Tuesday - Day 3 of Family Reunion

In the afternoon, we had another large game planned by Garth's family but I can't remember the name of it. It was some type of a very extensive Scavenger Hunt where clues were given from spot to spot, challenges in different athletics and strength abilities, memorizing of poem passages and scriptures and then a lot of running back and forth past those of us sitting in the campground watching the events. I had participated in the morning activities, so Del was our representative from our marriage. Kathryn and Jordan participated also, so as Kylie and I watched from the sidelines, we saw more and more how this game was taking it's toll on Del. He was exhausted and his MS was showing signs of wearing him down. During one part of the game, he had to carry a team mate, Kayla, on his back to a certain point and then she would have to 'wheel barrel' him back on his hands to another point. Carrying Kayla was not the problem. But Kayla was barely strong enough to even hold Del's legs up to push him across the line, so he had to use a lot of his own arm strength to try and get to the finish line. Elaine got a series of pictures of the scenario, which she brought back to show me and Kylie. Del's face showed obvious strain, pain and determination.
When the game was over, everyone came back to the main lodge and pavilion to rest and collapse from the exertion of the afternoon. Del fell into the hammock and was resting there when a little friend came over to visit with him. She was the daughter of my niece Amy and I smiled as I watched her carry on a conversation with Del.
Jordan showed up two minutes later announcing that he had just been whooped by his cousin in law Steve in arm wrestling and that Steve wanted to challenge Del now. I gave Jordan 'the look' of 'are you kidding me? After what he's just done this afternoon?' But Del got up and went over into the kitchen area of the pavilion where there was apparently, quite a crowd gathered to see the challenge. I didn't want to watch.
I went over to the lodge and was sitting inside when I heard encouraging cheers and shouts and then a big huge scream from the crowd. I glanced out the window to see Steve jumping up and pumping his fist in a gesture of glory and I started to cry. I don't know why I cried. It didn't have anything to do with me, but I cried. I felt sooo bad for Del. He's always been so proud of his strength and the fact that he's been a hard working Idaho boy his whole life and been able to maintain that strength thus far. Now, he appeared a very old and tired man - a beaten man, and I cried.
All three of my kids came to find me, surprised to see me crying and surprised that their dad had finally lost to someone. I couldn't explain what I felt or why, but they were loving and comforting. It felt like the passing of a life I had known for over 27 years...kind of - probably a little too dramatic though...









Fear Factor. I hate watching it on tv cuz it totally grosses me out. And I was not real thrilled about it at family reunion. But Mark and Bonnie's family had gone to A LOT of effort to come up with at least 30 or so different 'phobias' or fears that people have in life. They had those phobias each listed up on the building on pieces of paper. As teams, we would have to choose which challenge or fear we were going to tackle, not knowing what the challenge would have us do.
I was on team B - Jordan and Kathryn on team A and Kylie and Del were our cheerleaders. Jordan was first - fear of worms....I was surprised he had agreed to do this one for his team. He would be blindfolded with a pie tin full of worms in front of him - live worms, with only one gummy worm buried beneath all the rest. His job was to, only with his mouth, discard the real worms, find the gummy worm, and eat it gone. And he did- finishing first. He swears he only had to eat one real worm but we're pretty sure he had more than that in his mouth at one time or another.
My challenge? The fear of garlic...I had to peel, chew and swallow three LARGE cloves of garlic. I came in a VERY close second and lost all my friends for the rest of the vacation. No one would come near me after that..
Kathryn's? She, with her challenge, took her team to the winning finish line. She ate more dead fish than anyone else - 7, to be exact. They were supposed to be alive but had died over the past two days at camp, so she was eating dead fish. She won for her team.
There were also relay races, feather blowing contests, holding of soda cans transferring to other hand, raw eggs etc etc...it was an over 2 hour wonderfully planned and successfully played game. I knew there would be a lot of memories from that game and after affects later that night.