Introduction to the Gran Aventura

Our family in May of 2023

Our family in May of 2022 (we definitely need a new one!)

This is the blog for our grand family adventure. I can’t promise to update it every day, but I’ll do my best to keep people posted on where we are, what we’ve been up to, and some our thoughts along the way. I thought today I’d give some background on this trip.

About a year ago, I started thinking seriously about what I would do for my upcoming sabbatical. It’s one of the great blessings of my profession, and I really wanted to take advantage of the time to recharge my batteries, spend some time with my family, and produce something worthwhile. At some point along the way, I started considering the Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James) as an option.

I’ll be writing lots about the Camino, but for today I’ll just oversimplify by saying that it’s an ancient pilgrimage that starts at various places throughout Europe and ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela on the Northwest coast of Spain. The most famous traditional route is called the Camino Francés (French Way). The main route begins in the little town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port just on the French side of the Spain/France border — not far from Pamplona, and follows about 500 miles of trail to Santiago. It’s something that I’ve known about for a long time, and something I’ve always wanted to do, but I’ve never had the chance.

As I was saying, sometime about a year ago, I decided that it would be an amazing sabbatical project to hike the Camino with my family. Again, I’ll have much more to say about that later on, but you should just know that it’s important to me that we do this together.

It wasn’t until about February or March of this year that I finally got the courage to bring this up to Betty (another story for another day), but the important thing is that I did get the courage to propose, and miraculously, she said yes!

We also wanted to take advantage of the time off of work to travel out west to visit our family in Utah, Arizona, and Mexico. It’s been years since we’ve been out here. So we decided to just make it one grand adventure. Six months, a giant road trip followed by some time traveling around Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Germany?) and culminating in hiking the Camino from April to June.

I’m pretty sure anyone reading this will already know our family, but in case you didn't, I’d just point out that when I say the whole family I mean, me, Betty (my wife), and our five kids. Kimball (17), Anahi (15), Alicia (14), Ian (11), and River (3).

We have a few different goals on this trip:

  1. We want to come together as a family and help the kids overcome some of the challenges they are facing.

  2. We want to learn what it means to be a pilgrim, and we want to travel like pilgrims. That means slowing down, paying attention to the beauty around us, seeking out sacred things, connecting with the people around us, and trusting that God will show us the way. This is NOT a vacation, but rather sacred travel. We believe there is a difference, and we want to learn what it is.

  3. Along with that, I’ll be prepping a book about our experiences (this blog will help me keep notes on what’s going on. In particular, I’m interested in why an LDS family would be interested in doing this ancient Catholic pilgrimage.

  4. Finally, it’s a photography project. I love how when I’m shooting, it makes me slow down and pay attention to the world around me, and I want to have beautiful pictures to remind me of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’m hoping to maybe even have a show at the college when we get back.

So that’s a brief summary of what we are up to. I’d like to write most days, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about the trip, as it will help guide the blog.

La Gran Aventura: Preparation

I thought I would take just one more entry here to write about some of our preparations for this journey.

Before that, I need to correct something I said yesterday. I went back and checked in my journal, and the first day that I mentioned the Camino was actually September 2, 2022. On that day I simply wrote that Betty and I “are thinking about doing the Camino de Santiago for my sabbatical in 2024. I think it could be possible. And if we do it, it will be incredible. Betty is on board.” For the sake of posterity, I think I should clarify what that conversation was like.

Betty on the night before we left home

I remember feeling really anxious about asking Betty if she wanted to do this, because she had been struggling with her physical and mental health for a while. Early in September, however, I realized that I had to talk to her or I would run out of time to put together a proposal for sabbatical leave. So in the morning, on a run, I asked her what she thought about the idea. I fully expected her to say “no way.” But she didn’t. Instead she told me that the night before she had been studying in an online class on positive psychology, and the entire lesson had been on the Camino and how it is an activity perfectly designed to support human happiness. It’s spiritual, it gets people into nature, it connects people, it involves physical activity. So she said, “let’s do it.”

Since then, not a day has gone by in which I haven’t thought about this trip.

The kids have been excited since day one as well. Over the past year we have done some hiking together as a family, and we have learned that the kids (including River) are all good hikers. They are all good-natured and happy to just get out on the trail.

Of course, when we talk about this trip, people always raise their eyebrows when we talk about River’s age. At 4 years old, it’s going to be a big challenge for her. On that regard, I have a few thoughts.

Let’s hope this good energy can continue for River

While the journey is long, the individual stages can be as short as we need them to be. I think we will start with 6-8 mile stages. Maybe we will continue that pace the entire way, but for sure at the beginning we will have to take things easy. Even at a really slow pace, that’s a reasonable pace for each day. If we get stronger as we go along, we may add a bit to that daily mileage, but I’m not really counting on that. I know that alone, I could hike the Camino much faster. If I were only with Betty, or just with my older kids, we could do it faster. But the Camino is a metaphor for life, and I want to make the journey as a family. So that’s what we are going to do.

Of course, if it’s just too difficult, Betty and River can move ahead and we can catch up to them. We have also considered getting one of those tough off-road wagons for kids. If any of you have used one or have any thoughts on them, please let us know. If we could throw her in there, it might help a lot.

A few other preliminary things (all of these pictures are from the night before we left home):

Betty’s health has really improved over the past several months. She has been really dialed in with her nutrition, and she and I go on a little walk-and-jog every morning. Her mental health has also been doing really well, and she’s feeling better today than she has in a very long time. I’m so grateful.

We have checked the kids out of school for the rest of this school year. Mrs. Vogt and the entire staff at Will Carleton Academy have been amazing in helping us to make this happen. It wouldn’t be possible without that support.

The past month or so have been especially exciting as we’ve received many packages from Amazon and made many, many trips to REI to get everyone geared up. The packing lists are short, but the gear is pretty specific so that we can keep things light. For the Europe/Camino part of the trip, River has a tiny little bag that she can carry just a bit in, Ian, Anahi, and Alicia all have 25 liter bags, Kimball has a 38L, Betty 48, and mine is 58. One pair of pants, one pair of shorts, one long-sleeved t-shirt and one short-sleeve. Some warm clothes for the cold days, a sleeping bag and pad, some basic toiletries, and that’s about it. Of course for the road trip, we can afford to bring a bit more, but not much.

The final week before we left was filled with cleaning the house and the kids finishing up school. It was intense, but we got it all taken care of. Sunday was amazing as we said goodbye to our dear friends from church. I’m currently the bishop of our ward, and I’ll continue to serve while away. I’m so grateful for my counselors and secretaries, and for the ward council who work so well together and have made it possible for us to do this as well.

Sunday night we packed up our bags. At some point during the afternoon, just before a final dinner with some dear friends, we went outside and I told the kids that it’s tradition for pilgrims to carry a small rock with them on the Camino. It represents a burden they carry or a trial that they face — a blessing that they hope God will grant them on the Camino. They will carry that rock with them almost the entire journey, and then just before Santiago they will drop that rock at the foot of an ancient cross called Cruz de Ferro (the Iron Cross). The idea may seem a bit strange to some members of our church, but I look at it a bit like fasting for a purpose. That rock is a reminder that this is not just a vacation or a great hike, but a way to connect more directly with the powers of heaven. On the difficult days the rock will remind us that it’s supposed to be difficult, and that challenge will force us to rely even more on the Savior. It will help focus our faith.