Family Vacation Part 1

This morning while sitting in sacrament meeting, I was listening to the speaker and watching Finn asleep on Chancho's shoulder when I became distracted by a smell. It was a nice smell. I couldn't quite place it. It was a bit of chocolate. Earlier that morning the kids had brought me presents in bed for Mother's Day and it included a lot of chocolate. I packed some of it into a bag to share during the meeting. But it didn't smell like the KitKat Deedle was munching next to me exactly. What was it?

Suddenly I was back in time and the wave of emotion was so strong that I could hardly pull myself away to remind the kids to sit quietly. Instead I just leaned back a little more and breathed deeply through my nose and allowed my mind to go back in time 25 years.

Take a brown, plastic cup with white criss-crossing detail on the outside. Fill it 3/4 with boiling hot water from a metal teapot. Add several scoops of chocolate ovaltine. Fill nearly to the top with condensed milk straight from the can. Stir and smell. That was what it was this morning taking me back in time to those cups of ovaltine at my Grandma Edna's trailer at Bear Lake. In my mind I see the little decorative plate on the wall with the picture of a trailer. "God Bless This Mobile Home" it reads. And I hear my Dad going out the back door of the trailer and the duh-dooyoyying sound as the step bounces after he leaves it. I hear the old Swedish-looking, cow bell clank against its place on the wall as mom closes the front door. She's just been out to turn off the propane since breakfast is done cooking (careful not to hit her head on the windows whose sharp edges stick out to as they rotate to open for some fresh air).

I now smell sand and feel heat on my face as I walk out to the wooden clothes rack where my swimsuit hung out to dry all night. I smell the vinyl that covers the table where we play "Probe" in the afternoons when we're worn out from swimming and the sun. I set our swimsuits (mine, Nancy, and Megan's) on the white, peeling railing in front of the door and pick up the shallow, rectangular bucket, which has been turned upside down to dry. I walk just a very short way--down the stairs of wide rocks that I think my Grandpa Lew laid down before he died--to the water. It is very high this year! In fact last night I even heard a few waves crash against the trailer as I lay next to Nancy on the fold out couch. The light blue sheet was such a crisp cotton and smelled so good! Years later I would take one of those sheets with me on my mission to help me sleep at night--to remember times when I was at peace away from my own bed at home.

I bend down into the water with the yellow bucket. It smells a little fishy. A little bit like dirt. But its not unpleasant. Its just a Bear Lake smell. The bucket needs to be filled so we can rinse our feet in it before re-entering the trailer. On my first try, I get too much sand in the water to make it a good rinse-bucket. The second try the water is clear and perfect. But too much water. I can't lift it! The second try is just right. As I walk it back to its appointed spot, I see that Nancy and Megan are getting their swimsuits off the railing and are pleased that they're dry from the night before.  Nancy and I had gone out in the early evening when the air was getting cool in hopes of catching some "waves".  For ocean-dwellers, these might not have been considered waves, but in the evening they'd always be bigger than during they day.  *

I eye the Captain Seascope. The long, blue, hard, hollow plastic raft is calling to me from under the trailer. There is a hole near the head. It used to have clear plastic in it so that you could look and see the water below. I prefer it with the plastic broken out because then I can lie on the raft and put my face directly into the water. Have I ever felt more serene in my life than how I feel on that raft? I change quickly before one of my sisters decides to commandeer the Cap'n. Before I know it, I am wading out into the water, towing the heavy raft. My sisters hadn't even tried to take it. They're playing Barbies on the rocks where last night's waves have left little pools.

I walk delicately and awkwardly, trying to avoid sharp rocks but failing, and shivering as the cold from the water climbs up to my spine. Once the water reaches my knees, I put the Cap'n in front of my and gingerly ease myself onto it. Icy water soaks my front and I nearly cry out, as I balance myself onto the craft. But now I'm on and its settled back. I ease myself into position so that my face is directly over the hole. With my arms, I paddle myself out a little ways further. The water that has pooled under my belly is already warm. I look into the water and slowly inch my face towards it. I ease my face in until I'm submerged to my ears. I can see the rocks on the bottom perfectly. I am completely still, just swaying up and down on the waves. A few tiny fish swim under me. The back of my head is now hot from the sun but my face feels so cool. Everything is beautiful and sweet to me. How long has it been since I've even taken my face out for a breath of air?

"Can you take him?"

"What?" I ask.

Chancho is pointing to our sleeping baby on his chest and the other kids are pushing past me so that they can get to the podium. Time for some Primary Mother's Day songs. And so I'm back. And the smell is gone and the sweet memories of my happiest place on earth are pushed back into the file drawer in my mind. I smile as my 3 children wrestle and angle to get a spot where they can see and be seen as they begin to sing, "I see my mother kneeling, with her family each day."

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Two weeks ago we left on a family vacation. It was really the first time we had just set out on our own. We left Friday afternoon and drove to Kanab. We spent the night there in a fairly motel-like motel. Deedle kept asking about when the servants would come to make the beds and when the servants would be coming to bring us breakfast. We then drove to Arizona and spent 3 1/2 days with Zac, Natalie, and family in Gilbert. We were then on to Disney Land. We arrived Tuesday evening, checked into the Ayres Inn (which was a very nice hotel), and then ventured out to find food. A sign at "Lucille's Rib Shack" said, "Kids Eat Free on Tuesdays" and it was indeed Tuesday, so we went there. It was amazingly good and we felt fortunate to have lucked out on the price and quality of our dinner.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at Disney Land. It was very good. I'll share details in posts to follow. In summary, we were very lucky because the weather was perfect and crowds were minimal. I was totally prepared, thanks to my Disney Angel, Jana. If I had arrived sans her advice, I think I would have felt very stressed out. But we knew just what we wanted to do, where to go, and when. The music was magical. It was a nice feeling. We had a really good two days. Was it the happiest place on earth? Not really to me. I didn't just love it and think, "I can't wait to come back here!" My idea of the happiest kind of vacation is one like I recalled in church this morning. But it was really great. The best thing was that the kids were really, really happy almost our entire trip. I can't help but wonder if there will be some smell some day--that will take my children back in time to this family vacation. Will it fill them with happiness? Am I helping to create the types of memories in my children that they will be able to cherish and relish when they are my age?

I don't know, but I am trying to document their childhood so that I myself don't forget! Beware. Many vacation posts to come.


*Above photos from top: 1. Nancy and I catching some evening waves at Bear Lake just in front of the trailer. 2. Nancy and Megan standing on the rocks in front of the trailer. 3. One time my sister Kathy brought new baby Christian and Jessica with us to Bear Lake while Mike was busy studying for the bar exam.  We thought Jessica was so cute and that if anybody from Johnson & Johnson ever happened upon these photos of her with their product, they would snatch her up as their "spokesbaby/model" immediately.  On this photo the admiring little aunties surround Jessica on the deck my mother built just to the right of the trailer.  4.  Jessica sticks her feet through the opening on the Captain Seascope while I hold her.  Nancy and Meg float around in life vests and Kathy, in the background, tries to go out for a swim.