Pioneers

Erin, Bayley, Kegan and Rhys traveled to Wyoming last week to participate in a pioneer trek. They boarded big, comfy, chartered buses at 5:00 Thursday morning with over 250 other teens and their 90 something adult chaperones, all in pioneer costume. Each of our kids was reassigned to new 'families' for the duration of the trip,with a 'Ma' and 'Pa' and 7 to 8 new brothers and sisters. They refer to their pioneer families now as 'My Fake Mom and Dad' and 'My Fake Brothers and Sisters.' Day one was a 7 hour bus ride followed by lunches brought from home, setting up camp, and some preliminary hiking to Devil's Gate and Independence Rock. They climbed to the 130 foot summit of Independence Rock, an ascent that I am assured was nearly vertical, where they tried in vain to find famous names among the many carved there. All the while they were wearing their pioneer clothing, which for Kegan and Rhys basically meant out of style, but still basically comfortable, muslin shirts, suspenders and straw hats but for Erin and Bayley and all the other girls and women in the group meant long skirts,aprons and bonnets! (They were allowed modern shoes though.)

Day two was the long day. Each 'family' was given a 200 pound handcart to carry their things in and they began their 'trek' along the actual trail traveled by the Mormon Pioneers in the 1850's and 60's. Part way through the day they stopped at Martin's Cove, where the Willie and Martin handcart companies awaited rescue in the Fall of 1856. They took their handcarts back to camp with them that night, and started again the next morning. On the third day, a man dressed as an army captain came and marched away all the men and boys and left the women and girls to push and pull the handcarts alone up the steepest part of the trek. While Bayley believes that the attitude of many towards the 'girls' pull,' as it was nicknamed, was a little sexist (she was offended by the general opinion that it was somehow harder for the girls to pull the carts than it was for the boys to do so), the intent was to simulate the pioneers' actual experience when the men and boys really were taken from them and inlisted in the 'Mormon Battalion.' Of course, they couldn't really march them off to California, as I believe the real Battalion was, so instead the boys were asked to stand silently at the edge of the trail and watch the girls get to the top.

All in all it was a good experience. They had square dancing and campfire testimony meetings (during which they were rained on and bitten mercilessly by mosquitos). Kegan was hardly allowed out of sight of his 'fake parents,' while Bayley and her 'siblings' frequently couldn't find their Ma and Pa and in fact were left on their own each night while their parents went to bed early. Erin's parents turned out to have lived previously in Raton, New Mexico and knew many of the people we know from the branch there and even knew where Branson, Colorado was. Rhys's family seems to have bonded over 80's movies, and spent a good deal of the 3 days conversing in movie quotes. There was only one real medical emergency which required the administration of an IV to rehydrate anyone, and it happened to be one of Kegan's brothers, the rest of them seem to have taken to drinking plenty of Gatorade as instructed.

We picked them up at 10:00 Saturday night, still in full pioneer costume, caked in dust and a little smelly. It was a bit of a surreal sight, hundreds of 'pioneers' exiting big buses, toting back packs, plastic garbage bags(with sleeping bags and pillows in them), and 5 gallon buckets and then hopping into various mini-vans which lined the streets outside the stake center. I wonder what the neighborhood thought of that? We stayed up another 3 hours that night listening to stories while I washed pioneer clothes and mended torn hems so they could wear them to church in the morning.

Reunion

The reunion turned into about half a reunion when Don decided to fall off a roof and break his back, shatter his pelvis (do I have that all right?) and generally scare his family out of their wits. We think this was a pretty drastic way of getting out of the long drive to Colorado, but I guess Don likes to be thorough, and who hasn't always wanted a chance to fly in a helicopter? So, we missed the Vanderholm clan lots, but are relieved that Don is home and mostly put back together, and has lots of time to catch up on his reading. We missed Rich, Kathleen and Alison too, who most of us still know primarily through Facebook photos. We are grateful though for the plethora of photos that keep everyone pretty up to date on Alison despite our distance.

The LaFond, Enright and John Laverty families as well as Grandma and Grandpa started out the week together with a trip to the Denver Zoo. It was a wicked hot day in Colorado and I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for those polar bears and penguins. We all paused for a moment of silence in front of the rock that Kegan fell on and broke his nose 13 years ago on another LaFond/ Enright zoo trip. Okay, not really. After the zoo trip, we spent most of our time hanging out at the KOA pool, ignoring the "No Jumping" signs as much as possible and watching Jake tirelessly toss one little cousin after another into the water. And getting sunburnt. And bit by mosquitos. We enjoyed s'mores, (both the traditional variety and some made with Reese's Peanut Butter cups-yum!), held an impromptu Disney Movie Songs sing-a-long, taught one another new card games and talked a lot (sometimes only in movie quotes). The boys all slept in a cabin together, the girls in another and Moms and Dads in the third. We finished up the week packed into Grandma and Grandpa's house for a night. We had lots of fun and are missing our cousins terribly this week.

Birthdays and Cell Phones

Last week, Erin turned 18. Which means that Kris and I are officially really old. For her birthday, for those of you who have not already figured it out via the flood of text messages now coming your way, Erin got a cell phone. Not only that, but I got one too and just for fun we got a third one which was designated the 'family phone.' It travels with various children when they are out of the home. We are coming a little late to the whole cell phone thing, but until the last year or so have not really felt we were suffering too badly. Now, with the kids home alone more often, or at classes or activities it made sense to us to start passing out some cell phones.



What the kids really love though, is the cameras and the texting. I actually had not anticipated that the phones would have cameras, didn't even occur to me. Well, they do. One day I opened my phone to find a picture of our trash can (his name is Bob, but that is a whole different story) as my wallpaper. Bayley spent a good half hour entertaining herself as she sat in front of dressing rooms waiting for Erin by taking pictures of herself. It took her awhile to figure out just how far away to hold the phone and how to center her face, but she was persistent. And, of course, Liam and Fionn are always happy to be the subjects of an impromptu photo shoot.






Then there is texting. Interestingly, the phones actually have a stock of instant texts to choose from in case you are slightly texting challenged, you can just choose from their stock of phrases ("On my way," "Where are you?," "You're the best!"). Mostly this is way too boring for my kids though. Kegan can frequently be found hiding out with a phone, chuckling to himself, and later when I turn on my phone I will find lots of messages like "Whazzzzap" and "Hehehehehehehe...." Most recently, the boys discovered they could record and send sounds via text message. I opened my message only to hear a terrific belch courtesy of a very talented friend of theirs. Sadly, my texting skills are not quite up to par, in fact I am completely incapable of texting while walking or eating or holding a conversation. This pains my children, who often feel compelled to take over and just have me dictate.

Bicycling

For my birthday I got a bike. Like most things in this house that are not food, we bought it used. I found it on Craigslist Friday after several weeks of searching while I borrowed Bayley's bike occasionally. I love it. The seat is considerably cushier than Bayley's hard, narrow one and the handlebars are positioned higher so I can sit up more as I ride rather than leaning in over them. My kids assure me that my posture is not too reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the East.

It has been years since I had my own bike. It is now possible for our whole family to go for a bike ride together for the first time since Erin was a baby and she rode in one of those horrible little seats mounted on the back of Kris's bike. After church yesterday we loaded all the bikes into the back of our bus and drove over to a favorite riverside bike path. We had to take both cars to get all of us and all the bikes to the path. Fionn and Liam are still tricyclists, so when we all ride together they ride in a trailer on Kris's bike. Infinitely better than the old seat that Erin had. So Kris is pulling over 75 pounds extra behind him up and down the hills. I don't know how he does it, but Fionn and Liam think it is a blast. They scream and giggle and even hold their hands in the air when they go down a hill. They were carefully coached in proper roller-coaster etiquette last December at Disneyland.

Ten people of varying riding skills and personality styles all trying to stay more or less together along the trail can be interesting. Generally Noah and Ronan ride first with the rest of us strung out behind them in a long line trying not to run into one anothr too often. At the tops of hills many of the kids prefer to stop and wait for the person ahead to get far enough ahead to allow for taking the hill at top speed without fear of having to slam on the brakes suddenly to prevent a collision with someone who may be taking it more slowly.

At one point in the ride I heard a muffled scream from around a bend ahead. I came around the corner to see three of my children stopped and staring off the path in the direction of the river which at this point along the trail is at the bottom of a steep incline directly beside the path. I experienced a brief moment of panic before I too could see Noah and his bike only a couple of feet down the hill. We made sure he rode more towards the center of the path after that!