a day in the sun

I have stepped to a whole new low.

I am stealing a blog post…and not just linking to it, actually cut and copying it over to here.

You see, I helped my mom use my pictures for her post on Bear Lake and don’t have any time left to do a post myself! So, in the spirit of delegating (surely, delegating is what it is, not thievery??), I just copied her post from Weighing Matters.

Remember this is her version, not mine. The dance description is especially hers…trust me, you will see. I could have never typed those words with a straight face.

From the Grommer:

“Even with a ton of wind and not being able to use the new 12X12, I thought our little get together at Bear Lake was a great day. Scott started talking about one last hurrah while we were still up at Green River Lakes a couple of weeks ago. We tried to plan a date when most of us could get there, but we still missed Steev and Leonard because they were heading to set up hunting camp in the Ham’s Fork area near Kemmerer. Their tradition of hunting-almost every-weekend-for-two-months trumped our tradition of going to Bear Lake one of the last weekends in August for a sun/fun day.

“I loved playing with Annesley and Fisher. They are so dang delightful and full of innocence and laughter. They are ready to play catch, get twirled around with toes skipping over the water, or share a handful of grapes with Grommer. That’s me. Grommer, Bommer and Mommer all mixed up in one. I love, love, love that they include me in their play. Fisher obsessed about a frog he and Papa caught and Annes played with her purple spider. They both tossed balls to me which they then ran and got before I could get my hands on them. What can I say? They are so fast!

“Kelle’s belly and Gibbs got a lot of my attention, as well. I can’t seem to keep my hands off the two of them. I’m always rubbing Gibbs around and around on her cute little belly hoping that he’ll recognize me in about 6 more weeks when he comes to earth. He’s almost 35 weeks and has just a little more time to gain some weight, develop his lungs and get a nice strong heart to love me even more than he surely must already.

“Scott was his usual charming, hilarious, irreverent self, ever entertaining us and playing with Annes and Fisher. He teases mercilessly until we can hardly keep from wetting ourselves. He and his friend, Austin, fresh out of laser surgery, enjoyed the sun and waves even though swimming was out of the question for her. I’m not sure, but I think Scott had something in common with the full moon in one of the pics that Tracy took. Austin is quite the refined, wonderful, energetic, athletic, strong, wonderful [oops, said that twice!] woman we met at Green River Lakes and we’ve enjoyed having her at a couple of our get-togethers. We’re all hoping some of her refinement and good manners rub off.

“Logan and Caleb wore each other out playing football, tackle, first one to the beach, first one to the water, first one to eat a ton of cookies, first one to eat a sandy sandwich, first one to the car, first one to the pizza, etc., etc., etc. They seem to compete in everything they do. They are both great guys, if not exactly the most well-behaved.

“Keziah had a friend, Jessica, to play with all day. They were inseparable in and out of the water. They even got lost together at one point. Blythe hoped Andie would be there and when she wasn’t, read most of the day. She did go out into the water several times, though, and we all swam to the buoy a couple of times. She’s such a fun, beautiful, talented young lady. And a very good swimmer. After trying to swim to the second buoy, I dare say I was pooped and she just giggled at my attempt to get back to where I could touch the bottom. I thought my lungs would collapse! Tradition.

“For me, the highlight of the day was when after a long, sunny and fun day we decided at the last minute to go to Bear Lake Pizza and give it our best to consume Old Ephraim, a 30-inch pizza with three toppings. It was big enough to serve our whole group, and then some. I believe I heard someone say it was $55 for just the pizza [Gasp! I surely have never heard of such a thing! I'm just as sure my frugal father would turn over in his grave!] It took nearly an hour to cook and about that long to eat.

“I’m so glad we had this last day of f.u.n. together. Now we’re all back to work, back to routine, back to normal, and already looking forward to next summer.

“PS: The three of us choreographed a synchronized swimming routine that was both elegant and creative. I, of course, made up most of the steps, drawing from my ginormous reserve of hot moves. It was very precise as we counted all our steps to eight counts. The dance itself included smart twirls, can-can kicks, a forward dolphin dive, a pyramid, and a few line dancing moves. Many people on the beach watched open-mouthed as we practiced and then performed this once-in-a-life-time event. I can still hear the cheers as we bowed, and then bowed again to all of them.”

sacred sabbaths 8/22

Keziah and Blythe were asked to sing in sacrament today. The song they chose is called “Remember” and it is one of the lovely songs from Stories of Jesus, which is our favorite CD about our Savior. This is the same CD that has “Gethsemane” and “See the Joy” that I have written about in the past. The whole album is incredible! You can download the whole thing at Hoffman House for only 6.99!

I tried to get a picture of the girls all dressed up, but due to Keziah’s feistyness none of them turned out. Keziah is making silly faces in all of them. Just trust me…they looked beautiful.

Since the front shots didn’t turn out, here are some pictures of the braiding creation I did for Keziah. According to someone at church, she looked like an angel.

Here are the words to the song…enjoy!

Remember

Remember the Man who walked on the water.
Remember the Man who talked to the sea.
Remember the Man whose hands healed the sick;
Who cared about children and what they can be.

Oh, remember. He asks us to remember.
Oh, remember. Always remember Him.

Remember the Man, the gentle Good Shepherd.
The one who fed thousands and brought us good news.
Remember the Man who came to save everyone,
Gave us the truth and taught us to choose.

Oh, remember. He asks us to remember.
Oh, remember. Always remember Him.

Remember the Man who carried our sorrows.
The Man who in three days rose from the dead.
Remember the Man who said “Be of good cheer”
And kept all His promises just as He said.

Oh, remember. He asks us to remember.
Oh, remember. Always remember Him.

Oh, remember. He asks us to remember.
Oh, remember. Always remember Him.

by Roger and Melanie Hoffman

Isn’t that beautiful! The girls did a wonderful job. I love hearing them sing and am grateful the Lord has blessed them with this talent so they can spread His love.

May we more fully remember Him, today and always.

blythe’s gift to me

My oldest child recently turned 14 years old. I am still bewildered that I have a child this age. How can that be even remotely possible?

I thought I had written about her gift to me before, but I can’t find what I thought I said, so I am going to write about it some more.

Pre-BMW (Blythe Moriah Ward), I had far different priorities than I did post-BMW. In fact, I was a different person. I did not want to be a mother. I wanted to spend my life doing important things – like traveling the world, studying the Torah, and teaching people God’s ancient words. I wanted to be known for doing important things. I wanted to fill my time with scholarly research and the subsequent presentations of my findings. I wanted to stretch my mind and challenge myself with doing really hard things.

I had absolutely no desire to have a child need me. I had no desire to ever change a diaper again. And if by some chance, I was given a child, he or she was not going to interfere with my life, my plans, my needs.

Throughout the first three years of our marriage, all of this started changing. I decided I wanted to have children. I started researching the role and value of motherhood. I started arguing with my feminist professors who advocated a position of “daycare is best for children.” I began to feel disgust for the mothers I saw dropping off their six-week old babies at a daycare at seven in the morning and picking them up at seven at night. I began to desire to be a mother who would be with her children…someday.

But, I was still ambivalent about actually being a mother. I had been told by two different doctors that I would die if I tried to have a baby and we believed them. We decided we would not have biological children and would look into adopting when I was done with my college education.

And then, in spite of doing everything we could to prevent pregnancy, I became pregnant. I was not happy. I was, in fact, pretty much terrified that I was going to die. Not only that, it felt like a huge interruption to my life. I was in the middle of my Speech Pathology program and I wanted to complete it. I couldn’t see how it would all work out. I worried about my education and my job and my life and a million other things that seem so trivial now.

We decided to let the pregnancy continue…to just see what would happen. Our OB sent for the reports from the previous two doctors and he disagreed with their findings. He felt like I was not in danger of death and could safely be a pregnant and birthing woman. We were comforted, but not convinced. As the months of pregnancy continued, all seemed to be well, and I began to believe that the first two doctors were completely wrong.

At 36 weeks pregnant, when my uterus had stretched as far as it was going to stretch, our OB pronounced that my abdominal wall was sound, that it was not going to rupture as had been declared by the prior physicians. He said, “See, I was right, everything is going to be just fine.” At that moment, I knew he was correct and I also knew I could not give birth with him. I informed him I would be birthing at home. He flipped out and quickly informed me how dangerous and insane that would be (he later called me at home and apologized for his outlandish behavior). I stood my ground because I knew in my heart that birthing at home was what I needed to do.

We found a midwife and started preparing for a home birth. It was so wonderful to finally be excited about our baby and not to be full of fear about dying. We gathered supplies and Tami came around 38 weeks for the birth that was sure to be right around the corner and we walked and walked and walked. And no baby came.

And then, in her 43rd week of gestation, Blythe was born. After ten months of throwing up every single day and hours of throwing up every 15 minutes throughout her labor, she was born! As I held her that first day, I fell completely in love with her, with motherhood, with homeschooling her, with devoting my life to her. All of a sudden, I knew what motherhood meant and it was not drudgery, it was not a waste of time. It was the most important work I could ever do. It was exactly the work God wanted me to do. It was exactly the work my soul needed to do to grow and learn and develop into the woman I was created to be.

It saddens me to think how backward my thinking used to be and I am filled with gratitude for my brave Blythe who came into my life before I even knew I wanted her, before I valued motherhood, before I knew how absolutely essential motherhood is to the foundation of each family, community, nation, and world.

She taught me that I am doing the most important work. I am spending my days teaching the next generation what it means to be good. I am teaching them about freedom, government, history, God, math, cooking, serving, patience, and family.

I am so grateful for this 14-year-old girl. Thankful for her courage to follow her own path. Thankful she chose me as her mother. Thankful she forgives me and gives me another chance. Thankful she was born at what I thought was an inconvenient time. Thankful for her deep, inner knowing and her absolute devotion to what is right. I am humbled to think of the love God has for me to have sent me a child I didn’t know I needed, but He knew I needed. He knew what motherhood would come to mean to me and how it would change my life forever.

Here are some pics of this beautiful girl:

Blessing Day

Blythe and Grandpa Ward

Blythe and Grandma Smith

Blythe taking a bath

Blythe and her papa

Blythe and her mama

Blythe with Andie and Grandma Dorothy

Blythe and Marcus at Bear Lake

Blythe and Stephen at Bear Lake

Two years old at GRL

Third Birthday at GRL

Crazy dress-up with her first cat, Spike

Four-years-old

5th Birthday

Another Birthday party…with Becca and Mikelle

Blythe and Andie’s birthday at Bear Lake

Somewhere around the age of six

Sevenish?

Baptism…and me at 38 weeks pregnant with Fisher

Eight-years-old with Keziah and Great-Grandma

With Grandpa’s horses

Pioneer Days rodeo…almost nine-years-old

Christmas at nine-and-a-half

Eleven-years-old

Twelve-years-old…beautiful, isn’t she!

Thirteen-years-old

Fourteen!

Isn’t she adorable!

I am so blessed to have her in my life and to have the privilege of being her mother. She has taught me much about love, patience, sacrifice, acceptance, putting people first, doing hard things, and so much more.

Most importantly, she was willing to come as my first child. Willing to let me learn how to mother on her. Willing to teach me the power of motherhood before I knew I was ready to learn that lesson.

Happy Birthday, my girl.

I love you.

yes, i love my ward

First Sunday back to my ward (local congregation of my church) after missing it for three weeks in a row and I fell in love all over again.

As I looked around me, I realized how much I love these people I gather with to worship with on a weekly basis. Some of them struggle with their faith, some struggle with obedience, some struggle with loving, some struggle with having patience, some struggle with their children, some struggle with making it through a three hour service. In short, we all struggle…and it is wonderful to struggle together! To have a ward family that supports, encourages, loves, rescues, and celebrates together. I was full of love for each of them…and I could feel their love for me. I could feel I had been missed and felt just how much I missed all of them.

A special friend who hasn’t been to church in over a year was there today. When I saw her, I had to leave my seat and go give her a huge hug. I was so happy for her and so proud of her for overcoming her fears and for coming to join us. I wanted to shout Hallelujah – and you know I did in my heart.

It was wonderful to be with my little five and six year olds and teach them a lesson about obedience and the happiness it brings. It was wonderful to see their smiles, get their hugs, and see their zest for life.

I know my ward will be divided soon and I am sad – I don’t want to lose any of these souls I have come to love.

grl top twenty

My favorite place in the whole world.

This little piece of heaven brings me peace, joy clear down to my little toes, courage to face hard things, and so much more. I am so grateful for these mountains, the frigid water, the moose that wander on the beach in the early morning hours, the wind in the trees, the sunrise over Osborne, the rugged sturdiness of Square Top, the seven little streams on the shady side of the lake, Mill Creek, rainbow trout and the mighty fishermen who catch them, the Sleeping Giant, Clear Creek Meadow, the tradition our family has had for forty years of camping there, the friends who join us, the strangers we meet, and the connection we all feel to this beautiful place.

Here are the Top Twenty from our Green River Lakes camping trip this year – in no particular order!

1. Watching Fisher jump off the bridge all by his little own self AND swim about 20 feet to me.

2. Scott pitching to Fisher.

3. Blythe and Andie’s 14th birthday parties…with 28 people at the first one and 18 people at the second. Plus, we got to eat two different birthday cakes and yummy ice cream. Good thing we have girls with August birthdays so we have a reason to have a big treat up there every year!

Guests at the first party

First Birthday cake

Head scratchers from Grandma

“LIfe is Good” shirts from Grandma

Annesley and birthday cake

Blythe’s Birthday book

Blythe’s new “Life is Good” hat

The second birthday cake

Andie’s new battery charger

4. Setting up camp three times in less than 24 hours.

5. Watching Jared and Fisher catch bugs together for hours on end.

6. Jumping off the bridge, swinging on Scott’s ingenius swing under the bridge, and swimming in the water hole in the river. Courage awards for bridge jumping go to Samuel (4), Fisher (5), Teryn (5), Christian (7), Jaxon (8), Keziah (9), Eve (10), Tiegen (11), Marcus (13), Tod (13), Blythe (14), Andie (14), Scott, Tracy, Camille, Austin, Tonya, Chance (8), Alyssa (11), and Logan. Yes, we are awesome.

Here is Fisher’s whole jumping process:

Watching everyone else jump

Thinking about jumping…how far is it anyway?

Being lifted over by Uncle Scott

Getting ready to jump

In the air!

Coming up out of the water

He made it!

In mama’s arms at last!

Andie on the swing

Teryn on the swing

Annesely

Fisher

Jared

Camille

Camille jumping off the bridge

Camille again

7. Beating Mom and Scott at Rook…I’m sure it is the first and last time that will ever happen.

8. Annesley and Teryn lovin’ on Uncle Logan. Teryn was basically glued on to him the entire time. Uncle Logan made them both bracelets and gave Fisher his own necklace to take care of till he can make one for him as well.

9. Going on a hike all alone with Camille and Tami (and of course, her little cutie, Jace). Yes, Tami came clear from Colorado to camp with us and Camille rearranged her college test schedule so she could be up there when we were there. Thank you guys for making my camping trip wonderful. I love you both!

Our hike was made possible by Tracy, Camille’s oldest, taking eleven children with her on their own hike. What an amazing girl she is!

Tami and Jace

10. Discovering my long-lost friend Tonya camped right next to us! It has been 11+ years since we have seen each other and 20 years since I first took her to Green River Lakes. Spotting her walking through the campground was one of the tender mercies God has given me. Thank goodness we decided to canoe across the lake at 6:30 a.m. on our last morning there. Beautiful mountains, good conversation, a bald eagle right above us, and two golden eagles flying nearby.

11. Lots of cousin time together…all told we had 21 second and third cousins playing with each other…not including our generation of 1st and 2nd cousins.

12. Swimming at the Aquatic Center on our way home with Tonya and her adorable family and then being treated to a delicious dinner by her stubborn and insistent husband, Ryan.

13. Keziah climbing on top of our new-to-us-given-to-us forty-year-old camper to put a tarp on top to stop the leaking from the rainstorm our first night there. She should be a mountain climber some day.

14. Playing softball with family and friends and watching Fisher tackle cousins to get the ball in his mitt first. He has come a long way from the shy little boy he used to be.

15. Logan’s dutch oven peach cobbler. Yummm!

16. Grandma playing Garbage with all the kids on her blanket in the shade.

17. Sleeping eight people and all our gear in a camper made for half that many.

18. Scott holding Annesley, Jace, or Taz on an daily hourly basis and helping them be happy while games are played, meals are cooked, or older siblings are attended to. What a great uncle he is!

19. Watching Sadie leap over Mill Creek and dash into the water.

20. Sitting around the campfire at night, seeing shooting stars, gorgeous constellations, and the Milky Way while listening to Scott’s hilarious stories with the people I love most in this world.

21. I couldn’t stop with 20…my favorite thing of all is watching my husband fish with a smile on his face and contentment oozing out of his body. He needs this trip even more than I do and I am so glad he got to fish and catch some big ones.

How many fishing poles can these guys use at one time?

Green River Lakes is not really mine, but it sure feels like it. It is the place I think of when I think of love, family, hope, fun, good meals, growing up, laughing with Camille, and of course, my dear grandparents. I can’t imagine a summer going by without this annual trip. The beauty and the majesty of these mountains is just what I need to get me through another year.

More pics…

Blythe and Grandma

Keziah and Sadie

Annesley and the worms

Fisher and Sadie

Mikelle, Andie, and Kez

Fisher and his papa

The cutest two-year-old ever

Fisher and his catch

Mikelle and Logan

Tami, Teryn, Scott, Christian, the handsome Steevo, Annesley, Fisher, and Richard

Blythe and Andie

fisher’s prayer

Today was our first day home and after working hard unpacking and doing laundry, we gathered for family prayer.

This was Fisher’s prayer tonight.

Thank you for our family.
Thank you that we could go to Green River Lakes.
Thank you that we can read together.
Thank you that we can help.
Thank you that we can love one another.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Precious, isn’t he?

Yes, motherhood is all worth it. I know it is exactly what I am supposed to be spending my days doing.

thankful thursdays 7/29

I have been gone from home for almost two weeks and my heart is full of lots of things I am grateful for.

* With eight people staying at my mom’s and seven of them girls, I am grateful for my hair. For those of you that don’t know, I have pretty amazing hair. I am not saying it is amazing-beautiful, just amazing-easy. When I wake up, it usually looks just like it did when I went to bed. I just run a comb through it and I am done getting it ready for the day. It also doesn’t get oily…even after days and days of not showering. This has been a huge blessing this week as we have had to be up every day by 5:00 a.m. (I am NOT a morning person!) and out the door to music camp by 7:00.
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* I am so grateful for my mom. She has let us stay here for two weeks and fed us, clothed us, laughed with us, saved many a child from tears, let me use her car to save on gas mileage, and been very patient with the fact that a small army has invaded her quiet, solitary life.

Thanks mom! This has been a wonderful blessing to be able to be here and participate in all the pioneer day activities and music camp.
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* Today I am especially grateful for a dependable vehicle. I have driven a TON these last couple of weeks and it does wonders for my peace of mind to know I am not about to break down, my car will start, and everything is in working order. It’s also fabulous to be able to carry so many people and all of their stuff.
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* Our new lil’ camper. My Aunt Carol gave us a camper that was given to her and after cleaning it, getting it inspected, fixing the lights, washing all the mattress covers, and learning how to drive it, I am taking it camping. It has held all of our stuff for the past two weeks and tomorrow it will make its maiden voyage as a our camping vehicle. It is 40 years old and certainly shows its age, but it has been a huge blessing to us already.
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* Have I mentioned the amazing Tami? This friend (and cousin) of mine brought my mom a 10 x 10 shelter from Colorado and dropped it off on her journey across I-80 AND she brought us a treat! Safeway makes an ice cream flavor that we have never seen out here in the land of Winco, Fred Meyer, and Albertson’s. Mint Moosetracks is heavenly…so delicious I’m sure I could eat it everyday and not get tired of it. Thick swirls of fudge, mint-filled chocolate cups, and creamy mint ice cream. So yummy!

Thanks Tam! You are a gem!
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Time for me to get all these girls a movin’! Music camp starts mighty early.

If I don’t get back on here before I leave for my mountains, toodle-loo. I will be back after days on end of gazing at my favorite peaks, swimming in glacier-fed waters, going on hikes with my little ones, and soaking up the wonder of nature, family, and friends.

there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch

You know how some municipalities have a “free lunch” program? Well, we are attending a music camp in just such a town. I was pretty amazed it was offered here as I thought Wyoming was the last bastion of the whole “land of the free and the home of brave” thing.

I remember the first time I encountered the free lunch program. My children and I were playing at a park in Idaho when this huge bus of kids from a daycare were led out in single file line and told to stand and wait till the lunch lady came. I was bewildered by what was going on. Then a van pulled up to the park and a lady got out and started handing out brown bags with a pb&j sandwich, an apple, and a little box of milk. After she handed them out to all the daycare kids, all the kids who lived in the houses surrounding the park, and a variety of YMCA summer camp kids, she came over to us and gave us some bags. I told her “No, thank you,” but she would not listen, she said she had some left and they needed to be eaten. I again told her “No, thank you,” but she put them on our blanket and walked away.

Later I learned the schools in our area provide breakfast as well and that the children in my area are eating it…and that their mothers have stopped cooking them breakfast because the school does it for them…and that the kids who do still get breakfast at home are also eating it at school. What????? My tax dollars are going to feed people breakfast and lunch? People who don’t need the help!

Well, today at music camp, we were offered free lunch. I guess the local elementary school has a free lunch program during the summer months to insure that children don’t starve because they aren’t in school. Pretty much everyone at the camp took advantage of the free lunch and when I say took advantage that is exactly what I mean. Took advantage. The program isn’t intended to feed camp participants who are here from all over the intermountain west, it is intended to feed children in poverty level homes whose parents can’t afford to feed them.

I told my children all about the program and why we would not be participating. First of all, it is not the government’s nor the government’s schools responsibility to feed children.

Ever.

Secondly, it is not the government’s responsibility to tax people to feed other people.

Ever.

It is totally and completely wrong for them to do so. The responsibility to feed hungry people lies with themselves, their families, and then you and I.

Thirdly, aside from the program being wrong, it is being poorly implemented. It is not efficient or effective when bags of food are handed out to people at a park who already have food with them or music camp attendees who are not starving.

Yes, attending this camp is costing us an arm and a leg, but it will not cost us our principles and our self-respect.

book bonanza – nick of time

We have been listening to this book on our travels this week and are loving it! We tried listening to it about a year ago and we liked it then, but we never finished it. The girls begged to check it out again, so we gave it another shot and this time around it is fabulous.

Isn’t it interesting how sometimes it isn’t the right time for a book? We change, we grow, we have different needs, different perceptions, and then, all of a sudden, it IS the right time for said book. I am really hoping that happens for me this year with Pride and Predjudice, as I have started it umpteen times and it has never clicked for me in the past.

Back to Nick of Time…this book is set in 1939 England, right on the cusp of WWII, and the hero of the book, twelve-year-old Nick MacGyver, is a lighthouse keeper’s son who loves to sail his little boat, Petrol, all through the reefs of Gravestone Cove. His father is also part of a group of English citizens collecting information about German air and sea activities and passing it on to Churchill. The German U-Boat, Alpha-33, is patrolling Nick’s coves, searching for Lord Hawke and his illustrious inventor, Commander Hobbes. Things turn dicey when the U-Boat actually captures Commander Hobbes and Nick’s six-year-old sister, Kate. Leonardo Da Vinci’s time machine shows up on Nick’s beach with a letter from Nick’s Great-Grandfather pleading with Nick to travel through time back to the Napoleonic Wars to help him win a battle with everyone’s enemy, William Blood, who has another of Da Vinci’s time machines and uses it to travel through time kidnapping children, stealing great treasures, amassing a fortune, and terrifying people all over the world and throughout all time.

Sounds gripping? Yes, it is! I highly recommend the audio version because the voices are done fabulously well and you will fall in love with little Katie the first time you hear her speak and tremble with fear at Blood’s threatenings. It isn’t too scary for Fisher at age five, but it is hard to know how much he has really been paying attention to it, and it is completely fascinating for this mama who loves mysteries, WWII history, and anything with the heroes using science to win the battle for good vs. evil.

shade? what is its price?

I have been searching for a shade shelter for our big annual camping trip…searching does not even begin to describe the lengths to which I have gone to find the perfect piece of polyester, poly-oxford, poly-coated, poly-nonsense to provide our group of five families shade, rain, and hail protection while eating, cooking, and most importantly, while playing Rook.

My mom has had me looking for weeks, but we have put off making a final decision until we were certain we were getting the best product for the best price. We have been using a 10 x 10 with slanted legs for the last five years or so, but it is on its last duct-taped, missing pegs, ripped velcro, bent legs and it is high time for a new one. We wanted something a little bigger, a little stronger, and something a little less likely to take a finger off when you pull the legs out without watching where your hand is placed.

Oh, what a gargantuan task that is!

So many of the shade canopies have reviews that are complete opposites…some people saying it is the best shelter they have ever had, others saying it should be thrown in the trash upon buying it as it will do you more good there than it will standing up over your picnic table. It is a difficult, overwhelming mess to try to sort out what canopy will actually survive a rainstorm and 20 mph winds without snapping in half.

And the warranties? They all say they are warrantied for 1-2 years, but the internet is full of warranty nightmares where the companies are either impossible to get a hold of or they insist that the broken canopy isn’t covered because it isn’t defective, the user used it inappropriately, so says the companies…oh my, we so did not want to deal with that whole fiasco.

We just wanted to find a shade shelter that would hold up for more than the first few weeks, preferably for several years, through a rainstorm, mild wind, and repeatedly putting it up and down. We also wanted it to not break the bank.

This is a seemingly impossible task. Shade shelters simply don’t exist that do all these things. Shade shelters only exist to put up for a few hours when there is no breeze to ruffle their feathers, not a single raindrop to put undue strain on top, and certainly not for a repeated use.

After a whirlwind packing weekend so I could get to Wyoming by Monday night and to the dentist in Salt Lake by Tuesday morning, I realized I needed to use my time in SLC to find my mom the shelter of her dreams.

Nine hours, multiple cross-valley trips, at least 30 stores, and who knows how many phone calls to my mother brought me nothing, but an exhausted Keziah, blurry eyes, and an encyclopedic knowledge of every shade shelter in existence.

I did make it home with a Kelty Canopy House that was on sale at Target. The thought of having a shade shelter that weighed only 7 lbs and could fit in my beach bag was so intriguing that I drove clear to Timbuktoo on the far side of the Salt Lake valley to snag the last remaining one within 20 miles. But, when Blythe and I set it up this morning we found it was sized perfectly for anyone under the age of eight. Adults would need to go elsewhere to find relief from the sun and rain.

This morning, I have spent hours searching the internet for the Coleman 12 x 12 Straight Leg Instant Shelter that mom decided she wanted. It is sold out pretty much everywhere, even on Amazon. Luckily for her, I am an internet detective and I found it at three stores. The cheapest is Sunny Sports where we picked it up for $169 with free shipping, a bargain since when it was available on Amazon it was $179!

Now she has decided she would also like the 10 x 10 in the same brand and style, so I have been calling Targets all over the country to find one (they are on sale for $125 this week). Most places are sold out, including the Target out in Timbucktoo where I found the Kelty Canopy. I, now have three on hold in Colorado and one on hold in Idaho and am trying to work out which family member I can beg to pick one up for my dear sweet mother who has the simple goal of playing rook without getting wet.

After we use them for two weeks in the Wind Rivers, we will let you know if we made the right choice or not. Then you can avoid the above mentioned mess.

p.s. This does not even include the fact that I DID buy a 12 x 12 Regency last week in Pocatello and miraculously got the 60 lb. monstrosity into my vehicle, but I had to take it back because it had such terrible reviews of collapsing on the first use during a mild rainstorm, or the fact that I had the Coleman 10 x 10 in my hands yesterday and walked out of the store without buying it when we hadn’t yet decided that was the one we wanted.

p.p.s. The price of shade? Apparently more than I could ever earn in this lifetime.