10 July 2011

Sarah, Joe and Zina arrived on July 2nd. Brandan's clinic marched in the 4th of July parade this year. Sophie, Abe, Helen, Gibson and Zina marched with Brandan. You can see Helen, Gibson and Brandan in the photo. Sophie, Zina and Abe were too busy passing out lip balm and balloons to pose for a photo.

We spent the afternoon of the 4th rafting. The kids enjoyed eating cherries and spraying a raft of young men with water guns. In the end, we were all soaked. The river is pretty calm, but we tried to hit every ripple and rapid. It was a perfect day on the river.

 

Sarah's family came to watch Abe, Helen and Gibson while Sophie, Becky and Brandan went on our stake's pioneer trek. We didn't take a camera with us, but Sarah took a photo of us before we left, dressed vaguely in pioneer clothing. Within a few hours we were covered in dust made sticky with sunscreen and mosquito repellant (the Chiloquin mosquitos laugh at DEET.) The trek was amazing. We pulled handcarts for 4 days and approximately 20 miles through beautiful forests of Ponderosa pine. Small groups of 7-10 acquaintances became families. As adults, the trek was not physically demanding, but for some of the kids, this was the hardest thing they had ever done. Other kids overcame personal and mental challenges just to come on the trek and we admired their courage and resilience. We learned to respect and love each of the kids in our family. Sophie loved being a little sister instead of the oldest and laughing with her older sisters. Becky learned that teenagers like hard work. They relished pulling the handcart-- often running uphill with it or maneuvering to get back to pulling after a water break. Brandan liked the moment when looking out for each other became more important to our family than competing for being at the front of the line of handcarts. One girl had large blisters on her feet. She doggedly kept walking, refusing to ride, but she was slow and she and Becky were 2 of the last people walking along the trail. The rest of our family willingly gave up their #2 position in the trek to stay with her and walk at her pace. We finished among the last handcarts, but those final miles were the sweetest of the trek.

 

Sarah, Joe and Zina took fantastic care of Abe, Helen and Gibson. The kids rehearsed a play while we were gone and performed it for us when we got home on Saturday. The plot involved a lost princess. Zina was the director of the play and played the part of Princess Laura. Helen was Queen Titiana and a villainess named Kenton Woodlock. Gibson was a dragon named Raxadus and King Tut. Abe was a good guy named Flinn Rider and a bad guy named Bracken. In the end, the bad guys are captured and have to do the dishes. 

Here's a photo of the kids playing in a bit of wonderland-- all the tents we took on the trek set up in the backyard to air out-- a little tent village with room for everyone.   ~   One more note about the trek-- you might imagine that even though Sophie was in a different family, we still kept an eye out for her. The reality was that she kept an eye out for us, in small ways (telling us the vegan options at mealtimes) and big (advising us how to cross a creek and avoid getting dunked in the mud.)