Road Trip To Hometown

Since we never get Holidays off with Sharrid's work (at least not yet), we just end up taking random times off and deciding what to do with them later, when they come around. We had bigger plans for this summer but ended up scaling back and just taking a week and a half at my parents. Actually what made it hard was that Marcelus started school and then we left. He missed a lot but we didn't know when his schooling would be when we took off the work.

While I was there I knew I wanted everybody to have fun and I also wanted to work on my music as much as I could. I didn't get nearly enough of that done but it was my fault (I'll explain in another post). As far as the fun goes, well let's just say it ended up being more of a lazy trip, again more of my fault.

To be honest, the household was busy! Now that I think of it, it's more busy then when all 6 of us kids lived at home! Sadly, I now see it as a miracle if we're all there for dinner together. My dad works from home but a lot of his work this trip was outside the home and then when he was done he and Tibi would head up to the HS to watch Landon practice...who watches practice? They do. Tibi and I did get to go on a couple night walks together. Landon had two-a-days the whole time! He was gone a lot and then was bushed and would sleep a good part of the time he was home. I meant to play on the drums with him but it never happened. Kira is hardly tangible. She wasn't home a lot. When you work 20 days straight, you come home and play 20 days straight! She's made some great friends in the Valley while she's home for this stint in her life. With Kira, it doesn't matter that they're almost 10 years younger, she's timeless. That's a big time compliment. I wish I was timeless like that, but there's something about not being single and having kids that makes that one hard.

The one person in the house who does so much but seems to salvage some free time is my mother. So when I go home, I spend my time with mom. Someday, the others won't seem so busy, but for now, it's me and mother. We ran errands together, worked on what little music we did, and read the Hunger Games together (mom's first time!). She LOVED it! Of course, who doesn't? It was great to sit down and read with her. I had a good time working on the music too. Mom is always self deprecating about her skills, but she wrote out my newest song in a jiffy. That's all we did though. Next trip we have to get on the keyboard and add the strings. We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do. Then I really have to work with that keyboard for a song called "Falling In Line". It's the most electronic song I've written. I'm really excited about it though because I have so many ideas for it and a lot in my mind.

Sharrid and I went out to dinner at Sugar's! Yum! We all watched Mystery Science Theatre 3000 "Terror from the year 5000". That's the only movie we watched. Landon spoke in church on preparing for a mission. He did great. We went to Landon's first football game. He's the first string quarterback GO LAN! He did awesome. The night before his game I was sitting in his room with him as he was gathering his stuff for the game. He put on all his garb and posed in the mirror to make sure it all looked good...just like he used to when he was 3 years old. It was such a throw back. He asked me what socks he should wear and if he should tape his cleats and such. Landon and I are pretty close and I always spend as much time with him as I can when I go home. I sometimes think that the miscarriage my mom had just after me could have been a boy. Landon is twelve years younger than me, but I try not to make that significant. I hope Landon likes being with me as much as I love being with him.

Tibi was fun too, she has this thing lately where she tries to beat me up. She may have more desire but I will always be stronger than her. Oh yeah, and Kira almost broke my arm.

We went out to the Lake with Scott, just like old times. So glad that boat is forever in our family! Anyway, turns out the boat broke down for the first time in history and we were stranded. We had plenty of food and water but we were FAR from the dock! We paddled out of the cove we were in and caught a boat who graciously towed us in to the nearest dock. The drive home was long and it was late. That was kind of an exhausting day! ha ha But you know what, the whole survival thing with Scott was great. We still had a really fun time. Somehow being in the middle of a nightmare is actually fun when you're around Scott. ("Your father could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves!")

Without further ado, the pictures of the trip.
This one is actually before we left. Marce was talking to me while I was doing the dishes, then he left and when I walked out of the kitchen after I was done, I found this right outside the kitchen...cute.
Phoenix loved the drums. Marce loved the Nintendo 64. Super Smash Bros. is his favorite game. I stepped in for one game and he beat me! This was the scene after Landon's morning practice most days. The boys trying on Landon's gear. It's good to be back into the groove of things here in AZ...but I'll be back home in October.