All Brothers' Hike 2007

For the past seven years Birch and his brother's have dreamed, planned, and carried out a fun backpacking trek. This year they went to Mt. Jefferson and did a three day hike. I think only my other sister-in-laws can relate to the great anticipation and joy that our husband's feel through carrying out this tradition. They have made song books, t-shirts, yearly movies, and this year even vinyl letter (ABH) for their Nalgene bottles.
As you can imagine there is also a bit of a sacrifice that each of the wives make in order for this trip to happen. For many years I have been semi-supportive...you know, I want him to have fun but at the same time being home for four to five days by myself (one year without a car too) with all the kids can be hard. I have to admit that the past two years since they have gone on their hike in September it has really made a difference because several of the kids have been in school. But even more than that change two other things have made a dramatic difference in my support. The first being my attitude. I have made a real conscious decision to not be grumpy about the whole thing. I know how much this tradition means to Birch and I am so glad that he has such wonderful brothers to spend wholesome time with. The other reason is that Birch has also done some really sweet things to remind me how much he loves me while he is gone. Last year he had a bouquet of flowers delivered midway through his trek. The flowers were wonderful but what even stood out to be more was the fact that he had pre-thought out this gift and arranged it all before going on his trek.

So how could this year have been any better? The afternoon Birch left to meet his brothers in Oregon I went to get the mail. There was a letter addressed to me from Birch that explained that on each day of his trip he made, left, or arranged certain surprises to show his love for me. The first day he had hidden some new hot pads, a much needed gift after recently burning my fingers several times. The next day at 3:00 pm a woman arrived at the door saying she was hired to come clean anything in my house for a couple of hours. I know some women may feel that they are only half a woman if they are not the sole cleaner of their house---not me! I have been wanting a housecleaner to come like once a month for the past couple of years. It was so wonderful to smell cleaning solvents and not be the culprit of the smell. I sat on the couch and read a book. It was heavenly!! Then at five o'clock that evening a pizza arrived at the door so I wouldn't have to dirty my newly cleaned house by cooking dinner. It doesn't stop there! Saturday morning I was busy canning jam...one o'clock rolled around and a girl that we often have babysit came to the door and said that Birch had arranged for her to babysit for the afternoon. While she played with the kids I cleaned the kitchen up from canning and then enjoyed a couple of hours shopping by myself.

I know this might fall in the classification of bragging...but I think Birch deserves a blog entry on this one. I thank the Lord each day for being married to such a wonderful man!Taken at the Columbia River Temple - September 2007