Trippn'

We got home last night and are in the stages of recovering form the trip.
I am in the sweatpants, bed head, "leave me alone" stage.
Tiny is in the happy, just woke up from a long and early nap stage.
Baby Girl is in the ordered off to bed for whining and howling in stead of leaving me alone stage.
Altogether, not so bad. I'm not being left completely alone, but with the one in bed and the other busy ruining the stereo, I'm getting by. Though I suppose it would be prudent of me to save the life of the stereo.

There is a list of things that I like to do during my summer visits to Utah. Care to recap with me and see how I did with the list this year?
The first Item of business, I guess, should be sharing the list with you so here goes.

1- Visit family
2- Chill with Barefoot Cassandra and pretend to be eighteen again
3- See whatever other old friends I can get a hold of
4- Leatherby's, ahh bliss!
5- Drive around in the cool night air with the windows and sunroof open wide.
6- Take alternate bites of crisp bean, and meat burritos from Taco Time
7- Drop by Arctic Circle for a lime squeeze and yukon gold fries.
8- Sit outside and suck in the sweet cool summer evening air until my lungs explode.
9- Super Nachos from Beto's
10- Form a new obsession over one thing or another.

Wow, a lot of that list is dedicated to fast food. Let's pretend that I eat only vegetables to rest of the time to make up for it, deal?

Now, I think I'll have a celery stick while we review the list in detail.

1- I did super on this, I stayed a week with my Mother in law and a week with my Mother.
I saw all nine of my siblings, the one sibling of The Mr's who lives there, and even his sister in law who lives here but was there visiting. I saw every niece and nephew excepting one, who was not yet born on the day I visited her mother.
I saw My Grandma and most of my Aunts and Uncles. I saw The Mr's Maternal grandparents and 2 of his aunts. I missed his paternal grandmother though, darn. Still, that is a staggering number of relations to have seen so I think I can check that one off.
Also, Baby Girl seems to have overcome her fear of the teenage uncles! She's always been wary of any uncle with no children of his own, but by the end of our stay she was talking freely to all uncles, childless or otherwise, with no sign of distress. I call that progress.

2- Barefoot is busy these days so it was trickier to play eighteen than it has sometimes been. I did leave my Children with my mother last Saturday while we went to the X-Files movie.
Watching David Duchovney chase monsters always takes me back to eighteen.
Better yet, when the movie was over, Barefoot's loving papa bought us frostys. That was the cherry on top of my evening in teenagehood.

3- I ran across two old friends. I had dinner with Teresa, from my Utah Festival Opera days, and chatted in the road with Mindi, from the neighborhood of my youth.
Both very last minute and too short but really good just the same.

4- I never made it to Leatherby's, sigh, I'll have to get there at Christmas.

5- Luckily the rental car I had for a few days had a sunroof so I am able to check this item off the list. I have to say though, it's not quite as satisfying when you don't have long hair to fly in the wind.

6- Got the burritos, it's just not satistying to have either the bean or the meat. Must be both, and alternating bites is definitely the only way to go.

7- Never made it to Arctic Circle. I've started taking Lime slices on a ziploc to the movies to squeeze into my Sprite though, so it's only the yukon gold fries I really missed out on.

8- I spent some time out in the evenings but not as much as I would have liked. More than anything else, Summer evenings are what I miss most from the climate I grew up in.
Occasionally I notice a similar quality of the light on a winter afternoon here, but never the same. Never the tangible nostalgia that hangs in the air at the perfect ends of long summer days.

9- No Beto's either. Actually Beto's goes by a different name these days but I don't remember what it is. Anyway I had no super nachos from Beto's or otherwise.

10- Last year it was Arrested Development. I borrowed season one from Barefoot and stayed up too late watching it in bed on the portable DVD player. You already know about this years obsession, so I'll spare you any more details.

It was a good trip, but long. I was very ready to come home. Actually, I should rephrase that. I was Very ready to be home. I spent more than a few days dreading coming home. No good can come of taking flights that depart after your children's bed time. I'll do my best to remember that.