Unlikely Pioneers

I have always had a unlikely fascination with the life of the American Pioneers.  I say unlikely since most people who know me would peg me a century earlier and an ocean apart as a Jane Austen lady through and through.  And they are right, I would have been much more at home strolling through the manicured grounds of an English country estate, than I would have been trudging along side a dusty covered wagon.  In fact I have always assumed I would not have even made it past the Mississippi if I had lived during that time.  Or perhaps I would have flat out refused to travel West, preferring the comfort of my East Coast life. I am just not cut out for the rugged life of a pioneer.  Perhaps that is why they fascinate me so much with their tenacity, strength and guts.  


Caroline has inherited my Little House on the Prairie interest and is going on three years now of solid pioneer play.  Her bed is routinely a covered wagon and a trip to Hobby Lobby is not complete unless we sit on the wagon wheel bench and pretend we are headed West.  Competing for first place on Caroline's top ten list with Disneyland is a living history museum in Salt Lake City called This Is The Place.  Below are pictures taken from her first trip there at age 4 1/2.  She would have stayed washing that rag all day if I had let her.  She was just as excited when we went again a year later.

Max has been bitten by the bug too, first by playing along with Caroline, often as the role of the buffalo who was about to become dinner.  Later he embraced pioneer life with his obsessive fascination with guns.  When I had the kids picture taken at a western studio he got to hold a real gun (prop) for the first time.  I swear there must be some sort of gun chromosome.  He was so taken with it and so down right adorable, that my mother marched right out of the studio with him and bought him a toy western pistol.  Max loves to play "cowboy" and he has multiple sets of small plastic cowboys and Indians that he will play with for hours.

So, when it came time to plan a joint birthday for the kids a western theme was our/their first choice.  The deal was sealed almost a year ago when we road in a covered wagon at a fall festival.  When I discovered it was for hire, and for less than the cost of a party at our local bounce house party place, party planning commenced!  


I knew right away that this party was going to be a big one, renting a covered wagon is not something you do for only a few children.  In addition, we knew that we were celebrating more than our children's birthdays.  We were celebrating our family and our journey...our own western journey if you will.  We started on a trek that I never dreamed we would take.  A trek for which I felt ill equipped.  Along the way though I have discovered that I am tougher than I thought, our whole family is tougher than we thought.  Instead of broken wagon wheels, dusty trails and flooded rivers, we have dealt with medical tests, blood draws, special schools and diets, and OT and PT.  We didn't find a new physical homestead, but through a rare metabolic disorder we found a new home.  Our new home is a new way of looking at life.  


That is what we really celebrated last Saturday, a new life.  A life we thoroughly love. Ye-haw!


Stay tuned....more party details to follow!