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.

Ich Ben Geleibt!

(German: "I am loved!")

I was browsing a favorite blog of mine, and I was delighted to discover that I had actually won a blogging award.  Okay, so won isn't the right word... I was awarded an award...  er, that's a little redundant... anyway, my blog received an award!

It's not anything that a lot of people vote for or anything, but the fact that it's coming from someone I respect and admire so much really means a lot.

I think I'm supposed to pass it on to five people, but I'm not sure how this works and I seriously don't read that many blogs in general, mainly just friends and family, popular people (did I mention this award is for people with under 200 followers?), and a few random people that I decided to follow because they have all boys like me.  So instead, I'm just going to embarrass the person who gave it to me.  :)

(Insert picture of me and Lisa and her family here --when I get back to where my stuff is in storage and have access to a working scanner.)

Lisa is someone I met on my mission in Poland, and though I only saw her a few times on Sundays since they lived quite a ways outside of Krakow, it was so nice having another American/English-speaker to talk to, and it made a huge difference having someone who had grown up in the Church coming to the small branch there.  It was like having a third missionary, one that people knew, respected, and could emulate--since we as missionaries didn't live a very normal life and couldn't show them how a member of this church lived day-to-day.
Her husband, who is Polish, was in the Mission Presidency at the time and traveled a lot, but whenever I had the privilege of hearing him speak, it was like a breath of fresh air.  Everything he said was so doctrinally sound, and made so much sense.  That isn't always the case in places like Poland, I'm afraid. The Church there is relatively young, and the members are almost all converts, so often times incorrect ideas would start creeping in.  As missionaries, part of our job was to make sure only true principles were being taught in our church meetings, and for a young missionary who didn't always understand the language, this was a cause of great anxiety. So you can imagine how grateful I was whenever President Pawlik was presiding. I could relax a little because if anything was amiss, he would kindly set it straight.
I loved their kids too. When we got to the opportunity to teach a bit of primary (and most of the time they were the primary) they were so patient with our weak Polish, and would often translate for us when we didn't know the words.  It was awesome.
Anyway, I am astounded by the strength and faith of this woman. What a tremendous blessing they are to the Church there (believe me, I know), and yet what a sacrifice?  I mean, I can't imagine living indefinitely so far from home and family, going without the things I was used to having around... like peanut butter and rootbeer...
 I suppose there's always some give and take; I mean, I would love to have easy access to affordable fresh-from-the-farm produce, delicious cheeses and breads without preservatives, german chocolate, yummy yogurts and ice-cream, (can you tell I still dream about Polish deli's, even after all these years?), etc. etc. etc.... Seriously though --speaking of taking things for granted-- I spent most of my mission craving things like tacos, and Carl's Jr., and such, only to come home and realize that I could have all those things for the rest of my life, and it would be so much harder to get a good zupa ogorkowa (cucumber soup), or a fresh bulki (bread roll)...  I even developed a taste for Lisner Sledz z sosem cremowy z jablkami i cebula (pickled herring in cream sauce with apples and onions) --and I still crave it!  How weird is that?
However, I definitely don't envy them the socialized medicine.  Maybe I just need to move closer to Chicago --but that would be too far from my family (of course, I probably take their proximity for granted anyway).
I know, I'm such a baby.

To be honest, it would all be way outside of my comfort zone --it was uncomfortable for most of the 18 months I was there, and I seriously applaud anyone who can do it as well and with as good of an attitude and sense of humor as Lisa.

How pleased I was to find that she was good friends with my husband's family, and I found her blog through comments she had left on one of their blogs.  Little did I know how witty and sarcastic and intelligent she is.  I admit I never saw that side of her in the few short meetings we had together (except for the intelligent part), and I wish I had gotten to know her better while I was there, in person.  I guess that's the beauty of blogging!


I've just decided that I am going to pass on this award after all, to 5 people whom I think more people should get to know.

One, is a friend of mine that I got to know in person, and then got to know even better after reading her blog. It's generally a regular mommy-blog like mine, but Sandi often has very insightful things to say.  Find her at Wuv,Tru Wuv.

Then there's my very talented and creative Sister-in-Law, who records all of her crafty creations and ideas, which I think deserve more attention, on her craft blog: Bee in My Bonnet.

Another creative person is my delightful little sister "JerZcow," who often has good ideas, and even has a fledgling etsy jewelry store that I think gets lost among the zillions of other hand-made jewelry makers out there, but has a unique, natural flare. (Hope there's no nepotism rules to this award thingy --I told you, I mostly read blogs of people I am related to.  She also helped me with the German for my title).

Okay, here's one I'm not related to (although I don't know how many followers she actually has because it's not shown, but what the heck...), a writer blogger who's blog I look forward to because it's honest and funny and well written. So here's an award for Kym, at Temporary? Insanity

And finally, the blog of veritable strangers, who's blog I've only lurked around a bit, but they are extremely talented artistically, and culinarily --and I've come to find out that she and her husband are really nice people as well when I actually met them in person last weekend (and of course, I probably looked like a real weirdo when I told them how much I loved their blogs --being a silent lurker and all). So the last award goes to our new friends Robert and Laura. (Be sure to check out their photo and art blogs in the sidebar, they're amazing!)

Hope you guys feel as loved as I do!  Share the love with 5 other lesser known bloggers, if you like, so we can get to know them too!

-Laura

Summer Vacation to UT part 2

A sampling of our family reunion on my husband's side:

The accommodations were fantastic, and more than ample for 40 people. Thank you J and W!

 I enjoyed the rather rustic decor...

Everyone had a chance to do the money jar --catching up on the family birthday tradition.
I added this particular picture simply because I loved this table.

The food was definitely a highlight, and a family reunion
wouldn't be complete without 3 kinds of homemade ice cream.
Mmmm!

Al fresco for the kids.

The '09 babies came in all three flavors.
They were definitely comrades in crime, but oh so cute!
I also think they liked the dirt hill just as much as the swingset.

Kudos to uncle W for taking the the kids for a dip.
The hot-tub was a blast for the adults too,  after-hours of course,
but I didn't bother getting pictures of that (--aren't you so glad).

So much fun stuff to do... so little time.

Not pictured here is the basement with ping-pong and pool tables,

 a little kid-sized playroom, a big screen TV, and in addition to that, a huge Theater room 

complete with a projector with surround sound, and two rows of overstuffed couches and La-Z-boys.  

Yeah, did I mention how awesome this place was?

Still, even with all that, the kids couldn't resist a good book read by Grandma.
In this family, that's a classic kid magnet!

Bowling, yeah!

Notice my snazzy shoes I tried walking off with.  They caught me, of course.

"...Pinata-yata zing zing zing..."

A hike in the pouring rain to the other falls... but that's a story for another post.
(And yes, my husband is sporting a goatee, although this isn't the best picture of it.
He doesn't generally grow facial hair --or more accurately he hasn't been capable of it really--
but if it fills in, he's hoping it will make him look older for when he starts teaching again this fall.)

Yeah, it tuckered me out too.

Cousin baths are the greatest!

We'll be sure to remind them of this when they're older.
Maybe in front of their girlfriends.

Lots of good late-night adult time.  Getting to know each other better with Jeopardy,
80's trivial pursuit, and don't forget the annual family auction...

Our oh-so-talented auctioneer showing off his wares.

And The #1 part of family reunions:  

FAMILY!

(by definition really...)

The rest are just perks.

... and here's three really cute "perks," new to our family this year:

Man, I'm so glad I married into this family!

A Few Fun Projects --Rock Pets, Magnet Fun, and Sun-dried Fruit Leather

So I have a few recent handmade ideas I thought I'd share.  

What was at first a way to keep the kids occupied while I got stuff done ("Go outside and find me some cool rocks!"), turned into a fun project with the kids one day.  They found a couple nice round rocks (the order of the day) and I decided to make some rock pets with hot melt glue.

They turned out super cute, but with just hot melt glue, they couldn't stand up to being handled by kids, so they turned into fun garden ornaments instead.  I'll have to figure out what kind of fast-setting glue would work better for holding rocks together.

So while I was in Utah,  I made the most of the resources available to me, as usual.  

When my oldest son found an abandoned speaker by the side of the road, he wanted to smash it open to get the large magnet out.  (He had just learned that speakers have magnets a few days earlier when his cousins found a smashed sub-woofer and got that huge magnet out.)  He was so excited to use a big hammer to smash something too. 

Well, this magnet wasn't quite as big, but it seemed almost stronger.  We had to go over magnet etiquette a bunch before releasing the kids to roam around with a super powerful magnet (...no going near TVs, computers, phones -basically anything with a cord or battery, not to mention painted objects such as cars).  It was a very educational activity as well, allowing the kids to discover certain properties of various objects.  Finally, we made a fun toy out of a clear plastic container and some metal shavings from under my dad's metal lathe.

Also while in Utah, we got to sample a bit of the summer harvest, my mother has an apricot tree, but alas, to the kid's disappointment, they weren't quite ripe.  However, my mom, who can't stand any kind of waste, still puts up as much fruit as she can each year.  Now that all seven of her kids have moved away, she doesn't have as many people at home to help eat it (although we do our best each time we come to visit).  So, to help her rotate some of that old fruit, we put her old bottled apricots and peaches to good use making homemade fruit leather!

This stuff was older than my first child, and a bit discolored and mushy, but still tasted fine and was safe to eat.

 We drained off the syrup,

And blended it, about 6 cups worth, along with 2 TBS lemon juice, and 2 TBS Honey.  (We did end up picking some apricots from neighbor's trees that were a little riper, and with the fresh fruit, I added 2 more TBS of honey since it didn't have the extra sweetness from the syrup).

I spread out some freezer paper on my parent's trampoline, securing it with clothespins, and sprayed it with cooking spray (actually, the first batch, I forgot that VERY important step and had to throw it all away because I couldn't get it off the paper --so sad!  If you try this don't forget the cooking spray! Pam it!).  

Then I poured/spread 6" circles of the mixture on the paper about a 1/4 in thick.  To make it even and smooth, I tapped on the trampoline next to each circle to flatten it out a bit.  It worked great.

We hit the weather perfectly, since it reached a very dry 100 degrees on a mostly wind-less day, and it only took about 6-7 hours for these to dry out.  (There have been years when the weather didn't cooperate for trampoline drying, but otherwise this is a great method for high-volume dehydration).

Once they were dry, they came right off the paper and I rolled them up and put them in freezer storage bags.  I left the bags open to allow them to cure for a few days, getting rid of any extra moisture just in case --like you would for dehydrated fruit, so they would store well without any danger of mold (not that I needed to store them though, they didn't last much longer than a few weeks anyway, maybe if I had been there longer to make more... all this was the product of just one day). 

I have to admit that this is my favorite way to enjoy apricots, well, next to jam -but I have a feeling this is healthier.

Delicious!