All to Ourselves

My parents had eleven children. We are all now grown and married and have provided them with 60-some grand and great-grandchildren. The majority of us live in the same area still. Family gatherings on my side of the family are always big and crazy. My parents love each of their grandchildren dearly, but due to the sheer numbers, it is often not possible for them to spend tons of time with each child. Luckily to my kids, you wouldn't know that. As with their own children, my parents are so good at making each grandchild feel special. String Cheese knows that she is Grandpa's princess and I think she feels deep down that she is his favorite. My parents have the ability to make everybody feel like that.

After a long, hot day of swimming and since my kids didn't really even know what Pioneer Day was nor that it was a holiday, I thought I would just go about the rest of the evening as usual with nothing special. String Cheese, however, kept begging to call Grandma and invite her over. At age 77, my father still teaches full-time as a University professor and spends his free time writing books. My mother works at the temple and also is very involved in Family History Research. Between their jobs and their family, they are the busiest "senior citizens" you could ever meet (I still never think of them as being old). So, I usually don't let SC pester them too much. After originally saying no, I changed my mind and had her give them a call. To my delight, they were just headed off to dinner at Chuck-a-rama but were willing to come over afterwards.

I ran to the store for fireworks, rootbeer and ice cream (standard Allred family holiday treat). We ended up having a wonderful evening, on the verge of magical to me. First my mom told us a few pioneer stories to help my kids understand why we have this holiday anyway. Next we made rootbeer floats and sat on the still-warm driveway to watch Chancho put on the fireworks display. Afterwards, SC begged Grandma Sharon for another pioneer story. My mother is a fantastic story teller and SC begs her to tell her one whenever she sees her.Loumy and Deedle then attacked Grandpa Gordy, as they had already done when he first came over, to give them carnival rides. When I was a little girl, my Dad would give us "rides". A favorite, that he is doing here, is the "merry-go-round". He sings a little song and makes, "beeboopboop" merry-go-round songs while swing the kids through the air on his arms. Another favorite is "Swing-swong, swing-swong, swinging all the day..." These rides are not like horsey-rides or anything I might be able to do. Rather, my dad is always standing and uses his arms to swing kids around in all kinds of fun ways and he makes up songs to go with each ride. At 77 he still has a fantastic physique. These "rides" are ones that I will never forget and I am so glad that my kids have been able to experience them as well.
All in all, it was just a wonderful night for us and one of my favorite Pioneer Days to date. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting us have you all to ourselves!