Home Sweet Home

First off sick dog on a plane is not good even if he is sedated....I am not sure if it was because he isn't feeling well or if he would be like that on the plane regardless of how he felt. All I know was I had a lot of sympathy for mom's traveling alone with children because you can't just drug them and put them under the seat! All in all after a rough trip to Idaho we arrived in Lewiston and Mom was there to pick me up...needless to say she got a kick out of my nightmare of a trip. We were off to Sharp's Burger Ranch which is always the first stop when flying into Lewiston. Mom and I got to Pierce and as my Uncle Dan and Aunt Terri pulled into the house to see me it started to snow. I thought wow this is going to be an exciting trip...stuck in the house while it snows in May. Thank goodness that was the only day that it snowed and it didn't actually stick to the ground. On Thursday we headed to Boise to pick up Dad from the airport and then onto Salt Lake City for Todd's graduation.

When we got back from Salt Lake City my Cousin Tori and her son Jayden had arrived in town from ATL. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them, we went to Orofino to get Tori's hair cut and colored. (Yes she does go all the way to Idaho to have that done....I told her she was crazy). Aunt Terri and I went for a walk where we ended up getting caught in a down pour....I will never forget her saying "It's not going to cut loose" and then 5 minutes later being soaked through my clothes in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm. Sly freaked out at the thunder and lightning, Uncle Dan tried to rescue us, and we actually jogged trying to get back to the house faster. The two fools that we are danced in the rain on the baseball field...that only lasted until lightning hit the bleachers and scared us. We are probably lucky we didn't get struck by lightning. My silly dog is afraid of mud puddles so I ended up carrying him part of the way. As we stripped out of our wet clothes and I borrowed something from my Aunt to wear I told her..."I earned my Costco cupcake!"

I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in a very long time of course you always wish you had more time with everyone, but there are only so many hours in the day. My mom's parents were also at the house and Tori's brother Tyson come up with his family. It was nice to have everyone together where we had time to visit and we weren't dealing with some big event. Dad had a bunch of stuff outside that needed burned so we had two big fires. Of course me being the pyromaniac that I am got too close (OK I also had diesel) and singed my hair....the best part was I didn't notice until I walked up to my Aunt Terri to tell her a BIG STORY. She was laughing so hard she couldn't talk and I couldn't figure out what was going on...I did figure it out! Afraid of the bald spot I was going to have I ran in the house to wash my hair and assess the damage. This wasn't the first time I have done this and it probably will not be the last. By the time I came back out with my baseball hat on my Dad had singed his eyebrows and shortly after that Aunt Terri got her bangs. We had a good laugh roasted hot dogs and had S'mores....couldn't have asked for a better time.

Well a trip home to Pierce would not be complete with out a trip to the Orofino Golf course....and not that I have ever been a good golfer, but since I don't golf on a regular basis any more it is really bad. That being said it was a lot of fun and I actually was starting to get my swing back...well here and there anyway. Aunt Terri's new clubs are really sweet....maybe it is time for me to get back into the "swing" of things and buy a new set of clubs myself. Tori made a comment at one point that if she would have known that Auntie and I sucked so bad she would have golfed with us more...we really aren't that bad. Well OK maybe I am but the "short bus driver" in the picture to the right is pretty good when her daughter and niece aren't giving her a hard time.

Happy endings and sad good byes! As my wonderful trip came to an end Mom made Mexican food and my cousin Bo, his wife Lenne, my cousin Amy and their children came up to Pierce for the evening. Along with the rest of the gang it was a house full but it was just like old times...it's hard to leave that comfort. I never thought the time would come in my life that I would say I was sad to leave Pierce....but this time I was sad to leave Pierce. My life started there it is my home and every inch of that place has memories and most of them GREAT! You run into family, friends, old classmates, and I even made a new friend at the grocery store...people are friendly not rude pushing, cutting people off in a rush to be some where. They take the time to wave while driving down the road and are actually being friendly not sarcastic. It was refreshing and relaxing to be HOME! Now that I am back in California after I cringe my teeth at someone trying to be one step ahead of me I smile and remember how not long ago I was moving at a much different pace. It makes me really appreciate what Idaho has to offer.