I sent this as a card for my Mom on Mother's Day.
And I didn't feel how true it was until I came home from visiting my Mom & Dad's last night and cried a little cry on Perry's shoulder as I felt homesick for my family!
Being an Air Force brat growing up, it's hard to answer the question "Where are you from?" I lived the most years of my life in Virginia, but I haven't been there in 5, haven't lived there in 10. I don't consider myself from Utah, but I lived there 2nd longest.
But now, although the town my parent's live in was where I was married, I've never really lived there but for a couple of months. BUT NOW because they are there, they are my home.
So I got to go home. For 5 whole days!
(Day 1, May 21st)
The occasion: Sister #6's high school graduation. Sisters #3 and #5 live within driving distance and would be present. Sister #1 also was flying in for a SURPRISE to #6 and arrived the night before I did. I think we got her pretty good. We hid in my Dad's office and when I turned the chair around to reveal Hank, she said she didn't really know who it was (she last saw him at Christmas, so its understandable!), but then I popped out from behind the desk and we had a good reaction.
I sure love my Pops!
Hank was incredibly well taken care of this trip. As the only child in attendance, I knew this would be. Grandma proceeded to spoon feed him a milkshake within the first 2 hours of arriving. This, of course, is in violation of my baby feeding beliefs, but sometimes Grandparents get to indulge the children a little :)
I got to sleep alone. I love to sleep with Per, of course, but let's be honest sometimes a gal needs to spread out and be free in her slumbering habits and positions. I had to giggle when I opened the bed sheets to reveal our very old and beautiful brown 70s sheets that we usually used for camping? They are seriously in mint condition.
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(Day 2, May 22)
If that's not a sight for sore eyes, maybe this will be. My Mom is a gift giver, and I was the lucky recipient of this beaut of a nightgown! I seriously love it, and my sister took a photo in the morning to send to Perris, who was obviously beside himself in admiration and love!!
My Dad is the director of the Air Force JROTC in town. When creating a plan, he suggested we go to the school's obstacle course! Since we were missing our #2 sister, we snapped this photo en route to the school and told her we missed her! She asked where we were going and we told her we were headed to the obstacle course to prove ourselves as Air Force brats. Or to prove that we can fail and still be happy.
But let's be honest, failure is quitting. We ain't no quitters.
We are pretty serious. Warming up and stretching before we started was a must.
As we were standing and chatting after warming up, a car pulls up and I see a girl in the drivers' seat, and think "Someone must recognize #5 or #6 sister" (since they were the only ones to attend high school in town). Then out pops sister #2 and yells, "Special delivery!!!"
If you can imagine it, we all (not dramatic or anything) drop our jaws in disbelief and run and scream over to her, and sister tackling ensued! We had all really believed she couldn't make it, and until the night before, she really wasn't going to. She couldn't handle it any longer (she was breaking the sister chain!!!) and flew through the night, and rented a car to drive into town!!! It was awesome.
Then the awesomeness faded a little when we started going through the obstacle course.
We were totally pumped and full of energy as we began. As a recreation therapist in profession, this is the kind of stuff I made girls and families do ALL THE TIME, so I was totally [over] confident.
Then we got to the rope swing.
That took us approximately 25 minutes to complete. Let's not get down on ourselves by remembering that the record time for 1 individual to complete the maybe 15 challenges is 1:40. Yes. 1 MINUTE and 40 seconds.
Let's again review the statement above: "Failure is quitting. We ain't no quitters."
Then you'll note sister #1 in the green shirt above. Even though she entered a foot into "princess mode" and we sort of carried/lifted her across the rope crawl, she did not quit!!!
Our father was so kind as to not take ONE photo of us falling in the pit below that rope swing. Thank you, dear father.
I hope you'll note all these pictures are us at our best. ;)
We called Mom, who was home with Hank to come over and take some pictures when she was ready. We only had about 3 challenges left by this time, and we needed to surprise her with sister #2!! Sisters 1 & 2 are twins, so when sister #2 popped out and walked to Mom, all Mom could think was "Why did Cami (sister#1) change into that nice blouse????" It was pretty darn awesome.
We made awesome signs, and graduation commenced!!!!!
We love that Katie!
We have a few prosthetics in our house. Namely 2 ears, and 1 leg. Luckily (?) Katie had accidentally dyed a pair with hair dye, and had the idea to fully dye them blue in honor of her high school. She's pretty daring!!
We enjoyed some delicious food afterward. These hohos are actually diplomas, if you didn't catch that. And when I refused any to my puppy dog-begging baby, my Mom was so sad for him and asked "Can't he just have a bite?" No. "How about a little lick?" Hahaha!
SISTERS are the BOMB.
