Comfortably Mismatched

 Guys guys guys, guess what, guess what?  (That's a quote from my kids.  Sometimes they won't stop talking long enough to squeeze in a response.)

I'm almost caught up on the blog!  That rarely happens, so it's cause for celebration.  Here's a random set of recent glimpses into the Wheeler world.

CSW66.  This one takes a bit of explanation. For an entire week, Talia participated in the Commission on the Status of Women as a part of GSUSA's Delegation to the United Nations.  There was a rigorous application process to participate and it was a HUGE time commitment.  Since the virtual conference was on Eastern time, she had to be up and logged on every day by 6am.  I was surprised by how demanding the expectations of the girls.  It was all the time and work of a "real" conference, but without the novelty of traveling and staying at a convention center.  Instead, she missed an entire week of school and had to catch up on all that work, plus she still had all the at-home demands of music lessons, choir festivals, frisbee, etc. In other words, as cool as it was to really delve into gender equality and its connection to climate change, spending 8-10 hours a day discussing this heady topic for 8 days on end was a LOT.  

Definitely one of those experiences you hope you appreciate in the long run, because it was no fun in the moment.  Still, I was SUPER proud of Talia for sticking with it and engaging the entire time, even when I would have been like, to heck with it, I'm out.  She's also done a great job with her post-convention responsibilities, writing multiple essays and participating in ways I don't even understand.  Talia's such a self-starter that I rarely know about what she's doing until it's already done.

Case in point.  I don't really know what this project is, but I found it on her desk and think it's super cool.

The upside to this virtual convention?  It gave Talia lots of time to crochet.  She made the wackiest Octopus hat.  I love it!

Still, we definitely have a yarn problem at our house.

And a Lego problem.

And a stuffie problem.  Believe it or not, you actually can see Annika's head in this picture.  It's all the way back against the wall next to the pink dragon.  Look closely and that lighter spot on the dark blob is her ear.

Here's the craziest part.  This is the sign Annika posted on her bedroom door.  No worries, sweetie--I'm not taking care of that mess for you!

In the end, Annika did have to clean up her disaster.  First of all, it's not fair to trash the place when you share a space with your sibling.  Secondly, she got such a huge crick in her neck from sleeping on all her stuffies that she's been banned from using them as a nest.  Here she is in her newly made bed with stuffies all around her instead of under her.

Other Annika news: a visit to the orthodontist.  (Surprise, surprise.)  An expander is in her immediate future with braces to follow around fifth grade.

Moving on to Eli, he joined me for an Andrus family yard cleanup of the Andrus Halfway House at This is the Place.

Many hands make quick work.  We didn't see any relatives that we recognized, but I'm sure most of us were distantly related.  Plus, there were several kids named Milo there.

I like the name Milo fine, but I'm glad you're our Eli.

Eli also took some time to explore the fourth floor of West while it was all decked out for Spirit Bowl.  This year was a Pixar theme.   The students always do such an amazing job decorating!  It's hard to believe Eli will walk these halls as a student next year.

Each grade had a film of their own.  ELPers (Extended Learning Program--7th and 8th graders):  Inside Out.

Freshman: Monsters Inc.

Sophomores: Ratatouille.

Juniors: Toy Story.

Seniors were Cars.

Last but not least, the teachers with Up.

While Spirit Bowl decorations are reason enough to visit West, we also got to hear the choirs perform.  The choirs have made such amazing progress this year with Ms. Hernandez!  They sound better than ever before.  Talia auditioned for A'Capella in December and made it in, but on condition that she participate in Junior Choir as well.  We got to watch her perform in all the pieces.  She's the blond with a mask on the second row, left hand side.

A'Capella's turn.  Brooklyn is on the back row, far left.  Talia is front row, third singer in.

At the beginning of Spring Break A'Capella went on tour to Southern Utah, along with the band. From what I hear, they had a great time.

Two trips to Southern Utah all in a Spring Break.  Brooklyn and Talia (aka the red shirt girls) are pretty lucky! Good thing they are such great travelers.

Last thought: looking at somebody else's blog or social media feed, it's easy to see at all the pretty pics and assume they've got it all together.  I just wanted to assure you that we don't.  The other day I was frantically picking up the house for company.  As I was shoving junk into drawers, I thought a bit about appearances.  From the outside we look put together.  You don't have to dig very deep to discover that it's really just a facade.  Here's my desk drawer.

This is beneath the sink.

And this?  This whole drawer is unmatched socks.

I'm comfortable with my vulnerabilities.  It's okay to be real.  It's okay to have areas in your life, lots of areas, where progress is slow or even lacking.  I love living so close to a beautiful cemetery.  If I could talk with these souls, they might have a few regrets about their choices on earth.  But I'd bet not a one involves mismatched socks.

Yankee Doodle Red Cliffs Spring Break

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you...Spring Break!   At the end of March, we squeezed in a trip to Southern Utah and I'm so excited to share the pictures.  More accurately, I'm so excited that we were able to go at all, especially since I didn't have anything reserved.  A couple days before break started, I checked out Red Cliffs and discovered that they had one random camping spot available for two nights.  Truly a minor miracle since everything else was booked out for weeks, if not months.  Hurrah!

The great news about Jason having so much work in Southern Utah is that he always has a reason to go down.  In fact, we left a night earlier than planned and drove to Cedar so that he could be to St. George for a ten o'clock meeting the next morning.  Cedar was...wet.

In fact, it was still drizzling when we got to St. George so the kids and I went window shopping while Jason checked on Switchpoint.  Switchpoint is looking fantastic!

However, our experience visiting with "Momo" was even more fantastic.  This little designer  puppy was really adorable.  Having just arrived that day, the kids named him after learning that he's a Morkie, whatever that is.  Okay, curiosity got the best of me.  Google just informed me that a Morkie is a combination of a Maltese and a Yorkshire Terrier.

For just four thousand dollars, you too can have your face licked clean!

Once the kids got over the disappointment that we weren't going to keep Momo, we headed over to Pioneer Park.  This was my first time visiting the gardens.  They are incredible!

Jason spent a lot of timing getting ideas on how to landscape the new Visitors Center in Springdale.

I rather doubt they'll have a creek with fish observation stations, but you never know.

Brooklyn on the move.

Talia, not so much.

Reenergized while scaling the rocks.

In my opinion, the rawness of the red rock makes Southern Utah the best playground ever.

Perhaps that's why we were so excited to get a campsite at Red Cliffs.

Or maybe camping's just a great excuse to sling it in the hammock.

That afternoon we decided to practice rappelling at Red Cliffs so we'd be ready for Yankee Doodle Canyon the next day.  I thought Talia was being dramatic about the short climb up, but in retrospect she was getting sick.  Poor kid.

Two issues when we got to the top.  First, you could see the storms rolling in.  Second, we had forgotten a couple of carabiners.  We couldn't do much about the first problem, but I could fix the second by driving down to the Desert Rat in St. George.  Plus, on the way I could find a library and take a quiz for my pathophysiology class.  Oh, and we needed firewood.

Meanwhile, Jason and the kids got dinner going.  Dutch oven chicken pot pie is a camping fave for our family.

They had enough equipment for the Red Cliffs rappel, so they still got in some practice.  

The older kids are pretty comfortable and experienced, but Annika is still getting used to what it feels like to be on the rope.  Last time we tried she was too scared to descend, but this time she did great.  It helps knowing that your big sister's got you covered.

Eli's turn.  Nice work, dude!

Gosh, the desert's beautiful.

Back at camp, everyone relaxed while waiting for dinner to finish cooking.

To make the time pass more quickly, we went on a nearby hike that led to some dinosaur tracks.  We're not certain, but his may have been one of them.  Either way, it's fun to imagine dinosaurs wandering these same paths.

On our way back, it started to rain.  We were super grateful for the shelter to dine under.  Dinner would have been a really soggy meal without it.

The skies cleared long enough to build a fire and roast marshmallows.  At least the risk of causing a wildfire was minimal.

When it started to rain again, we dashed into our tent and called it a night.  Luckily we slept pretty dry. When the sun came out the next morning, it shone for the rest of our trip.

We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day.  Jason and I sneaked out for a morning meander before breakfast.

Guess we weren't the first ones here.  Can you spy Jason scrambling up to get a better view?

He's in this pic too.  Hint, look for a splash of blue.

Sure love this man!

It was nearly noon by the time we made it to Yankee Doodle canyon.  Here we are gearing up for the first rappel.

Thrilled to get started!

As our expert belayer, Brooklyn went first.

Next up, Eli.

What a crazy slot!  These kids are amazing.

Talia's turn.

Annika was nervous, but she made it down this first rappel well.  Our mantra?  Step step rope.  Step step rope.

Flying is her favorite part.

A look up at where we came from.

The next rappel is a little trickier.  To get started you have to work your way around this big boulder into what feels like an abyss.

No problem for our Eli!

As you can see, it's a pretty long way down.

Talia, Eli, and I made it down just fine.  Then it was Annika's turn and She. Flipped. Out.  Understandably frightened, she did NOT want to descend.  To make things easier, Jason changed the setup so that he was lowering her instead of Annika controlling the rope..  All she had to do was keep her feet between her body and the mountain. 

Still, it took a lot of convincing, bribing, and even hardtalking before she was finally willing to give it a go.  (Look, I know you don't want to do this, but it's the ONLY way out.  Either you come down or we will be stuck here all night!)  The process took a while.  You can see how much the sun shifted between the first picture and the second.

Even though there was drama, I felt incredibly blessed at the same time.  First of all, Annika made it down safely and was all smiles at the bottom.  In fact, she was eager to try again.  Secondly, while there may have been howling, at least it was private drama.  Yankee Doodle can be a busy canyon with both recreational and professional groups passing through.  Miraculously, we were the only ones in the canyon that afternoon.   It would have been awful to have Annie panicked on the rope with a horde of onlookers rolling their eyes waiting for their turn to descend.  So truly, a win all around.

Bringing down the last of our group.

And now the sad part.  Jason's phone ran out of battery, and like a fool, I'd left mine in the car.  (I'd been concerned it might get wet.)  I'm really bummed we don't have more pics because there were SO many other great parts of the canyon.  While none of the other obstacles were as big, we had to gear up and lower ourselves down another five or six times.  At first we used our harnesses, then learned to use webbing because it's faster.  Annie's hesitation completely disappeared; she and her siblings were fearless!  You should have seen them straddling and bridging the canyon walls to avoid the water beneath.  At times they were completely horizontal!  Eli made it across a section that I was too chicken to try, claiming to be too short.  Talk about having your excuse blown to pieces.

I found this picture online.  It gives a general idea of what we were doing, albeit with two hands.  (Photo credit: Scott Livingston.)

So yeah, the kids were fearless until...  the pothole.  At the very end of our route we reached this giant pothole filled with nasty water.  I'd warned everyone we might get wet or even have to swim, but apparently they were not expecting this.  Instead of the gray muddy water we'd seen before, this pothole was the color of coca cola with a layer of oily green sludge on top, peppered with dead bugs for effect.  It was, without a doubt, gross.  All of a sudden, the positive vibe shifted and this amazing adventure was deemed  the worst idea ever.  

Then Brooklyn mentioned how there was probably a dead moose carcass down there.  Why would she say that?  Once that thought's been thunk, you can't unthink it.  The kids now talk about the moose carcass as if it's a sure thing.  In a couple months their memories will warp so much that someone will claim they actually saw an antler sticking out.  I suspect they will tell their kids all about that time they canyoneered with a dead moose.

Well, if anyone can verify the existence or absence of the moose, it would be Jason.  The intrepid soul took pity on his teenage daughters, removed his shirt, and plunged bravely in.  There was a bit of a howl as the freezing water went well past his waist.  Pulling himself out on the other side, he noticed a bolt previously hidden from view.  Salvation!  We rigged up some webbing and using a few mochi steps, shimmied our way around the walls instead of plunging right through.  Talk about gaining Superhero status with your teenage girls.

We still had to cross one final pool, but it wasn't nearly as deep, plus the water color was far less disturbing.  While some managed to bridge their way across; I had to plunge my way through, carrying a squealing Annika who didn't want to get her toes wet.  It was epic.

And then, we were done.  Time to begin the steep ascent out.  In the end, Yankee Doodle took us five hours (two hours longer than expected).  Fortunately there was still plenty of daylight.  As we got back to the car, we met another group just heading in and hoped they would be able to make it through in time.   While driving home, we recharged our phones and took a picture of the road that got us to this wild adventure.

Lest anyone worry that Annika was too traumatized, this evening she asked me over dinner if we could do Yankee Doodle again.  Brooklyn, on the other hand, said she needed a little more time to recover.  When I asked why, she told me it was because of the moose carcass.  (Insert eye roll here.)

Dirty potholes or no, you gotta admit that we Wheelers know how to do camping food right.  Not only did we roast brats, but we made cherry pineapple dump cake to go with it.  Jason even suggested that we purchase a carton of ice cream.  Yum.

Tent carnage the following morning.  Not sure how everything gets so spread out so fast.

Jason mans the griddle for pancakes.  Without fail, I always forget a thing or too while camping.  For this trip, it was a spatula.  Turns out a plastic fork and knife work pretty well too.

Plus, we still had leftover ice cream for topping.  Talk about a tasty start to the day!

While it would have been fun to do a bit more hiking, Talia was feeling super sick so we got on the road after breaking camp.  At the kids' request, we stopped at One Man Band Diner in Nephi on our way home.  Apparently Annika didn't get enough pancake earlier in the day because that's what she ordered for dinner as well.  Can't blame her when it comes with M&M eyes and a bacon smile.

And there you have it!  Our Yankee Doodle Red Cliffs Spring Break 2022.