Some say senility goes hand in hand with old. I prefer wisdom. For instance, to make sure Sam gets enough attention during the winter, I am now allowed to buy season ski passes every winter; I'm not sure why this didn't matter 6 years ago. But, I'm not complaining. I call that a wise choice.
One thing my wisdom has taught me is that if you don't act on your thoughts, there's always another excuse not to act. For instance, Cristal and I had a conversation on an elevator about how neat it would be for Abigail to have a brother or sister close in age to her. When the elevator door opened, Cristal was pregnant with our forth.
So the blessed madness of the VanDongen household continues. We will grow our little family to a little bigger. We are thrilled. There's been no greater joy in our lives than our children. We both came from small baby boomer families where it was two and out. Which is fine. But, we're a little different. We've always wanted a big family and now we're doing it. I'm not sure we'll reach that double digit mark...at least not naturally???
What about Abi? Well all this pregnancy stuff happened about the time Abigail was turning a year old. Her birthday was celebrated during a Park City soccer tournament (go figure). We stayed with our good family friends, the Skoruts, at Jessica's mothers ranch in Hoytsville just outside of Park City.
It was a magnificent way to celebrate Abi's first year of life. We rode horses. I surprised the entire family by not only touching a horse, but gaining it's trust, and riding it saddled and bare back. Of course the rest of the family warmed right up to the horses. It took a little time with me and a lot of patience by Jessica and her sister Gina. It ended up being a pretty magical experience for our entire family.
We deprived Abigail of sweets for the entire first year of her life. So the night we celebrated her birthday was really the first time she had tasted sugar...we're in trouble! I'm pretty sure she liked it.
Sam and Matthew enjoyed playing in their tournament. Their team always has pretty good success. They made it to the final game, but lost by one heart breaking goal with about one minute left in the game. Doughnuts help a bit.
A week later we celebrated Sam and Abigail's birthdays together with family. Cristal made one of her trademark special birthday cakes that all our kids have come accustomed to having. Most of the family made it to our house for celebration of Samuel's and Abigail's birthdays. The night ended with water gun fights in the backyard.
Shortly after the birthday celebrations came more adventures. When Cristal was pregnant with Alex we rafted the Colorado River. Alex turned out pretty good, except for the stubbornness. So we figured we should river raft again. So we turned to the upper Green River. We rented the equipment we needed and set out for Flaming Gorge Damn with our Friends Brian and Meg Morin and their son Cooper.
This was a our third rafting trip on the Green. We absolutely love doing it. Floating on a river that has no road access or cel phone service is rarity, but such a treat. The water is crystal clear. The rapids are just enough to make me worry and get Cristal and Sam wet when we hit the waves. Pele doesn't dig the rapids.
We were caught in an amazing thunder storm the first afternoon. We had to shore the boats and wait out the storm under rocks along the shore. Watching a thunder storm roll over a river gorge and unleash its power is something to behold. But like all adversity, the storm passed, the waters calmed, and we went forward.
Sam worked on his tent building and fire starting skills. We learned that if we needed to survive, Sam can build a tent but can't start a fire...its a good thing we have mom to keep us warm.
The next weekend was the opener of the archery elk hunt. Again, the family went on the adventure. I've come to the opinion that hunting is an activity that cements memories in families for a lifetime. Some of my earliest and happiest memories are of hunting and fishing with my grandpa Frank. In todays megabit per second world, slowing down to do something as primordial to basic life as hunting is a pretty special experience.
The day Sam and I hunted was as magical as it could get, even though we didn't get any meat out of it. Our plan was to walk up the mountain from our camp at 0430. At 0200 that morning, Sam woke up and woke Cristal up to make sure I had not left without him; it was like Christmas morning for him.
When we did leave in our hunting group, Sam and I and my friends Jon and Brandon, it was O dark thirty. The sky was brilliant with stars, the air was cold and crisp, and there was not a sound around us. Sam walked with his red head lamp on. He was absolutely taken by the night sky; I knew because I watched him closely...at times with tears of joy in my eyes because I was loving the experience so much.
Sam and I split from the rest of the group and hunted a steep slope where there was bound to be animals. And sure enough there was. Our slow movement on a game trail led us right to a buck about 40 yards away from us; it had no idea we were there. Sam spotted it. As I was getting the arrow prepped in the bow, the buck walked away and out of my shooting lane. It was disappointing, but, sure was fun to be so close with Sam. We eventually found a good hide and had a dozen or so does come within 15 yards of us with no idea we were there. Sam really enjoyed the experience. We hunted that day for almost 10 hours.
I always end my posts with how blessed I feel. And it still holds true. Life is to be experienced. Experiencing it with my family is the best way I know how.
