Rites of Passage

While exploring the desert dunes and tracks during one of our visits, my oldest son asked if he could drive the car.  He was only seven years old at that time.  There was nobody else around us so hubby sat him on his lap while he worked the pedals.  Christopher took the wheel and steered the car.  And so began a tradition.

At the age of seven years old, Justin sat on the father’s lap, just as Christopher did, and steered the wheel of a real car, for the first time.  Such concentration!    He kind of ran us off the road a bit, says the father, but I didn’t notice … either I was too busy taking pictures and video, or I just wasn’t looking where we were going!

And whatever the older brother does, he has to do the same thing, of course.

Waiting with his ticket for the jetskis to come in

A last wave before they ride out to sea

But he doesn’t like it that he has to ride with either the father or the older brother when it came to riding the jet-skis and the ATVs, or any other motor sports.

Decidedly not happy that he has to ride behind the father on the ATV the first time …

… but doesn’t seem to mind it so much the following year …

But he did get to ride his own horse, Pebbles, who he said had to stop and eat and munch on each shrub as we passed by … And he did get tall enough to drive a go-kart by himself … well, it looks like he had stretch those legs a bit to reach the pedal, but no matter, he was driving his own cart …

And so this year, in his last days as a twelve-teen (as he calls himself) before officially becoming a teen-ager, he was finally old enough and big enough to ride solo.

A little tentative and hesitant as he gets the feel of steering and working the pedals on his own … no goodbye wave, because he wasn’t letting go of the handles … but by the second day, there he is standing on the jetskis again!

And we have come full circle now, as he takes the wheel for the first time, out on the desert dunes and tracks …

He turns thirteen this weekend.  Another set of milestones to look forward to in the coming years …