4th of July, Hike, Reunion, and Family

July has been an extremely busy, but also very enjoyable, month. We spent the 4th of July out at the Bevan’s home in Emmett. We spent the evening at the Bevan’s neighbors – having a barbecue and watching fireworks. Gary and I spent the day going down the river again on the raft and had a great time with his Bishop’s family, including his parents – Nate and Bryan went with us too. My kids love being around their cousins. It’s so nice for Lily to have someone her age to play with. Amy and I feel like it’s almost a holiday every time we go out there because the kids all play happily and we can enjoy being with Angie and Gary.

We started our Ashby family reunion this year by going on the backpacking trip first. We hiked into Fourth of July Lake in the Whitecloud Mountain Range and base camped there. We were going to go further, but we were told the snow was still too heavy and there was a dangerous pass we would have to take. However, we did several day hikes to other lakes and an incredible view of Castle Peak in the Boulder Chain Basin. The view was incredible! In total, we only hiked about 20 miles, but I sure did enjoy sitting around camp reading and playing games. Even though I didn’t catch any fish, I also enjoyed using Liz’s fly rod and getting some practice. It was so nice to just be able to do some thinking, enjoy the scenery and enjoy the conversation with family. I feel like life seems to straighten out for me when I’m in the mountains. Priorities get shuffled and the things that don’t really matter get left behind. Unfortunately, Amy didn’t get to come this time because she is nursing grant. I hope we can start spending more time in the mountains as a family.

The second part of the week was the official reunion. We had so much fun! This year’s theme was Disney’s “The Incredibles.” We had a supers training camp, an obstacle course, super suit design competitions, rocket launching, and an Incredibles quiz. Liz even got everyone Incredibles t-shirts. We also did the rock store, played at the reservoir, went rafting down the Payette, and had a talent show and slide show. The women did crafts, went to a movie, and went shopping; the men all went paintballing and despite the bruises had a wonderful time. Overall, the reunion was a total success. Even though we are still battling the sicknesses shared at the reunion, I already wish we could do it again. It was so nice to see Brenda and Brian and their family again. Being together for the week really made me wish everyone lived closer. I’ve enjoyed being off on my own for the first seven years of my marriage because Amy and I have become quite independent and had to rely on each other more, but I sure would like to be closer now. My siblings and parents have become some of my closest friends.

Since the reunion, we’ve been enjoying some harvest from our garden. We have had zucchini and yellow squash, lots of green beans, rhubarb, onions, and a couple of cherry tomatoes. However, we lost a whole pumpkin plant to squash bugs and almost lost a lot more before we found the pests. Within a couple of days they had multiplied so much that I worried about our whole garden. We promptly got some bug killer and solved the problem. We are also growing more pumpkins, corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, plumbs, potatoes, peppers, and several kinds of tomatoes. We have strawberry and raspberry plants too, but they won’t produce this year. Amy and I love to watch our plants grow. She has worked really hard on keeping everything watered and weeded and it really looks nice.

I just finished reading “The Hobbit” by Tolkien. I’ve wanted to read it for years and finally did. It was such a great book. I loved how even though he had amazing adventures and could have great wealth, he still longed for his simple life at home. Although complacency is a hindrance to progress, and some battles and adventures must be experienced for us to better our lives, a healthy feeling of contentment must remain with us as we pursue improvement. I want to be more like Bilbo Baggins, content with the simple pleasures of life and not caught up in the plague of “more.” It seems that the whole world is obsessed by getting more things, more money, more power, and more pleasure. If we could just enjoy what we have, we would have little need for these thoughts. The last couple of days, I’ve really enjoyed going home at lunch and holding my children on my lap and just reading or talking to them. The whole world seems to send their children to daycare, while both parents go to work to pay for things they think will make them happy. If we just put aside our selfish desires and spent more time with our children, I think we’d find we have been looking for joy in the wrong places.

We are looking forward to going down to Utah in a couple of weeks for Dawn’s sealing. I think Amy’s going to go down early and spend some time with her family. I’ll probably go with Angie and Gary on Thursday night. It will be good to see everyone again, even if it is only for a short couple of days.