Sunday, November 28, 2010

Going Back to a Place That I Love


As I mentioned in my previous posting, we attended Brooke's reception in July. I generally described the event, but here is the play by play of what went down that weekend:

Yet again, we were on our way to another wedding reception. This one was for my cousin, Brooke. (Not to be confused with my other cousin Brooke living in Utah). This Brooke is from my mom’s side and grew up in Idaho. I believe I have mentioned this before, but I am very close to my cousins from Idaho. Brooke, Brianna, Kendra, and I were always playing (or fighting) together, and have continued to have a great relationship. I don’t get to see them nearly as much as I would like, so whatever chance I get…I take.

Jason and I drove up to Shelley, Idaho that Friday night and spent the evening talking to the grandparents and searching for “night crawlers”! Sounds creepy right? And it was! 

Jason had been planning to take advantage of the Snake River while in Idaho. When my grandpa caught wind of his plans, the night’s discussions became all about fishing! My Grandpa Rich was quite the Fishing King back in his day (and still would be if his physical strength was better). It was really cute to see him and Jason have something to really connect and talk about. Grandpa even lent him some of his homemade lures to use, and ended up letting him keep one and take it home. Rather than buying worms at the gas station nearby, Grandpa suggested we go in the yard and search for night crawlers. So we took a flashlight out and began searching through the wet dirt. 

The worms we saw were huge! Perfect for fishing! The only thing we didn’t anticipate was how FAST they were. Every time Jason saw a big juicy one, he would quickly grab for it…but they would quickly zip out of his fingers. They almost appeared to be jumping out of his fingers! It was crazy. Sadly to say, no worms were caught.

The next morning, Jason got up at 5:00 AM to hit the river. He kindly asked if I was interested in joining him…anyone who knows me probably knows what my response was. So Jason set off to the river and I continued in my dreams…until…

I was suddenly awoken by my mother insisting I quickly get up and go outside. One of the ponies on my grandpa’s lot had gotten out in the night. The trick was trying to get the pony back in the gate before the other horses and ponies got out. My smart mother ran and grabbed a rope and was able to loop it around the pony’s neck, which is a surprise since these ponies are known for being feisty. We guided the pony inside of the gate and were able to pull the gate back in time. Mind you, the gate was very heavy and sticky with bugs and spider webs. It was nasty. What could have turned out to be a very scary and dramatic thing, turned out to go smoother than ever expected. It was definitely fun to see my mom at work in her element… doing the things she would have done growing up in that small town of Shelley, Idaho. 

Since I was already up, my mom dropped me off near the bridge Jason was fishing under. I was glad I was able to get some time fishing with him. He kept going off on how BIG the Snake River was. It makes the Provo River look like a stream!

The rest of the day was spent helping the Hillams get their yard ready for the reception. It was quite the job. Even with over a dozen of us helping, the task seemed overwhelming. However, Aunt Arnae did a phenomenal job!! It was so pretty! She put SO much work and preparation into making all of the décor…and it turned out perfectly. It was rainy in the morning and very windy in the afternoon, but by the time evening came around, the weather became very pleasant. So lucky!

Most importantly, Brooke looked gorgeous! She was the type of gorgeous that makes you feel depressed, because you know you will never look that pretty. You know what I’m talking about. Brooke and Nate were so cute together and I was so glad I was able to be there to celebrate their marriage with them (see previous posting for lots of pictures).

After “taking down” the reception, we met up with several of my cousins (and their boyfriends) for game night. We played Boxers or Briefs, a very fun game! We were exhausted by the time we got to bed.
I couldn’t believe it when Sunday came around and we were driving home. The weekends you look forward to always go by the fastest. 

One disappointment of the weekend, however, was the lack of Air-Soft battles going on. As an encore to our good times at the Spruces, Bryan got us hyped up about a big war we were going to have in Idaho. He brought all of the guns and promised a good fight. The turning point was when Bryan found out that Jason was going to be bringing his automatic gas powered air-soft gun. This was very concerning to Bryan…since it shoots faster and possibly harder. Whenever we suggested to Bryan that we play, he would say “No, not right now.” Jason did get one game in with Bryan and his friend, Ammon, but that lasted a whole 10 minutes. We’ll get you next time Bryan!

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