Final Adventures in Idaho and Move #16.

So, while I was supposed to be packing for our move,  I kept getting sidetracked by the beautiful weather.  I admit, that perhaps it was part of my strong avoidance reaction to anything so unpleasant as packing up a house and cleaning for a move, but I also realized how much I love the month of May and every year it gets ruined!  So, part of it was a determination to enjoy the  beautiful weather and flowers, to see friends one last time and make more memories than just the painful kind of moving.

So first, my avoidance revealed itself in the form of just plain getting out of the house on a crazy whim, telling my two youngest (the oldest was at school) that we were going on an "Adventure" in which I packed a few snacks and took them in the bike trailer farther down the bike path than we had ever been.

Our first cool sighting was a huge bee swarm.

I actually just stopped to pump up my tires, but my four year old pointed it out in the tree next to us.

Luckily no one got stung, and I have a good zoom on my camera so I didn't have to get any closer.
As we got further out into the country we began to see more horses and cows.

We'll just pretend I was being all artistic with this picture
 and not that my auto focus refused to focus on the real subject.
I may have a good zoom, but lousy controls.

We even got to pet some chickens --one of which was really crazy looking.  The lady said it was a Polish Crested chicken, but her neighbors call it the headless chicken. My husband thinks it looks like a mushroom cloud, as if the chicken's head blew up in a nuclear explosion. (Just for fun, try googling Polish crested chicken and look for the david Bowie look-alike).

We stopped to smell the flowers several times,

Gotta love Lilacs!

And there were some cool rocks along the bike path that apparently needed to be climbed...

Although I wouldn't suggest sandals as proper climbing attire.

Finally, we stopped and had a picnic in a lovely little garden/park area where we enjoyed the trees, birds, and bugs and where the kids had a really fun time throwing rocks into whatever water they could find.

I returned home physically exhausted but mentally/emotionally invigorated. The kids had such a fun time they keep asking for adventures, which is much better than always asking for shows and computer games (which they still do, just less often).  I am usually happy to comply, since I prefer adventures over housecleaning any day. Besides, My oldest had missed out so we just had to do it again the very next day finding even more cool things to do and places to explore. :)

Our last Sunday there (Mother's day), we went for a shorter walk in the other direction on the bike path to see some baby goats.  The kids loved them.

The last crazy thing we did, at the invitation of a friend, was to go to the Boise Zoo. Like I said, I should have been packing, but who could resist a discounted trip to the zoo? We hadn't been for over a year, where we had pretty much gone at least once a week when we lived in Boise and had a pass.

It was interesting to see what had changed, for example they had a few new animals and exhibits.  I still think it's funny that some of the highlights for my kids were the Canada geese that roam all over the park and nest along the river --including in the zoo.

It was also a really hot day! Even though it was just the middle of May, when I passed a time and temperature sign on the way home it read 97 degrees!  I realized why I was having such a hard time with the heat.  We usually escape Idaho before it gets even close to that temperature, and in Wyoming where we live it rarely gets that hot. We'd expect that kind of heat visiting Utah in July, or in late August when we come back to Idaho, but seriously, May?  We were all sweating.  My friend who was five weeks from her due date was visibly melting, but she was a trooper. The kids loved it. To make it extra special we even got to feed the giraffe.

It was awesome. Look at that tongue!!!

Walking to the car afterwards we ran into this huge goose nursery, though this picture doesn't do it justice. There had to have been at least 60 babies. It was amazing to see all the different sizes of the goslings.

Since the geese apparently molt when nesting, the kids were able to gather quite the collection of feathers.
After that excursion, with only two days left to the first leg of the move it was down to business.  So we could get some packing done, we had to come up with things to keep the kids busy, like sending them out to catch butterflies.

Success!

And since it was so hot we turned on the sprinklers several times for them to play in.

Perhaps he has a future in the plumbing business?

My lawn was not doing so well and needed it really bad anyway.

I know, embarrassing.

At least the dandelions were thriving.

 There's something to be said for finding beauty in unexpected places.

Finally, it was time for the moving van. My kids thought we had brought home an amusement park just for them. Perhaps I should take a lesson from them. There's something to be said about the childlike quality of finding fun in just about anything.

That being said, moving, for me, was no fun.  That's about all I'm going to say about it.  I wrote up a whole long post about how bad it was this time (mostly due to my own pride and trying to do it all ourselves) and how late we were getting out of there (6 hours this time), but I've decided that whole post was too complainy and made me exhausted just to read it. Who needs to hear all that anyway?

I do need to say, however, just how grateful I am to those people who helped with babysitting, moving boxes and furniture, and even cleaning.  I couldn't have done it without your help. I'm also super grateful to those family members who have helped us all the other times we've moved.  I don't think I realized just how much you've always helped me until I didn't have you there this time (for good reasons of course --brand-new babies and company are totally justified).  Thank you.

Now I'll leave you with a view of the wet laundry I had to hang out on a make-shift clothesline when they came to move my dryer to storage and I realized I hadn't pushed start on the last batch. Oops.

Divergent Paths

A funny thing happened at our family reunion.  And I'm just going to say right now, that it wasn't anybody's fault, and I'm not blaming or accusing anyone of negligence.

The plan was, to go for a hike to a local waterfall.  We had discussed two different waterfalls, one of which was familiar to me, but the other was decided upon since it was a shorter hike and we had many small children.

(photo credit: "Gathering Clouds" by cousin Liam.)

As we drove, following the other cars of our family, the clouds began to gather.  A few drops began hitting the windshield, but we hoped it would blow over before we got to our destination.  As we got closer though, and pulled into the parking lot, it was pouring.  Water was streaming down the windshield as I made a mental inventory of what we had in the car --umbrellas? nope, ponchos? nope.  We had hats and jackets though to keep the rain off, and even some dry clothes for the baby when we got back.  At first we thought maybe we could wait to see if it let up a little, but time was short and it didn't look like it would stop anytime soon.  As family members ventured out to decide whether to return or forge ahead, I seriously considered turning back. Some families with babies and small children understandably did, but we had come all this way, the kids had been excited about it --okay, so maybe they weren't so sure once they saw the rain, I'm afraid it took a little prodding-- and now that I think of it, perhaps I had something to prove --to them, to myself, I don't know.

As we gathered our stuff, and put jackets on the kids, I saw the other members of our family proceeding out of the parking lot toward the trailhead and out of sight.  I figured they had assumed we would turn back too, having a baby and two small kids all, but I was made of tougher stuff than that.  I tried to hurry, but in the usual fashion of trying to go anywhere, it took us a few more minutes to get all ready and on our way.

We followed in the direction we had seen the others go, but the only trailhead we saw was the trailhead for the longer hike to the falls I was familiar with.  I supposed they had changed their minds, or perhaps there was a turnoff to the other falls... obviously our communication had been spotty at best, so off we went hoping for the best.

 After a little bit of hiking fast and not catching up, I began to doubt myself.  Neither of us had seen any other trail, but surely they weren't that far ahead of us, or going very fast.  We passed other hikers coming down the mountain, most of which were soaked through and looked incredulously at us for starting such a hike in the pouring rain with three little kids.  We finally asked some ladies if they had seen a large group of people hiking up the mountain ahead of us.  They replied, "yeah --with all the kids?" and we nodded, knowing that that had to be them, and we asked, "About how far ahead of us are they? "  The ladies looked at each other and agreed, "about fifteen minutes?"  We thanked them and went on our way, rolling our eyes at the exaggeration. They couldn't possibly be that far ahead of us.

Notice the drop of rain dangling from his earlobe, we were soaked.

The baby was hardly amused.

We kept hiking at a pretty grueling pace.  We were determined to catch up.  It was a lot to ask of a 3 year old and a 5 year old, but they did pretty well.  They had fun dodging the mud puddles (or not dodging them), and seeing the wet butterflies clinging to the flowers, waiting for the sun to come out and dry them.  I'm afraid we didn't take much time to enjoy the scenery, because we were on a mission to find our family and enjoy the hike together with them.

Well, after a while I started doubting again.  We asked some more passersby about the big group of people with lots of kids ahead, and they said they were about 10 minutes ahead.
So much for exaggerations. Perhaps I had just underestimated how long it took us to get ready, as usual, and they really were that far --but at least we were catching up!
There were a few other young college-age groups that passed us from behind, going up the mountain, so I figured our pace couldn't be all that grueling --after all the kids have short legs, and I'm not in peak condition myself, so I thought well, maybe if they knew we were back here, they would slow down and we could catch up to them. So I asked one of these groups of young people to "tell the big group of people ahead --the one with all the kids-- that there's a little family coming behind them" in case they wanted to wait up. The college kids agreed and hiked out of sight.  Surely, that would help us find them.

About this time, the rain stopped, but the kids started getting whiny, especially the baby.  My husband had to take him out of the baby backpack and carry him, which meant we couldn't hold both kids hands  and there was a lot more slipping and falling going on. We were covered in mud. I could also feel a blister forming on the inside of my heel, and we were getting pretty tired.  We asked the next group of people coming down the trail about how much farther to the falls, and they said we were about half-way.  

yeah.

Well, there was no going back now.  We had come this far, we were going to go all the way. Besides, now that we had notified our family that we were coming, they would worry if we didn't show up.

The clouds lifted and the surrounding vistas showing us just how high we had hiked gave us an extra boost.  Although the trail started heading slightly downhill, we slowed a little making our way down the slippery trail, being careful not to touch the stinging nettle that surrounded us.

We crossed a few rock slides, asked some more people about the big group ahead of us --five minutes this time-- (perhaps they hadn't gotten our message?) and finally we could see the falls in the distance.  That was enough to keep us going.

After hiking a bit longer, finding an exotic-looking bug, and expecting to see our family around every turn, we finally, gratefully, heard the sound of the falls.  We climbed down some steep stony places on the trail and came to the rocky outcropping that serves as the perfect lookout in front of the falls.

No family.

We heard voices, so we peeked over the cliff's edge to where the trail heads down to the river below at the base of the lower falls.  Sure enough, there were lots of people down there

 --A tae kwon do team taking pictures below the falls,

literally, below the falls.

The college students who had passed us,

and then there was a group with lots of kids,

(sorry for the terrible picture quality, some of these were taken from videos.)

but to our astonishment and utter disappointment, it wasn't our family!

We had been following the wrong large group of people with kids this whole time, and our family was nowhere to be found!
As this sunk in, we realized that we must've been on the wrong trail from the very beginning -although we hadn't seen any other trails anywhere.
We were so confused, and felt rather sheepish about the whole thing (not to mention the mysterious message we had sent ahead to complete strangers).  After explaining and re-explaining things to the kids, we all finally accepted the fact that we were on our own, and decided to make the most of it.

The falls were exquisite.  They were also a lot bigger than I had remembered.  

My poor hat went all soggy and limp in the rain.

The other pictures don't really show how big the falls are, but to put it into perspective,
the orange, white, and blue dots back there are the college students from the previous picture.

The kids were duly impressed (well, maybe not the baby), and we considered lingering and exploring some more, but we were dirty, wet, and hungry and had to get back to cook dinner for everyone that evening.

The hike down was dryer, and we took off our jackets as the sun came out --making the forest steamy and aromatic.  We decided that although we were tired and wanted to get back, we could take our time and enjoy the way down since we weren't trying to catch up to anyone.  The butterflies began dancing about and we got out some snacks and water I had thought to bring at the last moment.  It was a beautiful day after all, and we were glad we came, despite the difficulty and the disappointment of not being with our extended family.

(photo credit: "Sundance Fireweed", by my five year old)

The baby grew sleepy and still refused to go back in the backpack, so in a stroke of ingenuity (if I do say so myself), I wrapped my jacket around me and the baby, having my husband tie the sleeves behind me, fashioning a kind of sling.

I was able to carry the baby like that down the rest of the mountain comfortably and he soon fell asleep on my chest.  It was the sweetest thing ever.

The kids, who were troopers but nonetheless worn out, took turns being carried by their dad down the rest of the mountain. The hike back actually seemed to go faster than the hike to the falls -probably because I enjoyed it a bit more, and I wasn't trying so hard to catch up, expecting our destination around every corner, only to be disappointed each time.

It was still tiring though, and by the time we reached the parking lot we were ready to be done.

As we reached the car, I wondered what the others had thought when they saw that our car was still there, for surely they had figured we had turned back and gone home.  In the parking lot, there was a forest ranger and we asked her about the trails and waterfalls.  Sure enough, right at the very beginning of the trailhead, we had missed the gravelly turnoff to the other falls.

In case you were wondering, this is where the rest of the family ended up.  Not all are pictured.

In the end, we had gone a mile further than the others, but according to the ranger, we had been rewarded with a more scenic hike and falls.


All in all, for our little family unit, it turned out to be the most unifying part of the reunion.  We pushed hard through difficult circumstances, achieving an amazing goal and surprising ourselves by what we were capable of, and in the process made memories of our glorious adventure to the "wrong falls."

There could be a number of analogies made in conjunction with this story. Perhaps about how we often spend all our time trying to catch up to others, when all along we are each on our own paths with our own unique destinations.  Or how we often forget to enjoy the journey when we're too impatient or preoccupied with the end goal. Or maybe even something about how the best things in life require the greatest sacrifices, etc. etc. etc....

I don't know.

They're all good analogies, and ones that I could easily apply to my own life.

Our journey is definitely our own, and I find that I am only unhappy when I compare my life to others and begin to think that I want what they have.  I mean, sure it would be nice to settle down and have a house, but then I might miss out on all these other great experiences and wonderful people that I wouldn't meet otherwise.  I hope that my kids are stronger and closer to each other because of it.  The amount of toys they have or the size of their room won't matter, but they'll have great memories of all the different places we've lived and fun things we've done on this glorious adventure that is our life.
It's our story: moving from place to place, scrimping and saving to get by, working hard through a Master's and PhD, not waiting to have a family, hoping and praying that the end reward will be worth the sacrifice, and (for the most part) enjoying every minute of it.