Fall Travels

Fall has been a busy time here on Hods Hollow.  I have been harvesting and putting the garden to bed for the winter. It was a good year for mini stripped pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini and of course flowers. I cut the last of the roses before our first frost, not wanting to totally let go of summer. Fall roses are bigger, softer, and just a little bit faded when compared to their summer time glory. Kind of like me in middle age.

I have been spending quite a bit of time with both sets of parents, but especially John's mother. She had cellulitis and then a heart attack this fall and has been in and out of the hospital twice along with several weeks of 24/7 home care by her family. It has been hard to watch our parents age and makes me wonder what kind of an old lady I will be. Hopefully just a little more faded. . . and maybe softer.



I borrowed these pictures from Leslie's blog, they really capture the joy of the river.



Joey is still the best dog in the world! Just ask Owen.

In between the business of the fall season John and I have managed to get a few trips in, although not always together. We went on our annual Labor Day trip to raft the Snake River below Jackson. Clay, Leslie and Owen (who called me Grandma) came up from Moab and Stacey and Steve came all the way from Delaware along with Haley and Erin and her two boys. Also our friends, Mike and Jennifer Webb and their twins, Greta and Matthew. We also had three dogs, two puppies and Joey. She tried to keep up with the puppies and was so sore the next day she could hardly move. Alas, she is also getting old.

Again pictures from Leslie: we have a great family!

John went on a river trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon without me. I stayed home and watched the office so he could go. It was a raft, cast and blast trip, thought John was perfectly happy just rafting.

Does this look like a happy rafter?

A week after John got home Annie and I went to Rocky Point with Jayne, Dave, my sister Ann and Alison, Brandon and their cute son Russell. Colby and Jane Anne came down from Phoenix for conference weekend. You know what they say about a day at the beach. . . .



Sisters on the beach, what fun.



Cousins! Annie, Colby, Jane Anne, Alison, Russell and Brandon

And finally we just got back from our last river trip of the season: the Westwater Canyon of the Colorado. Clay wanted to celebrate his 30th birthday on Westwater and since Leslie was too pregnant to go he invited us!

Tice (home from his mission only 8 days), Melanie, me, John (doesn't he look handsome with a beard?) Thomas and birthday boy Clay



Thomas in his Kayak with our raft behind going through Skull rapid.

You have to look really hard to see Thomas' helmet, the waves were over his head!

It was a wonderful, beautiful, fabulous time. For some reason I was fine with the river even though I had never been on it and there were supposed to be some scary rapids, I felt no stress or fear. even when Thomas "went swimming" as he calls tipping over and falling out of his kayak three times in pretty big rapids. As long as I could see his helmet I was OK. Who wouldn't be with a view like this to calm her soul.

 



Living the Life

It has been over a month since I last wrote, life has been busy with trips, kayaking, cancer scares and aging parents.

The end of July Meg, Ezra, Travis, Maggie and I drove to Kansas City to visit her brother and then on to Saint Louis to visit Matt, Erin, Ian, Lily and Molly.

 

I made cowboy vests before I left for all six grandkids. They looked so cute in them, but I think Ezra was a little under whelmed. It was so much fun to have all the cousins together for four days. Six kids 7 and under made for some crazy but happy times (Mom had 7 kids in 7 years, it still amazes me.)

Erin, Meg and I took all the kids to the Saint Louis Zoo.  

   

At times I couldn't tell who were the wild animals. . . and who were just monkeys!



Are we having fun yet?



 





The St Louis Botanical Gardens has a fabulous children's garden with a splash pad and tree house and play area and were also having a Chinese Lantern Festival so we made an afternoon and evening of it.

 







The lantern festival was beautiful, the kids were great, though at times it was like herding sheep












Meg went back to Kansas City to spend some time with her brother and his family and I got to play longer with Matt and Erin and family.  We went to the swimming pool. . .

. . .and a butterfly and insect garden



Yes those are roaches, Molly was fascinated!

  I got home and helped put on a RS summer party,  my sister Ann was receiving her radiation treatment for breast cancer, Shelley was getting a breast biopsy for cancer, (it was negative, thank heavens) getting my mammogram, (normal,) Brett had a colonoscopy that found polyps that were months away from cancer and my mother-in-law fell and we had to meet her at the ER for a goose egg on the back of her head and a small cut that  wouldn't stop bleeding.

John and I also celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last Sunday while Chris and Meg were here to work on the kayak that John is helping them build

And on Thursday I am getting a colonoscopy. Yes I am "living the life."

Why Do I Keep Doing This?

John has been planning a 3 day two night river trip on the Colorado with Chris and Meg and their kiddos for months. We would start at the bridge in Moab and finish 20 miles down river at Potash. The river is smooth and wide and a perfect place to bring small children, our red raft and a newly finished kayak.

The weather had been hot and sunny for weeks and we were looking forward to getting on the river. Friday was the perfect lazy river day. Ezra was in the water more often than not. A lot of the time the river was shallow enough to walk down and we were all in the water at one time or another.  I even talked Travis into getting into the water with grandma.

We set up camp across the river from one of Chris and Meg's favorite climbing spots in the Moab area. It looked like some thunderstorms were rolling in, but nothing serious. John had offered to let Ezra, Maggie and Travis sleep in our Kirkham's tent/screen shelter with us and they were pretty excited. Just as we all were settling down to the pitter patter of intermittent rain and a flapping tent, a sudden micro burst  blew our tent down! Maggie was screaming, Ezra was trying to be brave and Travis went back to sleep while John and Chris were running around like crazy in various states of undress trying to get it back up and anchored. (It was actually pretty funny, looking back on it.)

The kayak was by the paddles before the storm

 

The next morning was beautiful, the calm river reflecting the red cliffs. John went to check things out and the kayak wasn't where we had left it. The wind had rolled it 2 or 3 times like a tumble weed!  But not harm done and  we were soon on the river hoping to get some miles in before another lazy afternoon.

The river was full of sand bars and we actually had to get out and push the raft and kayak a couple of times. At one point a tourist power boat came up behind us and went roaring down the deeper left channel of a island/sandbar while we were already committed to the right where we thought was Gold Bar, a boat ramp and recreation area. We were wishing we could had followed the power boat when we got stuck again.

As we got out to push and pull we looked up river to check on Chris and Meg in the kayak and saw a huge red dust cloud with black clouds behind it rushing towards us kicking up spray as it came. We knew the microburst was going to hit us, so I had Maggie, Travis and Ezra get down in the bottom of the raft with me while John was trying to keep the raft straight and rowed for the boat ramp and safety. I watched the cloud envelope Chris and Meg in the kayak and then it hit us. Strangely, I never felt afraid, I had been in winds like this before and knew we could handle them. I was more worried about the children. Of course Maggie was afraid and started crying, but Ezra and Travis were so brave, even though they were scared. Within minutes we were at the boat ramp and Meg hustled the kids into a vault toilet (it was very clean and had no smell,) because it was the only place that was protect from the wind and rain.

 

We ended up getting off the river at Gold Bar, we were told we still had 11 miles to go to Potash, when it  was really 6. But we were all okay with it. We went to Cortez, made our dutch oven lasagna in the oven, and had a good night's sleep. As we were talking about our favorite things on the river with Ezra and Travis we told them how much we had been blessed. That our prayers for safety had been answered. Had we gone left at the sand bar we would not have been able to get to the boat ramp and would have had to face the microburst on the river.

I would not have missed this trip for the world, mircrobursts and all. I got to spend time with John, Chris and Megan and Ezra, Travis and Maggie. And witness an answer to prayer.

Full Circle

I finished a quilt last month, a quilt I started three years ago for the Young Women's program in our ward. I was asked to help the girls with a stake sponsored quilting project where the girls would make a quilt using one of the value colors and then give it away as a service project. Someone in the stake thought it would be a great idea . . . So we started a friendship quilt and I had all the girls make a quilt block, sign it and I would just have to get the blocks sewn together and quilted. That was the idea, anyway. We got all the signatures and half the blocks pieced then our stake and ward YW presidencies were changed and everything got put into my unfinished projects pile when the program went a different direction with the new leadership.

Fast forward to last May. My sewing room was a disaster area--fabric, notions and projects everywhere. I am a "walk into a room and set things down" kind of person. I want to be a "walk into a room and put things away" kind of person but I either get lazy or distracted or don't know where to put something and just plop it down and walk away and then clean and sort everything every couple of months. I can usually find things, but occasionally I forget about something at the bottom of a pile. Plus I had boxes and boxes of mom's fabric waiting for me to go through.

YW Friendship quilt blocks, our value color was green





So for mother's day and my birthday this year John made me shelves that spanned an entire wall of my sewing room. And I cleaned and sorted and put fabric, notions and projects away on my new shelves. It's a miracle! I am now a "walk into a room and put things away" person.  It has been a month and things are still put away. John said he envisioned a space that looked like an old fashioned mercantile. Since a lot of the fabric is my moms, any siblings and nieces or nephews are welcome to come and "shop". 

But while cleaning and sorting I found the unfinished YW friendship blocks with all those signatures and thought I really should finish this quilt before the girls are all grown and gone and give it to the YW president.  I know most of the girls, but I thought the quilt would mean more to the YW president, who has worked with the girls than to me. So I finished it, including all the value colors, and got more signatures of girls new to Young Women's since we started the quilt and all the leaders who had worked in the program with the past three years.  I stitched around the names of the young women and women who "stand as a witness of God" and was humbled to include my name with theirs on the quilt. What started as a forgotten assignment from the stake become my personal service project.

I titled the quilt "We Will Stand as a Witness of God"

We gave the quilt to Donna Egan, the YW president, at girls camp last week. Interestingly enough, it was the same camp that I went to with Annie as a new Beehive three weeks after we moved into our ward. (The first of 10 girls camp I went to in our ward.) The girls that were at the camp this year weren't even a twinkle in their parent's eyes 18 years ago. My circle of sisterhood has truly grown.

Annie's Birth Day

 



My 10th birthday cake

When I was growing up birthdays revolved around food. You got to choose what everyone ate for breakfast (usually dad's German Pancakes,) dinner and either a birthday cake or pie (now my family usually has trifle, a combination of cake and pie.)  While food brings many great memories, John's family had a tradition that brought even more lasting memories. Every birthday his mom and dad would tell the birthday person's birth story. So, along with getting to pick your birthday breakfast and dinner, our family also gets to hear your birth story while

eating birthday pie, cake or trifle.

Annie and me in the hospital.

Today, June 5th, is Annie's birthday. 30 years ago today we were living in Midland, Texas. We had moved there from Houston, Texas two months earlier.  Midland was, as we liked to call it, was in the arm pit of Texas, down from the panhandle right where state line juts west to El Paso. The locals told us it was so flat you could stand on a tuna fish can in Midland and see clear to the neighboring town of Odessa 15 miles away. It was flat and brown and surrounded by oil pump jacks.

We had bought a little ranch style three bedroom house with a swamp cooler instead of an air conditioner. As the spring weather heated up the severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings began.  I learned to watch for the angry green clouds that were indicative of tornadoes or the low red clouds that meant a dust storm was heading our way.

Unfortunately, these storms made the air more humid which meant our swamp cooler didn't work very well. The day Annie was born, my due date, was warm and sticky. John and I decided to take Matt and Chris to the mall where it was air conditioned and I could cool down a little bit. As we walked I started feeling contractions that increased as the afternoon wore on. We took the boys home, fed them "homemade" Chef Boy-ar-dee pizza in a box and got them to bed. By 9:30 we decided it was be time to go to the hospital. We bundled up the boys and took them to our friends house. (I don't even remember their names). John and this good brother gave me a blessing and we got to the hospital by 10:15.

I was checked in and rejoined with John around 10:30. By this time the contractions were increasing in strength and coming fairly close together but a nurse hadn't come in to check me. I told John that I thought I needed to push. He went out and told a nurse. Again I told him I needed to push. Again he told a nurse. Finally I said I really need to push. He ran out and got a nurse who came in clearly thinking I was exaggerating. She checked me and said with surprise, "She's crowning! Don't push, the doctor isn't here."



"Fat and sassy" home from the hospital



The doctor (not my doctor, his partner) rushed in the delivery room, checked me and my little baby girl was born with the next contraction--all 9 lbs 1 oz of her, 45 minutes after we got to the hospital.

Because she came so quickly, I didn't have time for any anesthesia so she was a "natural" child birth. Annie was pretty big and I tore and had to be stitched up. I was coming off the high of child birth and it hurt so I made some "owie" noises. The doctor, in a tired voice said "Mrs Lingard, I am at the end of a 24 hour day and am tired, would you please be quiet!" I was stunned into silence but wished I had a snappy comeback like "I just pushed a 9 pound baby out of a little bitty hole with no anesthesia and you want me to be quiet?"



Doesn't Matt look thrilled with
his new sister?



But it was all worth it, we got our little girl, the best thing that ever came out of Midland, Texas.







 



My sister Stacey got married three weeks after Annie was born and Annie and I flew to Utah for the wedding. I love this picture of  us with all our babies born the same year as Annie. Back row: Roark, Shelley, Brett, Steve, Stacey. Mom, Dad, Ann, Dave holding Alison; front row: Melanie with Taylor, holding Cali, Kerri, me holding Annie and Jayne holding Chase. 





We're OK

We got home from our annual Memorial Day Desolation/Grey river trip yesterday. It might be our last annual trip as permits for the river are going to be award by a lottery system, so it will be the luck of the draw whether or not we get a permit.

Day 1: Windy and Warm  

Luckily Thomas knew how to tie the boats together.



As John put it "because of  a windy forecast and aging rowers including 2 with heart issues" we decided to motor the first day.  We have always looked at groups using motors with derision (and slight envy) as they cruised past us on the flat water of the first day. We need to get between 25 and 30 miles in that day to not have extra long days the rest of the trip. Normally, with swift, high water due to snow run off and calm weather this is entirely doable by rowing. But after our last trip with high winds blowing us up river and very little snow melt this year we wanted a little more horse power.



Three rafts in the back and two in the front.



 

John as captain of our flotilla 





After a few false starts with the motor we were on our way cruising at about 4-6 miles an hour even with the wind blowing up river at 20 mph. It was like a great bit party boat or "Water World" depending on your outlook. We even saw a bear on the shore trying to chase us down river! We easily made 25 miles and were in camp by 3:30 that afternoon and had an excellent spaghetti dinner prepared by Roark and Melanie





Day 2: Very Windy

We started our second day very optimistically with clear skies and fairly warm temperatures. We separated into our individual rafts because the river narrowed, sped up and formed more rapids. Unfortunately the predicted high winds arrived. By that afternoon Brett was clocking winds gust up to 30 mph which is enough to stop a raft dead in the water even with a strong current. Some time in the afternoon after fighting winds for a while three of our rafts pulled over to regroup after going through a tricky rapid. Roger, Rachel and Ann's boat soon joined us but Roark and Melanie's raft was no where to been seen. We finally spotted Melanie up river on the shore waving at us, but we couldn't figure out what she was trying to tell us. So we had no choice but to wait. Finally we saw their boat coming around the river bend and every thing was OK. They had just pulled over to wait out the wind for a while. We decided we needed a some kind of signal to let others know everyone was OK. Kerri and Anikka came up with this:

OK spelled out with body language.

Even Thomas was a little worried, he was rowing Annie's little yellow boat with Monica and said he thought they might flip if he didn't keep the bow or stern pointed down river. We stopped after 15 miles around 4:30 at a somewhat sheltered camp site and were glad we did. The wind continued to howl up to 45 miles an hour. We managed a quick dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, eaten standing up with no plates or silverware before we retreated to our tents to get out of the wind. 

Day 3: Windy and Cold

We got up to clear skies, but the temperature had dropped . (By that I mean probably highs in the 60s.)  But we were hopeful the wind wouldn't blow. It did. I finally had John pull over so I could put on some tights under my splash pants. When all else fails I rowed the boat to warm up. But it wasn't so cold that Thomas didn't get Caleb into the water! 

All the wind was almost forgotten when the day ended with a fabulous sandy beach camp, warmer sunny skies, hot water to wash our face and hair and dutch oven lasagna and cobbler for dinner. 

Day 4: Breezy and Cool

The Lingards and Bennetts



The girls: Kerri, Anikka, Jeanne, Annie, Melanie, Monica, Haley, Rachel and Ann!



John-dear, the reason I go.

Last day on the river. A successful trip. I often wonder why I do these river trips. They take a lot of time, are a lot of work, and cause a lot of anxiety. But I get to spend time with people I love. The family time is priceless. It is worth the cold, the uncomfortable conditions, even the anxiety. I get to be with my dear husband John, who works so hard to make these trips work. This trip I was able to watch Annie row rapids with confidence, in her own boat. I watched Thomas tenderly take care of Monica the way his father has always taken care of me. I saw Monica, on her second camping trip ever, be brave, cheerful and helpful when I was sure she wasn't feeling that way because she knew the trip was important to Thomas. I have gotten to know a brother in law, Roger in a way I never would have imagined him. He is funny strong and loves the river to the point he swam all last winter to be strong enough for Joe Hutch Canyon Rapid! I laugh and cry and eat with my brothers and sisters and know how lucky I am that we are a family who enjoys each other's company. 

I am a little stronger after every river trip. I have conquered fear for a time. Each time I face a rapid or row the boat is a victory. The beautiful river calms my soul. I know that I am OK.

Thanks Mom

Jayne, Brett, Jeanne, Stacey, Shelley, Roark, Ann. (Jayne and I are wearing
 our first store bought Easter dresses.) Probably 1968

Today is mother's day. I have been thinking a lot about my mom lately because of things she is going through with dad. When I was growing up I could never understand  it when girls would complain about their mothers. I couldn't think of a thing wrong with mine. I tried, so I could say something when the other girls were whining, but there was nothing to say. She made us clothes, cooked dinner every night, treated Jayne and me as two separate individuals not as twins, didn't get too mad when we didn't clean our room, (except for the one time when mom got mad at us for being so messy because poor Stacey had share a room with two slobs. Jayne and I then separated all the stuff on the floor into three piles and counted how much was in each pile. Mom was very surprised when each pile had just about the same number of things. But she did apologize. Stacey got her own room in the basement shortly after that.) and was almost too fair with all of us kids (she counted out Easter candy so we all got the same amount of jelly beans in our baskets.) 

Mom with Roark and Jeanne and Jayne, 1956

I am the person I am today because of my mother. She taught us how to do things by letting us do. She let us make cookies, cakes, brownies on our own as soon as we could master the oven and mixer, and was genuinely pleased when we made things as well as she did. She later told me how hard it was to let us get the kudos when she could have received them herself. She taught us how to sew by teaching us the basics, and then use her machine to make our clothes helping us when we asked, but not taking over. I remember I made my Easter dress in junior high out of a bright lavender early 70s print, and just when I was cutting the bottom to make the hem even, I accidentally cut the main fabric of the dress. I was devastated, but mom very matter of factly patched the hole so it was hardly noticeable. 

Ann, Mom,, Roark, Dad and Jayne (sitting)  July 1976

Last month when I was in Mexico I told Kerri my sister-in-law how much I admired her interest in how other people live. She was as interested in the luxurious high rise condos as she was where the handy man, Nacho, lived without electricity, running water or plumbing. And I admired Melanie, my other sister-in-law, who was so determined to snorkel, even though the weather and seas were not conducive to snorkeling. Melanie just laughed and said it was like being in a gigantic blender, water, sand and bits of sea weed swirling madly around her. But she wanted to do it so she did. I was content to sit on the patio and be warm and dry. I wondered if I was the boring one. But Kerri pointed out that my brothers and sisters and I all have the ability to see what needs to be done and figure out how to do it efficiently and quickly. Mom taught us that when we were cleaning the house for company, getting ready to go on vacation, or giving a party. I guess I'm not even aware I do that, it comes so naturally.

So thanks Mom. I love you.