Todd and I went river rafting a few years ago and there was a man and his son in the group. The man said he takes each of his kids on a one-on-one trip when they turn 12, and they plan it together. Todd and I fell in love with that idea and decided we wanted to do the same thing with our family.
For the past year and a half or so, he and Hazel have been planning their adventure week. It was made a little difficult by Covid shutting things down, and not knowing for sure what would be available, but they worked around that and planned an exciting week.
First of all, in order to not leave me vehicle-less for a week, they needed to rent a car. What better opportunity to upgrade to a convertible? And when they got to the rental office, Todd was enticed to upgrade again, from a Ford Mustang to a BMW 2 series. Lucky for us all, they picked up their car the day before they left, so Gemma, Jack, and I were privileged to drive it home from the airport, and all five of us went for a sunset joyride. It was ridiculously fun. Todd spent some time clearing out the garage so he could see if the van and the convertible would both fit inside. Dreams ...
Anyway, first thing Memorial Day morning, Todd and Hazel zoomed away up and up toward Medford, Oregon. They had a fun drive through redwoods and along the coast. They stayed in a treehouse hotel, went zip lining, did glass-blowing, hiked, and went on a three-day river rafting trip.
Gemma, Jack, and I had a very quiet, relaxed week at home, with a virtual piano recital, an afternoon swimming with the Wilmoths, a trip to Brentwood to pick cherries and get donuts, and lots of laid-back days of snuggling, documentaries, board games, and books. We lived on pizza and leftovers - I don't think I cooked a single meal all week. Gemma and Jack had a sleepover twice - once in the playroom and once in the girls' room.
Unfortunately, on the last day of their trip, the rafting company totaled the convertible while bringing it down to the end of the rafting route. It was a terrible experience, with the rafting company refusing to take responsibility for the accident. Luckily, our insurance will cover it, but our rates are going to go through the roof. It put a huge damper on their whole trip.
Jack collected over fifty tadpoles from the creek and raised them in a fish tank in his room for several weeks. He did a good job of researching their needs, feeding them, and changing their water, as well as bringing them back to the creek when they had grown four legs and lost their tail. It was fun to watch them change, but his room did get stinky over time, and it was a relief when the project ended.
Gemma took the next step in her orthodontic journey and got headgear. She is supposed to wear it for 12 hours a night for the next year or so. The goal is for the headgear to hold her upper jaw back as her lower jaw grows forward to meet it. Meanwhile, her expander is trying to spread her teeth out sideways as well. She is being a good sport about wearing everything and missing out on popcorn, too.
Hazel surprised us one afternoon by revealing that she had learned the Napoleon Dynamite dance at the Turri's house, and she was prepared to teach it to my kids and the Wilmoth's. April and I were delighted by the unexpected performance the kids gave us!
Jack loves babies. He is so cute with baby Ellie.
We prepared for in-person Primary to resume. There was lots of discussion about seating, mask-wearing, streaming our meeting online, and filling in staffing gaps. It was super stressful to get ready for, knowing that I was going to be out of town for our first two weeks back. But we are so happy to be back to second hour of church at long last! I definitely teared up singing the opening song in Utah, it has been so long since we've been able to sing in church!
Hazel had modified girls' camp. They did not go up to their campsite for the week, but they did plan local activities for four days, and Hazel had a great experience. They had a beach day, where someone from the stake came and taught the girls how to surf, which Hazel loved. They did crafts, sang songs, did service projects, and had a testimony meeting. It was leaps and bounds better than the virtual camp they had last summer. Baby steps ...
One of Gemma's goals this year has been to learn kitchen skills and help me make ten meals. She is learning to chop vegetables with sharp knives, grate cheese, and stir food on the stove.
The kids and I drove out to Utah. We listened to music and podcasts, and the kids watched a couple movies. They are such good travelers. The hardest part for me is that I can feel blood pooling up in my calves after half a day. I need to take a longer break in the middle of the drive and get my circulation moving again, and then maybe I'll feel better. We started in Logan and saw my dad and Grandpa Bingham for Father's Day (we celebrated with Todd the Sunday before). Monday I took my kids down to Midway for Grammie Camp. We stopped at Memorial Hill on the way over so they could see Todd's name and his grandpa Floyd's name on the war plaques.
The kids enjoyed the animals - the horses, the cow, the chickens - and the cousins. They played with Kollyn and Danny, Luna, Shalyee, and Carli, Aybree and Paxton. Only Missy's girls stayed the night with my kids, though, and they both threw up in the middle of the night, so I drove back down on Tuesday and picked my kids back up early.
While my kids were in Midway, my family went up to Logan Canyon to celebrate my mom's birthday. We had myself, my parents, Chris and Jodi, Scott's family, and Emily's family there. We had the best conversation that evening, reflecting on my sweet mom and the many ways she blessed our lives as children. We thanked her for reading bedtime stories to us, playing the guitar in the hall as we fell asleep, staying up late talking with each of us individually when we needed it, teaching me about eating chocolate when my period started, taking Scott out for donuts after his allergy shots, driving Emily and me past our crush's houses, videoing our school performances, and on and on.
I loved being with my family all week long. My heart was filled with love for them all. I especially enjoyed having time with my nieces and nephews.
My kids and I visited Grandma Holley, and it was one of the best visits I've had with her in my entire adult life. It was so wonderful to be with her and see her and talk with her while she was still cognizant. She had a malignant skin tumor and had surgery to have it removed this spring, and there was a part of me that was scared we would lose Grandma before I could see her again. I am so grateful that wasn't the case. It felt amazing to hug her, to hear her voice, to tell her how much I love her. It was so wonderful to have them play the piano for her, and have her tell them how happy her mom would be to hear them playing on her piano.
I have this wonderful love for my Holley grandparents because of the time they spent showing love to me as a child. I feel happy and safe and wanted around Grandma because she had me overnight in her home, made me special food, played games with me, and talked with me. I have special memories of Grandpa Holley because of how he made me feel when I was around him. I remember laying on the couch with him while he napped and trying to match my breath to his. I love his quiet belly chuckle. I love playing Othello and dominoes because they remind me of him. I want to be the same kind of grandparents they are.
It was so fun to reminisce with my kids about visiting Grandma as a child. I told Grandma I'd described the soft velvet seats of her car to my kids, and she asked if they wanted to sit in the Buick. Then she asked if they wanted to go for a ride around her neighborhood. She drove us around and she seemed extra happy to be out going somewhere. It was an extra satisfying outing for us all.
Scott invited us to his apartment to play a rock band video game. None of us were good at it, because we don't spend any time playing video games, and we had to think too much about what buttons to push, but it was fun. I thought I would love the drums, but they stressed me out. The guitar was my favorite part.
My mom felt bad that my kids missed out on half of Grammie Camp, so we made a late-night trip to Caspar's for ice cream cones. They enjoyed spying through the factory windows.
Thursday was Nana's day with the grandkids. We took them to the American West Heritage Center in Logan. They got to milk a cow, ride a pony, throw a tomahawk, pan for gold, and pet goats.
We spent the afternoon making treats for a baking competition. Jack made a custard cake, Gemma made brownies, and Hazel made a fruit peacock. Isaac made pancakes and Ethan made a banana cake. Chris and Jodi picked Todd up at the airport and since they had not been in the house during the baking, they made delightfully impartial judges.
Sadly, Thursday night Jack threw up. We're convinced he caught something from Shaylee and Carli. He had to spend the next day resting on the couch in the basement, hoping not to infect anyone else.
We spent Friday in the canyon. We had a picnic and went for a hike, and Hazel talked several people into swimming despite the freezing water temperatures. Ryan and Kathryn met us there, and it was so fun to see them again. Xiao was in China with her ailing grandfather, but everyone else was there for the rest of the weekend.
The second our kids were all in bed, all the adult kids hopped in the van for a late-night shake hunt. Todd and I always love to get shakes in Utah because they know how to make them thick and delicious. California shakes are too runny. Our plan was to go to Caspar's, but we showed up a minute after closing, and they would not make eye contact with us through the drive-thru window. Tragically, we also drove through an irrigation sprinkler on the road there, and it must have been spreading manure water, because after that, the van reeked of poop! It made for a funny story, and it didn't stop us from driving twenty minutes the other direction to Culver's, where we had good conversation and delicious shakes before getting to bed far too late.
Every chance we could get, we stuffed extra people in "the Bonner Shuttle," especially cousins. Every extra minute the kids get to spend together, the better.
Possibly the favorite experience of the entire week, my dad made arrangements with his cousin Delbert Rawlings for the kids to come see his horses. I imagined that we would pet a few horses in their stables, maybe feed them some hay across a fence. Oh no. Cousin Delbert invited us all into his field, where he kept seven or eight super sweet, calm, friendly horses. We got to pet them as they walked all around us.
Then everyone who was interested got the opportunity to ride bareback around the field as someone led the harnessed horse. Often, they were accompanied by another couple horses as well. The setting was beautiful, wide open space with a field of cattle beyond, and low mountains past that. We stayed for a couple of hours, and it was heaven for Gemma especially.
We visited Grandpa Bingham again for a family picture in his beautiful field.
Then we spent the afternoon at the Logan Aquatic Center. Everyone had a blast on the water slides and the diving boards. Even Gemma dared the high dive.
That night, we had dinner at Mack Park and played a family trivia game Emily had worked on. It was fun to walk down memory lane again with everyone. This reunion was the first time in 21 months we had all been together. We were just missing Xiao, and she even FaceTime called us Friday and Saturday evenings, so we sort of had her with us for a bit of time.
Todd drove home with us on Sunday, so I was able to put my legs up and stay relatively comfortable. I was sad to hear him say as we drove into California that he felt like he was getting buried alive by the work pressures that were building up in his mind on the way home. I wish there were a way to give him some relief. The only way out I can see is to give Tom a heads up that Todd is leaving the company and then find a new job where he can come home and be done with work until the next morning, instead of having responsibilities that follow him day and night, never ending.
