first two weeks crept gloriously slow; however the weeks since have simply
flown. It was difficult to say "goodbye" to my family. The boys don't get
much time with them and enjoy the time they do have to the full. This stay
in particular was a very rich time with their "other" grandparents. Whether
or not they remember much of this trip as they age, I will hold dear the
memories of experiencing Yellowstone, the Badlands and the Black Hills with
my children and my parents. My dad is somewhat of a siren for children and
the boys aren't immune to his charms either. They had so much fun shooting
the 22, catching turtles and bugs, playing in and climbing through the
canyons, driving the car and truck, eating cookies and drinking Dr Pepper
for breakfast and as a culmination, doing the life-size maze in the Black
Hills with him. Brendon insisted he, dad and Ian would be one team and
Michael, mom and I would be the other team. I can still hear the boys
laughing as they ran to stay ahead of us. I called mom on the phone
yesterday and apparently, they had quite an effect on dad as well. He said
it was pretty quiet around the house and that he misses hearing little boys
around the place.
Saturday evening/Sunday morning was bitter-sweet as we took a slight detour
and spent about 18 hours in Hamilton, MT (Michael's home town). I have
memories of Hamilton over the years as well, though I only visited for a
week or so at a time about every two years. It's situated in a beautiful
canyon along the Bitteroot river. We stayed at a campground along the river
Saturday night (after a quick drive through the town) and then went to
Michael's home church Sunday morning. Many things have changed, many others
are the same. It was fun to see things and have Michael point out his old
schools and where his friends lived. This was the first time we've been to
Hamilton since Jon and Esther moved to California. It was quite strange to
be there and not have Jon and Esther living on the hill outside of town,
running the DQ. While it left a melancholy feeling, I'm grateful the boys
are able to spend more time with them since they're so close to us.
Sunday morning was an interesting experience and fun. Many people at the
Hamilton Wesleyan Church (now called Mountain View Wesleyan) are the same
people Michael grew up with and many have been there long enough to know my
family from when we held revival meeting there. When the pastor introduced
us during the service, someone piped up from the back, "Tell them they can
go back to Sacramento, but they need to send Jon and Esther back." Everyone
laughed quite a bit. After church, we went to Perkins with several old
friends and I was reminded that so many in that church are simply the salt
of the earth. We had such a great time visiting and catching up on their
lives and many other people who are mutual friends that we've lost contact
with over the years.
Sunday night ended up more tiring than we planned. We didn't get out of
Hamilton until well after 2 and had a hard time finding a campground for the
night. We finally found an RV park in Post Falls, ID sometime after 8, when
we were all completely whipped. It was a pretty fussy place with decorator
rocks of various colors marking different areas (not a spot of bare dirt
could be found in the entire campground) and loaded with large, expensive
motorhomes and fifth wheel trailers. I felt rather red neck/white trash-ish
as we pulled the 'ol tent trailer in and our loud, pent up, wound up
children tumbled out of the truck running and screaming full speed and
volume. It took a while to get set up, it seemed and I was more worn out,
body and spirit, than I've felt in a long time. Within the first two hours
of getting to the campground, I managed to drop a cement block on two bare
toes, overflow a toilet, put a huge crack/gash/hole in the trailer's table
and lose 75 cents in a soda machine without getting the caffeine I so
desperately longed for. I don't know that I've cried like that in quite some
time. Everything was a stupid, non-important issue, but lumped together when
I was so worn out anyway, it was just too much. This morning went fairly
smoothly, except that darn toilet overflowed for someone else while I was
trying to get my hair and make-up done, so I got chased out of the bathroom
and had to finish up elsewhere.
We were hoping to make last night a hotel night, but by the time we found
any kind of reasonably priced lodging with a pool, it was too late for the
boys to enjoy it that evening. The campground had wifi (and an indoor pool,
but the pool didn't open until 10 and checkout was at 11...I hate it when
they do that), so Michael found a great hotel and reserved it this morning.
After a nice short drive, we got to the hotel mid-afternoon--just in time
for a quick nap. The boys swam a good two hours (I got some exercise in and
then was able to sit and visit with Michael while we watched them swim some
more) and then we picnicked in our hotel room. The boys are really worn out
and are nodding off as I type.
The plan tomorrow is to find a nice campground that will suffice for two
nights and then hike Multnomah Falls and take a look around Mt St. Helens
over the course of a couple of days before heading down the coast and taking
in the redwoods on the way home.
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