Always expect the unexpected

Many of our readers already know that we spent last week up at Brian Head (in southern Utah) for the Clarke family reunion. This year happened to be the 50th year of the reunion (it was started by Dan's great-grandparents). Since my family is not as big on attending reunions, I was impressed with both the size and the neat execution (thanks for that largely due to Robert and Trisha and Dan's Uncle Phil, who were the primary organizers). Of course, I never did get all the different family lines disentangled, even though we were there for five days. I'm not going to give a full re-cap of the reunion, mostly because Robert has already given such a nice recap here.

The kids enjoyed the reunion--they had unlimited access to cousins. Andrew and Katie played together, as usual--but for the first time, Evelyn and Lydia seemed to really cement a nice little friendship. It probably helped that Evelyn was so willing to go along with anything Lydia wanted to do. Our week involved lots of playing, swimming, eating, and trying to keep the kids from driving us crazy.

For me, the highlight of the week was the geologic tour of Cedar Mountain that Robert led us on (there are some perks to having a professional geologist in the family).

Our first stop was Brian Head Peak. The day was so clear that you could see for literally hundreds of miles--to a point past Bryce Canyon, a good hour plus drive to the east. Here, we could see the mines west of Cedar City in the distance behind the kids. (I have to confess that this particular stop was also a little nerve wracking, since beyond the little hut built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 30s, there were no railings of any sort, and I was worried about the kids wandering too close to the edge).

We also stopped at Navajo lake, which was formed when a lava flow dammed up one end of a local creek. Our entourage was pretty impressive--you can't see the full extent here, but there were probably some 40+ people in 14 or so vehicles following along behind us (Andrew, Evelyn and I got to ride with the tour guide).

Robert also showed us the inside of this old crater--but I missed most of the discussion since Evelyn had fallen asleep in the car and I couldn't leave her.

After lunch, we hiked out to Cascade springs. Robert reported that everyone made it on their own steam, which was *almost* true. Sarah carried Maggie (of course), and I wound up carrying Evelyn most of the way, since the trail was fairly narrow and Evelyn's preferred mode of locomotion (holding Lydia's hand) wasn't entirely safe.

Here's the actual falls.

By the end of the day we were all tired, a little sunburnt (well, I was anyway), and hungry--but overall I think we all enjoyed it.

Of necessity, we put the kids together on the fold-out bed in our hotel room. They slept surprisingly well there (I was worried they would wake each other up). In fact, I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the kids snuggling up to each other in their sleep.



Of course, not everything that happened at the reunion was positive--or went according to plan. This is typical of any large gathering, but for us, the events of the week went beyond the expected sorts of trivial difficulties. Monday evening, while driving up the mountain in the rain, we ran over a large rock in the road. It was immediately clear that something was not right--aside from the awful rending, crunching, and popping noise of the impact, our car made some agonizing groaning noises the rest of the way up the hill. Dan consulted one of the more automotive-ly inclined family members, and we decided to have the car towed.

Our insurance company helped hook us up with a rental car, and a few days later the report came in: the car was essentially totaled (it would cost almost as much to fix the car as the car was worth). I have to admit, I was sorrier to hear this than I would have thought (and not just because of the inconvenience of having to replace the car on short notice--we only have, er, had the one car). It was the first car that we purchased together--the first car that was really *ours,* and I'd fallen in love with it when we took it for a test-drive some five years ago. And I wasn't the only one--when I told Andrew we'd have to get rid of the car, he got all teary-eyed and said, "But I loved that car!" Me too, buddy.

We lucked out, though, and managed to find a used mini-van locally towards the end of the week. So we are no longer car-less, and we're learning to love our new car. (Andrew was sold when he saw that it came with a DVD player.) All things considered, I feel like we were blessed in many ways--that no one was hurt, that we'd just received our tax return a few weeks earlier (long story) so we had enough money to pay for the new (used) car in full, that we had family around to help us out, and that we were able to find a replacement so quickly (and for roughly the price we'd hoped to pay).

After the adventures of the week, I dragged everyone up north for my 15th High School reunion. The reunion itself was smaller than I'd expected, but it was fun to see some people I hadn't seen for years (and strange to try and reimagine all of us as parents, which most of us are at this point). It was also a little humbling--I think I had this idea in my mind that I'd go and "show off" a little bit (I mean, here I am with two cute kids, a great husband--and a PhD). But no one actually seemed to care, and only one person even asked me about my degree (and that only indirectly, as in, what was my degree in). I suppose I really am too old to worry about impressing my high school classmates, since for most of them their impressions of me were cemented long ago (if they had any impressions at all).


While I was home, my mom unearthed a couple of bags of "stuff" from my childhood. Among other things, she found some of my childhood crafts, and I thought I'd share a few. I remember spending hours creating things (sometimes now I wonder what happened to that creative impulse). In particular, I spent a considerable amount of time making cloth dolls when I was around 12. I sewed everything on by hand--the facial features, the hair, the bodies. And I made all of the clothes (also hand-stitched, by my own design). They won't win any awards (they're not very attractive), but it was a fun reminder of my childhood.