With Plums and Double-Pronged Thorns: Missoula, Montana: Family Reunion

Driving to Montana. July 31, 2014.

This work week was difficult for me. Not because of the job duties I had to perform or my co-workers, or anything like that, but because last weekend we spend 5 days in Montana, taking in the sights, spending time with family members, and soaking up a brief moment of the month away from the reality we trudge through on normal days. It was hard to come back to the routine of ordinariness.

There’s something refreshing about choosing your own outfits, rather than sticking to a palette of semi-professional work-wear, in the morning. There’s something about sleeping in (even if it’s only for an extra hour) and waking up on the white hotel bed sheets, crisp and clean and giving the appearance (even if it’s a faulty appearance, but I don’t want to think too much about that) of being new, never touched, clean slate. Besides just the excitement of a vacation and a new place to explore, it’s also these little things that seem to make my creative heart flourish.

The simple reason for the vacation was to surprise Grandpa Dick with a family reunion on his 80^th Birthday weekend. My husband’s cousins and aunts came out of the woodwork, arriving from Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and Montana. Grandpa Dick’s great-grandchildren ran around wherever we were in little fidgeting packs of laughter, making up new games to entertain themselves and snuggling with family when they finally worn themselves out.

Grandpa Dick being presented with his birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

As it is, the vacation was so much more than just a birthday party. It was a chance for our family to show Grandpa how much he means to us. It was a time for family to catch-up.

Jason got to sit with his grandfather and talk to him about some of his favorite topics—guns and what-I- would-do-if-I-won-the-lottery. Cousin Jeannine got to share her fishing story about the salmon she caught that we all got to eat at the BBQ Jason cooked up for everyone. (I saw the fishing pictures, the salmon was literally almost bigger than Jeannine and gorgeous; she pulled that sucker out of the water herself, fish scales glinting and fish muscle wriggling. It tasted better than anything). Cousin Jen shared with me the birth-stories of her four beautiful children. I felt privileged to hear the stories which were surrounded in joy and sorrow and majesty, and I was reminded about the precious miracles of life and how much death intertwines with it. Cousin Chad (Uncle Choo-Choo to the kids), who is a professional disk-golf player, took us disk-golfing at the Pattee Canyon course. The boys all threw disks and I wandered around taking pictures of butterflies, wildflowers, tree-scapes, and listened to the birds singing in the trees without ever showing themselves. I missed my cat at home, but I got pet time with dogs Sadie, J.R., and Neveah, and kitty time with Simba. I learned how to make long-island-iced-teas, how to make an amazing lemon-butter sauce for salmon, and I got to hike to the top of the “M” on Mount Sentinel. I got asked about four separate times if Jason and I wanted and were going to have children, and I got to cuddle and play with the second-cousins and then give them back to their parents when they had dirty diapers or started being fussy.

I truly feel like I’ve married into the best family. These people are honest and hard-working. They know how to laugh and how to love each other. They show themselves as they are and they accepted me as I am, as if I were a blood-daughter/sister/cousin.

I just want to be back in Montana.

(It was so hard to leave).