Remembering......

Jon, Tyler, Ashley and Sarah 1998

I was talking with Garth earlier this week, and wondering if we asked our kids about some of their favorite memories growing up, would they be the same as ours? Sometimes as parents we plan elaborate activities or vacations in hopes they will bring us closer together as families, and create lasting memories. These are the things WE remember. But, when our children were asked, after all is said and done, it was the small things, the spontaneous moments, the seemingly insignificant things  they remember.

While we were "hanging out" with our daughters recent I asked them what some of their most favorite moments were growing up. And surprise, surprise.......most of our fondest memories were also theirs. Yeah!!!!

Time together as a family was precious and difficult to come by. Garth's job and church callings kept him away from home most evenings, and almost every weekend.

A little history: In April of 1990, six months after Sarah, our youngest was born, Garth was called as a counselor in the Juneau District presidency, where he served until 1995 when we were made a stake. The Juneau District covered the northern half of Southeast Alaska. But when we were made a stake, we joined with the Ketchikan District. Our stake then covered all of Southeast Alaska, all of the Northwest Territories in Canada (which was pretty much just Whitehorse), and west to Yakutat. I think it was close to 250,000 square miles, and 14 ward and branches. Garth served as a councilor in the stake presidency until 2004 when he became stake president. He served as stake president until 2013. On the evenings Garth was not in meetings for work as CFO of the hospital in Juneau, he was in meetings for church. Weekends were spent traveling.

So, Mondays and Fridays became sacred, not to be disturbed, calm islands in a sea of busy-ness. The phone was taken off the hook, and we spent time together with family. Some of those family members were family by choice - dear, dear friends, who will always be part of our family.

And so we don't forget, and our children won't forget, and our grandchildren will know....here are some of most favorite, FAVORITE family activities we remember.

Singing together - one of my earliest memories of singing with my kids is when we lived in Idaho Falls. Ashley must have been 4 and Jon 3, and Tyler a newborn. In the evenings before bed time we'd gather around the piano. Ashley would stand on the piano bench on one side of me and Jon on the other, with Garth behind us. Usually, Tyler was in bed by then, but if not he'd be resting quietly in Garth's arms. We'd sing all the kid's favorite songs.....over, and over, and over again. They couldn't seem to sing them too many times. "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail, "If We Hold On Together" from Land Before Time, and "Never Ending Story." The evening wasn't complete if we didn't sing "Popcorn Popping," or "Book of Mormon Stories," or "Once There Was a Snowman," complete with actions.

As the kids got older the songs started to come from musicals introduced to us by Uncle Wes and Aunt Nancy - "Phantom of the Opera" - Ashley belting out those high notes from the theme song; "Les Miserables" -  before Tyler became a bass he was our Valjean and his sweet tenor voice would soar in "Bring Him Home;" Jon was Javert singing "Stars;" Tyler and Jon would take turns being Marius singing "Chairs" and "A Little Fall of Rain," with Ashley and Sarah singing the parts of Cosette and Eponine....the ending to that song always so very sad. Les Miserables was definitely a favorite! Then came "Wicked" with Ashley and Sarah singing the duets of Elphaba and Glinda - "Defying Gravity" (which I could  never play, but they'd keep singing despite all my mistakes - or just give up and sing to the sound track :) ), "I'm Not That Girl," "Popular," and my favorite "For Good." Other favorites were from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat - "Close Every Door", and "Those Canaan Days" complete with accents and dramatic pauses;  "When You Believe" from Joseph, Prince of Egypt - especially the part sung in Hebrew starting out quietly and sweetly, and ending singing at the tops of our voices! And so many more. When we'd go on vacations we'd take our favorite songs with us and play them in the car, always singing along.

One favorite memory of singing was on a Christmas vacation to Hawaii with the Huntsman's and the Willis'.

We began Christmas caroling with these two families the Christmas of 1988 - a year after we moved to Juneau. We caroled every year, through rain, snow, appendicitis (was it appendix or tonsils, Katie?), and who will ever forget the year the kids stepped into the dog doodoo and tracked it into the back of Old Blue? What a mess! So, we found ourselves in Hawaii. We were missing Sarah Willis who was newly married and living on the other side of the US, and Kyle Huntsman who was on his mission in El Salvador, but we decided we were NOT going to give up our tradition of caroling together just because we didn't know anyone in Hawaii, and were a little nervous going door to door and caroling to strangers - but we persevered. We had a lovely time.

We found ourselves caroling outside the door of a counselor in the bishopric from the ward we had attended that morning. He loaded us all up into the back of his pick up truck and drove us around to different member's homes in his ward. We stopped in an intersection and caroled to the full-time missionaries and then they caroled back.

The counselor who was driving us around asked us what singing group we were with. Yeah, right!! We laughed and told him we were the Juneau Alaska Family Choir. He asked us if we were going to be in town the following week, and when he found out we were, told us he was going to put us on the Sacrament Meeting program. We kind of laughed and didn't think much about it. Until  mid week. Was he serious? What if he was, and we walked into Sacrament Meeting and found ourselves on the program and totally unprepared? Maybe we should prepare something "just in case."

So we came up with our own a capella arrangement of "Come Thou Fount." And then waited on pins and needles until Sunday to see if the counselor was joking, or if we would indeed be on the program. Sunday morning we walked into sacrament meeting, looked at the program, and there on the program was a special musical number by the "Juneau Alaska Family Choir!" Thank goodness we were prepared!! Our turn came on the program, and dang! We were good! It was one of those magical moments when everything just went right. We were a choir of 13 - ages 17 to....well, not sure if anyone was 50 yet, but well on the way. It was lovely. A very, VERY favorite memory.

Golden Eye - When we finally broke down and bought a Nintendo, one of our favorite games to play was Golden Eye. We'd play four players at a time. I, of course, stunk at this game. I was a terrible aim and usually got killed off early on. One of the favorite characters to be was Boris because he could run fast. Jon loved being Boris. A new word came into being, and is still heard occasionally around the Hamblin household - schweapon. Meaning: weaponless. It was dishonorable to kill someone who was weaponless. So, when you'd lost your weapon you'd yell very loudly, so everyone would know you were vulnerable, "I'm Schweapon, I'm Schweapon." Then you left alone until you could get yourself a new weapon. Jon, however, would holler "Schweapon," then run up to another character and slap them!! Which he'd do over and over until they died. And there was nothing you could do because you were honor bound not to shoot him. Then he'd laugh maniacally and run off.

Power Outage Night - I don't remember why or when power outage nights came into being, but these became favorite times. Every once in a while we'd declare power outage night. All the lights would be turned off, we'd bring out the candles and lanterns, the popcorn or other treats and the games, and spend the evening with only the flickering light of the candles and lanterns to see by and play our favorite games or read from a favorite book. Sometimes, however, the VCR (and later the DVD player) would magically work, and we'd sit around watching a favorite movie all snuggled up together on the couch.

Hiking and Camping - One of our earliest hiking/camping trips was to Peterson Lake. It is almost 4-1/2 miles into a snug little cabin on the banks of Peterson Lake. Tyler was 3, and Ashley must have been 7 or 8. Jana Williams and her four children, and me and my three (Sarah wasn't born yet) decided to hike into Peterson Lake cabin and spend a night. We packed lightly. The older kids had to pack all their own gear, while the younger had to pack only their pajamas and snacks. Jana and I packed everything else. It had rained a few days before, so the trail was muddy. The first part is spent up and down little hills, over tree roots, and getting covered in mud. Tyler was behind and not happy. He wanted to turn around and go home. But, we encouraged, coaxed, and sometimes bullied him on. The older kids were up ahead and anxious to find where the trail met up to the meadow. We knew once we got to the meadow the hiking would be easier on board walk, and we would be nearly to the cabin. We heard a shout up ahead. They had found he meadow! They came running back to tell us we were almost there! Ashley had fallen but was okay. She'd seen the meadow, hollered "It's the Meadow" (quote from Bambi :) ), started running along the damp boardwalk, and yes, fell flat on her behind.

We ate hotdogs that night for dinner, played in the rowboat on the lake the next day, and had a very wonderful time.

Other favorite camping and hiking experiences were nights spent camping at Herbert Glacier, hiking the East Glacier Loop Trail, camping at John Muir cabin

John Muir Cabin with Mace's, Sanbei's, Huntsman's and Hamblin's

and who will ever forget the Chilkoot Pass! A 33-mile trail from Skagway, Alaska into Lake Bennett in Canada. We spent a week hiking and camping with the Huntsman's, the Sanbei's, and the King's, and our combined sons - five of them - ages 10 to 14.

Then there were the annual Mother's Day camping trips. We often spent these trips at Crow Point, near the boy scout camp. The beach is nice and sandy and fun to camp on if the weather is nice. Or we could camp protected under the grove of fir trees if the weather is a little drizzly.

The Mother's Day just after Ashley turned 16 was especially memorable. Friday night had been a little drizzly, so we were camped up under the trees. The kids woke early (I think we were with the Sanbei's, the Huntman's, and I don't recall if there was anyone else) and headed to the water front to play in the canoes. About 9 o'clock they came running back into camp yelling that they'd been splashed by whales. And indeed, some of them were pretty wet. We decided to investigate and headed to the beach. Sure enough, just off shore, was a pod of Orcas.  The kids had not been paying attention as the Orcas came through the first time. They were just having fun playing around in the canoes. It wasn't until an Orca came up and then dove close enough to a canoe to splash all those inside, that they noticed the whales. It was a National Geographic moment. We spent the entire morning watching them go back and forth  between Benjamin Island to the north (where a sea lion rookery was located) and the Boy Scout camp. They were a pod of transients, and the adults were teaching their young to hunt baby sea lions. Some of us got into canoes and floated amongst them. Close enough that you could smell them - and no, they don't smell very good! A very memorable experience.

And there were the numerous times we went out on the Kumput with the Huntsman's, camping on a small island, Karen and I and the kids picking huckleberries and blueberries while Don and Garth went out fishing.

And there were the first picnics of the year - us in our Explorer, following the Huntsman's in their four-wheel drive truck breaking trail through the remaining snow on the unplowed road towards Echo Cove, seeing how far we could get. I believe it was on one of these picnics (although we only made it to Auke Bay) that Don Huntsman and Garth convinced Hunter Kirkpatrick (I think he was 10 at the time) that he could use a cooler as a raft. Poor Hunter. It was a cold, drizzly day in early April, and Don and Garth coerced Hunter into a cooler and set him adrift in the frigid waters of Auke Bay. I don't think he made it even 10 feet before he capsized. Then he had to spend the rest of the picnic huddled by the fire trying to get dry. Boys don't ever really grow up, do they?

So, those aren't ALL, but many of the fun things Garth and I remember doing with our family - which includes all those friends who have become family by choice. They are experiences we will never forget!