I found myself at Champoeg Park on Saturday. It is a place I feel strongly connected to because of my family's tradition of camping there when I was younger. My reason for being there this time wasn't much different. My dad's extended family has begun hosting a family reunion each year and this year it was at Champoeg.
After working at my in-laws' new house all day, Tracy and I cleaned up Shea and took off to have dinner with the extended Kriegshauser/Lang. As a last minute addition, I threw Shea's tricycle and helmet into the back of the rig. My memories of Champoeg pivot around my bike.
When we arrived, I was surprised to see that I remembered so many of the faces of the extended family. It was easy to remember the ones I see/saw often like Jan, Sam, Mary, etc, but soon it didn't take long for names like Larry, Ann, and Charlie to come to the forefront.
Thanks to my aunt Sharon, Shea was set up nicely at a picnic table where she was designing a new sun visor for herself. There was pipe cleaner, cut out flower designs, and foam letters to keep her occupied. The result was a visor with three flowers rising up off the brim with pipe cleaner and her name spelled out underneath.
I got the chance to catch up with my cousin Nicki and her husband Matt as well as my cousin Andy's wife LeAnn., but it was soon dinner time. The call went out for mother's to fix plates for the six and unders. The rest of us were simply going to have to wait patiently.
You should have seen the spread. Uncle Larry cooked up quarters of chickens until they were golden and perfect. Under the covered pavilion was a line of tables loaded with all kinds of salads, veggies, beans and desserts. There were all kinds of picnic favorites I could trace back to my own childhood, things I've eaten for decades. I was excited.
Soon, the open call for the grown ups went out and we were able to dig in. The conversation was relaxed, even in spite of the bees which began to swarm, and soon the aunties were slipping desserts to the kids. Cookies, Rice Krispie treats, and assorted bars bursting with coconut or nuts were oozing their sticky sweetness on to young hands. I knew I had to get the sugar out of Shea's system, so I offered to fetch her bike out of the back of Volvo.
She was excited. I was too. The ground here was flat for the most part and we were segmented away from the rest of the park, having reserved the group space just for family, and there were no cars passing through. Shea strapped on her helmet, stepped up on to her tricycle and started peddling. And peddling. And peddling.
I couldn't believe it. Shea's normal routine was to ride the tricycle a couple of houses down the street and have me carry the damn thing back. Not today. No, today she peddled her little heart out. I took her around the looped pull out of the private group space and around and around the parking area. She never quit. All of a sudden I have a little bike rider on my hands.
The littles amaze me. You think you have their development pegged when all of a sudden they just take off and do something amazing you've never seen before. Shea probably rode for an hour. She fell off a couple times, but she got right back on. She found a little girl, Ryan, who had a scooter and away they went. She's a little person now, more so every day.
Between Shea's newfound ability and reconnecting with family, Saturday turned out to be pretty damn special. Sometimes it's easy to feel blessed.
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