Colin and Sabrina were wonderful hosts, and it was great to fit almost everyone under the same roof. Here's how our weekend looked.
Friday: Drove to Kansas City. Much sleeping and listening to the book Eragon on CD.
We made a pit stop at the children's museum in Des Moines Iowa. It was a great place to let Ephraim run off some energy and take a break from driving.
Sean and Sylvia built a quick paper rocket with Ephraim. They had a bit difficulty getting the nose-cone diameter to match. After much laughing and trial and error, and a lot of tape, it worked out.
Ephraim brought the finished product over to the air powered launch site, and shot it off. It flew amazingly. The best of any we had seen that day. It flew so high, it got stuck in the safety netting at the far end of the launch zone!
Sylvia and I had fun with different domino activities. I don't know why it is so satisfying to watch dominoes fall!
Sylvia's favorite area were the air blowers that levitated plastic balls. She would would hold her hands around the ball, and concentrate intently on it, making it look like she was magic, lifting the ball with the power of her mind.
It got really epic when the blower would catch her hair and fling it about wildly. She did look like a crazed sorcerer! We all laughed. That girl has a hidden flare for the dramatic within her.
Ephraim kept trying to imitate Sylvia, but he just didn't have the intense expression of concentration, or the Medusa-head hair zipping around.
Back on the road, we completed our trek, with only a slight hiccup in having the wrong address, arriving at Colin's house. It was perfect timing. Everyone was gathered on the back deck, roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores.
This was the first time Ephraim really got a chance to interact with several of these little cousins. I'm not sure flaming marshmallows on pointed sticks was the safest activity to plan, but they all enjoyed it, and nobody was impaled. That's what we call a win-win situation at family reunions.
Saturday: We stayed in Crius's bedroom. Early in the morning, he came blasting in to see what was going on. Luckily, we were all dressed. Ephraim was playing games on the ipad. I told him to show some to Crius and let him try. Immediate boy bonding.
Ephraim monologued up a storm about all his favorite apps, while Crius tried them all out. I loved listening to them. They were having a great time, until both sets of parents told them they needed to get into church clothes for the baptism service.
One of the good things about all staying in the same house, is that you get quiet bits of time with various family members at the start and end of the day. Here is Sean and Sylvia, visiting with Grandma Liz before the whole house woke up.
The baptism was lovely. Greydon baptized Crius. Grey has turned into such a kind young man, with an amazing ping pong serve!
Grandpa Brad spoke on baptism, Sabrina spoke on the holy ghost, Liz conducted music, and I played the piano.
Sylvia played a lovely musical number on her violin. It was a nice family service.
After a delicious lunch Sabrina and Colin served at the church, we returned to their house. The cousins were in full crazy-play mode.
They had started a game in the hallways of the church called "You've crossed the line!", where "the-cross-the-line-girls" (Jesse's kids) would hand out tickets to the boy cousins, like police. They'd chase them down yelling "You've crossed the line!" as they gave them a sticky-note citation. If they got 2 tickets, they were dragged off to jail. It was a funny game. Here is Hero (Jesse's oldest), writing out a ticket.
Eventually they moved on to other games in the basement.
They played foozball and pingpong. (When i joined in, I got crushed by Greydon at the ping pong table!) Here is Ephraim playing Tyden, who has amazing skills for a 7 year old. Greydon stood beside him, giving tips on his serving form. It was fun to him in the role of patient coach.
We drove into Kansas City that afternoon to see a bit of the city. We decided to visit Union Station, which was beautiful! It housed a detailed model train exhibit, as well as the local science museum for kids. Obviously, we had to check both out.
It was nice to have some quiet time to focus on things like building blocks, instead of managing the craziness that the wolf pack of combined cousins seemed to always exuded.
The museum had lots of fun activities. It was the best kids science museum I've seen so far. We spent a couple hours having fun and being goofy, just our family, before returning to the larger pack.
Ephraim got lots of chances to wear out his energy. They had a neat outside area, where of course, he had to climb to the very top of this very tall structure.
The boy obviously did not inherit his dad's fear of heights.
My favorite part of the museum was a quaint nook we discovered at the end as we were leaving. There is a cozy area set up for playing chess or checkers, overlooking the train tracks below. Ephraim and I sat down for a game of checkers. It was a wonderful place to sit and enjoy each other. I would definitely go back there, and even let Ephraim beat me again at checkers.
We returned home to a delicious dinner. All the food was great. Sabrina is an amazing meal planner for larger groups of people. I swam in the pool with the kids, Sean went to learn how to play pickle ball with most of the other adults. They came back tired, dripping with sweat, and happy.
Sunday: Attending church the next day as a large family was pleasant and peaceful. Trying to get family pictures afterwards was not so peaceful! A family photo session that ends in a dogpile of cousins is at least memorable. Here is how it went down...
The adults were reasonably well behaved.
Of course.. there is Jesse... but what would a family photo session be like without him looking a little goofy in half the shots?
Then somebody thought it would be a good idea to get the kids rounded up for photos.
It started out peaceful enough, until Ephraim, my photo-rebel, decided he had had enough, and started tackling cousins. I thought we should redirect the energy to something like "ring-around-the-rosies". I hoped we might get some decent cousin action shots.
Greydon got to be the lucky cousin in the middle of the circle.
It was going well until the phrase "And we all fall down", which led to a dog-pile on poor Greydon.
Yes, there were some cute cousin action shots, like the one below. So.. a win?
After pulling the kids off each other, and saving Greydon from broken ribs, we took our little portion of the family on a drive to some local church history sites.
Our first stop was Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith spent 4 months one winter 1838-1839 .
Here is a painting of what the original building looked like, from artist C.C. A. Christensen. The church has since reconstructed it, and built a visitor center around it.
I was glad to see that Ephraim picks up on what we teach him at home, as he tried to correct the tour guides. When they said "Sidney Rigdon had been tarred and feathered", Ephraim raised his hand and said "Actually, it was Joseph Smith who was tarred and feathered." It was kind of cute. He reminds me of a mini-Mattias often. I had to explain to him that the mob tarred and feathered a lot of church members back then, along with Joseph Smith.
Sean's sister, Lisa, was riding along in our van with us. She has been researching General Alexander Doniphan, and the heroic actions he took supporting justice for the saints, even though he wasn't a member of the church himself. Lisa read online that he was buried in a cemetery in Liberty. We found the cemetery, got out of the van, and started hunting for his tombstone. Sylvia was the winner, finding his name under this huge obelisk. (Ironically enough, Lisa had said earlier, as we drove by the cemetery, "I wonder what you have to do to get a giant obelisk over your grave." Now we know!)
We also made quick stop in Independence, MO. We toured the visitor center there, learned about how that was supposed to be the gathering spot for the saints, before the mobs drove them out. I wonder if locals look at the booming commerce up and down the Salt Lake valley, and think "That could've been us".
Ephraim enjoyed the kids' play area of the center. He played in a cabin, then loaded up his "family" of dolls to drive west in his wagon.
Back at Colin's that evening, we had a fabulous Asian dinner, fixed by Sabrina. I think Lisa came to the reunion just for the Pad Thai!
There was more playing with cousins of course. You can never get enough of that.
We handed out gifts to Sean and Grandpa Brad. Here is Ephraim describing in great detail the bird with a spiky tail (that he drew on Sean's card) that shoots out disease-poison. He also talked at length about the sea monsters he drew on Grandpa Brad's card. Ephraim's imagination, and ability to monologue about it, are becoming legendary.
Here is Brad showing Lisa the book we gave him. This was followed by a round of tasting 5 different types of licorice, and having Brad tell us which ones he prefers. (Note: His favorites are not for the faint of heart, or anyone with functioning taste buds.)
I put together some cakes the night before, chocolate and carrot cake. They also made a fun breakfast food for the next day! You have to love reunion-nutrition.
And here are "the fathers" in all their wise glory, before we cut into the cakes.
After cake, we sat around and heard a lot of great family stories. Lots of laughing so hard tears were dripping down faces.
(I recorded many of them. When I get them up on youtube, I will link to them here.)
I think I love hearing these old family stories, because I knew all of Sean's siblings and parents, dogs, cats, neighbors and old cars before I met actually met Sean. I can also picture the Humble Rd. house well, since we lived in it, several times. When they tell stories, it feels like my family.
This year marks the point where I've been in Sean's family for the same amount of time that I lived without being part of it. It is odd to feel my Chiddix-ness fading. Maybe it's due to distance from my original family. At any rate, I'm happy with the little McMullin tribe we've created together, and our own family's traditions and stories.
Monday: We got an early start, and actually got out of the house by 8 AM to go play pickle ball before it got hot and Colin had to go to work.
Lisa was surprisingly agile, and a very encouraging team mate.
Brad and Liz got a good workout, and dropped exhausted on a bench. Brad is hiding his exhaustion from the world, but believe me.. he was sweating!
Pickle ball was a good workout, and interesting to learn. I can see I'll need to up my game skills before the next reunion. And what were the little boys doing during the matches? I left them doing art at a table, like little angels. Not long after, they were climbing trees, getting covered in sap, and leaping down from tall fences. We took our very sticky angels back to Colin's to scrub hands for a long time.
I had read a poem about this place when I was young, and the images stuck with me. I was curious to see what a place felt like, that had seen children shot at point blank range, women raped, and men massacred. Would it seem dark and tragic?
No. It was beautiful!
It was actually the most peaceful and beautiful spot we saw on this trip. The sun shone through the trees, making everything seem extra green and shimmery. The trees lining the creek banks were full of birds calling and singing. Sounds we didn't recognize from hikes in Wisconsin or the Rockies.
It sounded like a jungle of life. It was alive and beautiful. I think it is an area watched over by angels, far from the prying eyes of cities.
We wandered about, exploring the area and looking for a good spot to sit and sketch. Ephraim saw one frog, and I helped him catch it.
Soon, we were walking through a field of grass with frogs hopping everywhere! What fun!
The kids spent an hour happily chasing frogs, while Sean and I sketched the creek view.
I've been trying to learn to watercolor this year, so I often include art-stops in our family outings. I'm not very good at it, yet. My final products are all currently disappointing, but I really enjoy the actual creation of each painting. It makes me look closer at details around me, and worry less about things like "should I put sunblock on my children". Art just feels good to do.
Maybe that's why Sean is so peaceful to be around. He has accumulated 50 years of peaceful art moments in his soul.
We continued on to Nauvoo, arriving just before sunset. I love watching the sun set over the Mississippi River at the end of Parley Street whenever we visit, so we headed there first. Lots of rock skipping commenced as we watched the sun drop.
Heading back to the van, we passed a covered gazebo overlooking the river. I had thought on previous trips that it was just a rain shelter, but Sylvia discovered the inside was filled with names of people who died leaving Nauvoo and crossing the plains west. It is a Pioneer Memorial.
and the Harris family from Sean's side.
Then up to the temple hill for a sunset view.
On the temple steps, Ephraim found his most treasured souvenir of the whole trip.. a large dead beetle. We had seen a beetle collection in one of the children's science museum over the weekend, so he was excited to take this dead beetle home with us to start his own collection. Here he is, on the temple steps at sunset, with his dead beetle beside him...
I love the peace of the Nauvoo temple. It isn't in a big city like most other temples. I love how it looks west, to a more hopeful future for the saints.
Tuesday:
I left our cutie little cabin to attend an early session at the temple. It was my birthday, and I had looked forward to spending it in the beautiful Nauvoo temple.
I loved sitting in the "celestial room", next to the window, as the chandelier crystals refracted the sunlight into small rainbows on on the walls. For me, the rebuilt Nauvoo temple is a symbol of victory and hope. I am guessing I feel similar about it, as people in New York feel about the 9/11 memorial.
Every time I come to the Nauvoo temple, I think of my Bushman ancestors who helped build the original one. Then just before they left the city in Sept 1846 because of the mobs, they brought their children into the temple to see it one last time. That is touching to me. They wanted their children to be a part of it. They recorded in their journals that the memory of the oxen carrying the baptismal font stayed with them all their lives. I feel I'm honoring their sacrifices by coming here.
After my temple session, I picked up Sean and the kids, and we went down to a park in old Nauvoo, where the missionaries run children games. A wagon with the Nauvoo Brass Band was just pulling up, playing music. They sounded great! This is an audition only group with young musicians from all around the world, preforming just for the summer tourist season.
The performers got down, handed out chimes to all the kids present, and proceeded to lead us on a windy path in and out of the area, letting the kids play their chimes with the musicians as part of the parade. Ephraim and I followed along, although he had trouble marching and dinging his chime at the same time. Something to work on in homeschool next year!
Sylvia became a master silt walker! She started out slow, but after not long, was able to totter all over the lawn. I was surprised I still remembered how to walk on stilts from my childhood days. It was fun to try, and feel young again.
After a tasty lunch of local baked goods..
we went back up to the temple.
Sean and Sylvia went inside to do family baptism names, while Ephraim and I waited outside.
Ephraim decided to draw a blue beetle.
His drawing got more and more epic. Soon it was a blue beetle, living in a world that rained ants. It could just open its jaws and eat while it walked in the grass. Several elderly couples, going in to work in the temple, walked up the steps past us. They all smiled sweetly at this cute little angelic boy, asked him what he was drawing. (I'm sure they thought it was something pertaining to the temple.) It was funny to see their different reactions as he explained excitedly about the ants raining into the beetles mouth! And the giant jaws! Haha! It made my soul smile. Every. Single. Time.
Then, homeward bound! This is the face of a very happy traveler who is excited to get home to look for more beetles in our backyard!
Win. Definitely.
