Our last day at the treesort was Sunday. We started off with horseback riding - a peaceful 3-mile trail ride that looped through the nearby national forest. There weren't enough horses for all of us to be in the same group, so we split into two rides. Sawyer, Jack, Amy, and I were in the early-morning group. Luke, Eliza, Cat, and Ben were in the later group. (Andy was happy to hang out with Sydney.)
Of all the things we had planned during the trip, I think this is the one the kids were most excited about! And the well-behaved horses and beautiful scenery and great weather made for a lovely experience.
We were given a quick overview about the temperament of the horses, how to steer them, how far apart they should walk, what to do when riding up and down the miniature hills on the trail, and how the "emergency brake" works (how to get the horse to stop if he/she suddenly starts to bolt back to the barn). I started to worry a bit that this was going to require more horsemanship than we were capable of, but I needn't worry. The horses followed their leader perfectly and required almost no guidance (the exceptions being when they wanted to stop, and we needed to get them moving, as happend when Major met a few friends along the way; or if they got too close to each other). I realized that these horses have walked this trail so many times that they could probably do it without a leader - or a rider - in their sleep.
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| I saw the beginning of the second group's ride as they made their way to the trail. |
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| (photo credit: Ben) |
When everyone was finished with the trail ride, we changed into (travel) Sunday clothes and entertained ourselves by making s'mores and roasting Starburst until Sydney was finished with her nap - not an unpleasant way to kill the time. Then we had treehouse-church.
We had treehouse-church on Andy and Amy's deck, then had lunch and celebrated this girl's birthday. She was so cute and fun and such a good sport and just happy to turn 15. We brought her presents and our traditional sign with us from Utah, and she chose mochi from the grocery store to have as her birthday treat.
We could have spent one more night at the treesort but decided instead to get a head start on the 13-hour drive home. Here are a few more shots from Sunday before we left:
The tricky thing about breaking up our drive was that there wasn't a great way to do it. The direct route back to Utah went through hundreds of miles of tiny towns without decent hotels, so we could either just drive 2-3 hours and not get much of a head start, or we could drive 9 hours and arrive very late that night. After a lot of deliberation, we decided to caravan with Andy's family and crash at their house for the night. It added an hour or two to our drive but in the end we felt like it broke up the drive in a way that made sense. There was an added bonus of suffering through construction traffic with their family - commiserating over walkie-talkie.
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She got the munchies.
After approximately 3 minutes of driving.
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| Mt. Shasta |
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| Smooth sailing the whole way. |
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As the day unfolded and the traffic added up, Cat's birthday dinner was delayed until 9:30pm.
Thank goodness we found an In-N-Out Burger for her! |
We arrived at Andy's after midnight, with five sleeping kids in the van (Sawyer having jumped in with us somewhere along I-5). We slept great on various beds and couches in the house. We made a pancakes and eggs breakfast, the kids had a little time to play and watch some TV, and we started heading for Utah at about 10am. The drive was pretty smooth and we didn't make a long stop until dinner in Wendover, where we had Burger King at a playground and the kids appreciated getting to run around for a little while. We got home at about 10apm to find a clean house with a fun sign and candy from Whit, and flowers from Suz.
It was a great trip, but we were all glad to be home!
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