the apartment once, when we took the Chipper Dog with us, and in the big house on the second visit. I can’t fully explain the peace and joy of being out at Massadoah. The drive down and over the Bridge of Doom. The 15-minute drive down the Zen Road driveway. Pulling up and around the house to park, and then releasing us all from the car to run and unlock the door and throw open the windows and greet the house with our voices and footsteps.
Tetherball is the first thing we put up, after we work together to unload the car. The children laugh and bat the ball while I turn the spaces into our second home and begin to prepare whatever meal is next on the horizon. Then, inevitably, we gather around the table for whatever game the children have dug from the magical cupboard of games. Risk, Monopoly, By Jove, or MadLibs, they’ve all been tested and found wonderful.
Books are shared, stories are told, circles are run from the kitchen to the red room, down the hall, and around again.
We walk down by the river to see how it is faring since our last visit. It’s been too high and too fast for us to venture in, but our next visit should find us splashing and tubing with delight.
Massadoah, I can’t wait to see you again.
The beautiful sign that greets you just after you drive through the gate, and just before your first glimpse of the house.
Zachary is a Monopoly Maniac! And I was so intrigued to see how quickly his mental math skills zoomed ahead as he had to figure out rent and change.
Zoe multi-tasking. 
Our friend, The Skink.
I so missed Buds when they brought out Risk and asked how to play.
Luckily they enjoyed making up their own stories with the pretty, pretty pieces, and were fine with the made up rules I created.
I would rather give birth again than climb up this open mesh tower, but I’m sure we’ll be trying it out in the various seasons. Boo, hiss, boo! I hate open mesh, hate it, hate it, hate it! But the view was pretty awesome.
Their tetherball games often involve pretending to be satellites shooting into orbit, and they love to hear the story of me taking a tetherball directly between the eyes and cracking my new glasses in half when I was in third grade.
We’ve promised each other that our next trip will not be until a time that Buds can go with us. We don’t want to create too many memories out there before he starts to share some with us. Tough to believe, but it will be even more magical with him there.
