Father's Day Weekend

My weekend with the Quints started out Friday evening when we went to the Mormon Stories Conference picnic at Wheeler Historic Farm in the heart of the valley.  Despite an inauspicious beginning, when Levi threw up shortly after arriving, it was a nice evening.  Levi quickly recovered (as depicted in the above photograph), and the kids had fun playing on the playground.  An added bonus was a phone call from Hannah up in Vancouver.

The next morning was a lazy one.  Mark took Annie and Aaron with him to Home Depot and the rock shop, where he purchased some flagstones for his patio project in the back yard (more on which later).  I hung out with the kids here at the house, then after lunch Mark offered to take the kids and the dogs on a walk in connection with the Millcreek Venture Outdoors Festival so that I could have some alone time and go to the gym.  I then joined them at the Festival a couple hours later.

This was one of the best community festivals I've ever attended - and it was all free.  The whole festival was centered on getting outdoors and enjoying what Utah has to offer, and they had lots of activities for the kids.  Their early favorite was the zip line.

Esther and Levi both loved it.  Aaron also enjoyed it, but he also liked riding the ponies, as did Annie.

There was then various inflatable toys and games and activities.  Esther was very keen to play water balloon volleyball, but we ultimately passed on that in favor of the water slide, which was a huge hit.  Since it was to be our last stop, I let the kids have it, and they got thoroughly soaked.

Mark, meanwhile, had headed back to the house with Nathan, and they were hard at work on the patio project when we arrived home.  Nathan had spent most of the morning working for a neighbor, Peeches, and Mark had also offered to pay Nathan to help him so that he could earn some money.  The next hour or so, Mark and Nathan worked on the patio while the other kids fiddled in the backyard, watering, planting little "zen gardens," etc.

We had dinner outside that night.  Mark grilled steaks and hamburgers and hotdogs, while I made salad and baked some tater tots.  As a Father's Day surprise, I had ordered a peach pie - Mark's favorite - from a local bakery.  We wanted to honor Mark for all he has done for me and the kids and for what he has come to mean to them ... and to me.  It was the first time in his life that he had received a Father's Day card, and I think he was a bit taken aback.

Yesterday morning was another lazy morning, then the Quads and I headed out in late morning for a hike on the Temple Quarry trail at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  I had deliberately not told the children where we were going because some of them had in the past pooh-poohed the idea of a "hike."  As it turned out, they LOVED it - well, not the trail so much but playing in the river that flows through the canyon.

The name of the trail comes from the fact that pioneer Mormons quarried granite boulders that had fallen in this area which they hauled by wagon to downtown Salt Lake City to be used in the construction of the Salt Lake Temple.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much the kids enjoyed playing in the river.  They are anxious to go back, and I told them they could go back as often as they would like.  I also told them that there were many other sights to see that would be equally as cool.

This was borne out as we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Snowbird and Alta.  They were captivated by the landscape, and Levi wanted to take pictures of the waterfalls that they saw along the way.

After coming back down and out of the canyon, we went to a nearby playground, where they enjoyed playing for a while.  Then, it was time to go back to the house and rest and take shelter from the rapidly increasing heat.

Adam joined us later that afternoon for pizza, then it was time for the kids to go home.  

There were other things going on this past weekend.  Holidays have long been difficult for me, and Father's Day carries with it lots of baggage.  Though I am getting better at dealing with this, there is something about holidays that taps me into submerged rivers of sorrows, unmet expectations, past hurts and a longing for love unrequited.  But, I made it through, trying as best I could to stay in the present and to recognize expectations for what they are:  an invitation to suffering.