Solidarity and gratitude

Intro #1: There was nothing black about this year's post Thanksgiving Friday. It was a bright sunny mild 55 degree day--especially fancy weather after nearly a week of cold iron gray clouds and rain. I indulged in a seven mile jog first thing in the morning, just me between the road and the sky. Harvest is over so my favorite orchard road was silent, bordered by bony bare apple trees after yesterday's wind. The canals have been drained. The nearby corn fields are all full of lonesome stubble, and if our punkins hadn't rotted black and fuzzy in the trash weeks ago, they would have had frost on them this morning. While I was running with the sun warming my back, I marveled at how much richness and color that is still visible here at the end of November. If there's one thing I've learned from living in central Washington, it's that there are endless shades of brown, and when they are all smudged together, they make their own rainbow. Even non-traditional rainbows are beautiful. The longer we live here, the more I see. 

Intro #2: Yesterday a Fed Ex truck drove up and dropped off a package. Jeff went to pick it up and realized that it was for our neighbor, and he managed to flag down the Fed Ex guy and give it back, telling him it was for the guy next door. Now, we live on a country road with one very visible big house on our left and a second building kind of tucked away behind our house. Neither our house nor the building behind us have house numbers on them, so it is very confusing for delivery guys who are not in the know. The apartment building looks kind of like a barn and has three apartments in it--the Spanish speaking sister missionaries actually live in one of them. Anyways, the package was for someone in one of the other two apartments, but the poor hapless Fed Ex guy assumed that the building was a barn rather than a residence, and he drove away down the canal road in search of another house. The canal road is RIGHT next to the canal, which is basically a giant ditch right now with the low winter water level. And it is not a residential road--it's an access road for farming purposes. I watched in fascination as the boxy Fed Ex truck bounced along the rough road recklessly through mud puddles, searching for a house that was not there. Eventually the poor fellow came back and then drove down the gravel road on the other side of the canal, with even more bumps and mud puddles. It seriously looked like he was either going to get stuck or tip over into the canal ditch! When he was coming back up the canal road again, I took pity on the man and ran outside, motioning to the right house. He came back to our side of the canal and I explained to him about the barn-apartments. He looked very relieved. I got the feeling that he was new, possibly hired to help with the holiday rush. It was all very amusing and oddly stressful!

The post: The five of us road tripped to Utah on Monday this week, completing the journey in right around 10 hours (only 30 minutes worth of stops). We drove straight to Chuck-a-Rama restaurant in Salt Lake City, where we met up with my grandparents, uncle, sister, brother-in-law, and mom for a family dinner. My Grandpa loves Chuck-a-Rama. When we started planning this trip, we knew that we had to go to Chuck-a-Rama with Grampa, because he gets so happy when we go there. The kids were a little rough around the edges after a day in the car, but all in all the dinner went well, and it was lovely to sit and talk with my beloved "long-lost" relatives (aka the ones I don't get to see often).

Tuesday was the Big Day: my cousin Dan Christensen's wedding day. After a classic Holiday Inn Express breakfast, we met the relatives at the Bountiful temple, left our kids with the sister of the bride, and went inside to see the sealing. It was beautiful. I have been to three temple sealings in the past eleven months. What a privilege! The Christensens (my aunt, uncle, and three cousins) have been such faithful extended family members. They came to endless graduations, missionary farewells and homecomings, weddings, and more. They have always been there for us, and Dan was their first son to get married. I realized it was my turn to show up for them like they've been doing for me my whole life. It was hard work getting there, but I have never regretted family solidarity! Showing up and being there means so much. I was honored to share that special day with my family. 

After the sealing and a few pictures, Jeff and I took the very antsy very bored very tired kids to a nearby park so they could run wild and free for an hour or two before the next event on the wedding schedule. Jeff and I found ourselves sitting on a sunny park bench together in our best clothes while the kids roamed and played. It was one of those contented marital moments where we simply existed in the warm sunshine together. It's quite rare that we get to talk while sitting together wearing our Sunday clothes, because we have to be quiet at church. For some reason, it just felt extra special and good to sit there soaking up the sun, chatting lightly, and looking good in the process. The kids were so happy to be set loose that they didn't even come over and interrupt us for the longest time! Peace on a park bench.

We had lunch with the wedding party at Olive Garden at 1pm and lived it up talking with more beloved relatives, then visited Jeff's Grama Kay at 3:30. She is so sweet and gentle with the kids and gives the best hugs. It's always good to get our Amber Kay together with her Great Grama Kay. We stayed with her for about two hours and then hit some nightmarish traffic on our drive to the wedding reception. It took us over an hour to get there, plus lots of stress and sweaty palms. Rose kept singing the most annoying songs and we kept telling her to be quiet with increasing firmness, till Jeff (who was driving) used his angry teacher-voice on her and it shocked her right out of singing at last. Heavy Utah traffic in the dark is NOT a good time to sing The Farmer in the Dell over and over. Jay strapped on his headlamp and calmly read books while we drove. Thankfully Amber pooped right before that stressful drive and was just tired enough to be calm and limp rather than screechy-screamy, or else it would've been way worse. Reception: check. More extended family time: check and heart. Left early for antsy kids: check.

Jeff took the kids swimming at the hotel (actually our hotel's pool was out of order so they gave us a pass to use the hotel next door's pool) while I slipped off to do a wee bit of shopping at City Creek Mall. It was decked out in dazzling Christmas lights and I felt all classy, shopping at a fancy store surrounded by pretty lights. Then I took a selfie picture in front of the big Christmas tree to send to my aunt as a joke, since we always chuckle about selfies. I concluded that selfies in public are best done with a friend. I felt so weird and vain taking a picture by myself in public--my feelings of classiness were effectively doused, and I sheepishly scurried back to my minivan and drove back to the hotel.

Wednesday morning, we hit the road again and made it home by 5pm. It was exhausting! But so worthwhile. Jeff and I agreed that if we had stayed any longer in Utah, we would've been too tired to drive home safely. We picked up pizza on the way home and had family movie night right when we got home, stretching out our legs luxuriously and lounging sleepily. The next morning, Thanksgiving, Amber was sick and Jeff felt himself possibly coming down with it, so they stayed home while the rest of us went to our friends' house for our annual homemade turkey trot. It was warm and WINDY! (60 degrees, 20 mph gusts of wind) I like my friends. I like that they choose to run 3 miles on the morning of Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite traditions! 

When we got home from the trot, Jeff and I scurried around the kitchen making three pies and a big batch of rolls for the feast. We drove to Grama Leslie and Grampa Dan's house and feasted gratefully with them. Amber was on the mend from her bowel illness, but Jeff started feeling it halfway through the meal. We were home by 3pm, whereupon we watched Home Alone together (I prefaced the showing with a quick explanation that we will NEVER treat each other like the McAllister family in the movie does because they are mean. Jay and Rose agreed, and thankfully we have not had any experimental rudeness--for once).

After the movie, the kids dragged our three giant Christmas bins from the basement (an impressive feat considering the size and weight of the boxes and the narrow steepness of our basement stairs), and we switched our fall orange leaf garland for our Christmas evergreen garland. It is officially the most wonderful time of the year! I'm thankful!

 Pie for dinner the night before our road trip.

 At Chuck-a-Rama, Amber was so antsy. My sweet Grama let her shred a napkin into bits and gathered all of the pieces.

 Jay took a picture of our Chuck-a-Rama post-dinner hour-plus long family chat.

 Wedding day: Amber was less than cooperative, but at least the weather was nice.

 We need Grama Meri to come help do our family pictures--these kids adore her and will do anything for her, even SMILE at the camera.  

 Amby wanted to pick all of the flowers.

 I always want a family picture a the temple.

 Grama Meri! Amber was trying to run away!

 The Bountiful Temple was undergoing some external work, so the tip was all covered in scaffolding.

 

Peaceful park bench. I took off my sunglasses for the picture and it was painful. 

 The kids said the park was a "really fun one."

 My boys.

Sweet strawberry blonde Jay. I love that our hair matches. 

Amber refused to fall asleep on our ten hour roadtrip, but after the wedding lunch, she finally gave in at fell asleep around 3pm on day two, on the way to visit Grama Kay. 

In slumber, the AmBEAR is transformed into an Amb-Angel. 

Grama Kay. Even if she doesn't remember that we visited, our kids will. 

 Hugs and kisses

I took zero pictures at the reception. It was hosted at a greenhouse full of lovely plants.

Pretty lights at City Creek Mall. I didn't walk around the whole thing because it was about to close, but I still appreciated this scene in passing. 

Awkward shopping selfie for my Aunt Stefani. She appreciated it, and we both chuckled over it. 

How much longer will Amber be willing to sleep on a blanket under the table in hotel rooms? 

 Holiday Inn Express breakfast on Wednesday morning before the big drive.

Singing Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of our lungs to stay awake: road trips are WAY more fun with Jeff. He was a superstar and drove most of the way home. I kept getting sleepy! I slept so hard and so well that night.

 Quick rewind: We did two turkey trots. Saturday, November 18th we ran the Sunnyside Turkey Trot, hosted by a high school student for his senior project. Jeff helped him organize it, and Jay, Rose, and I ran the 5k together. It was Jay and Rose's longest race ever, and we did a lot of walking, finishing in just under 48 minutes. Rose ended up sprinting to a first place girl in the kids' division, winning a giant 20 pound turkey!

The course took us all over the undeveloped underbelly of the high school campus. We ran with our friends the Smiths.

Ribbons and TURKEY! The thing was MASSIVE. Rose could barely hold it.

I love running with my kids! I hope they like it better soon!

Turkey Trot #2: 5k at a friend's house on Thanksgiving morning. These two good friends of mine are significantly shorter than me. Usually in pictures I do deep knee bends, but I stood up straight for this post-run photo, and I crack up every time I look at it.

Tiny kitchen, full to the brim with pie and rolls. Space well used. 

Home Alone! Amber was asleep in bed. 

I took zero pictures of our Thanksgiving feast at the Whites' house. It's like a family curse or something. When the Whites get together, we forget pictures. But at the end of the day, Jay asked me to come snuggle and talk with him at bedtime and he said "let's take a Thanksgiving selfie." So we did, with his newly hung string of Christmas lights in the background.