Saturday, August 11, 2007

bittersweet...

My sister and her husband each were given a few days off from their jobs. It's a very rare thing that their schedules ever coordinate like that; and that they would both get that many consecutive days off. So anyway, they wanted to do something fun together in their free time; and to our delight, they decided to come pay us a visit. The timing of it couldn't have been more perfect for me, as I was still trying to recover from the departure of my dad, Lynell, and my two youngest sisters - the week before. The problem is that Kim and Christian have since come and gone; and I find myself, once again, feeling empty and lonely. I can't sulk in my sorrows too much, especially since my sweet mother-in-law is in town. Really it's quite impossible to feel too badly when in her presence. I imagine though, that once she leaves...I'll go into a deep dark depression...unless, does anyone else want to come and stay with us? Please.
So yeah, we had a wonderful time with Kim, Christian, and their sweet little Lincoln. Because Kim works for Nordstrom, she wanted to see what the Last Chance hype was all about. Last Chance is the place that all the Nordstrom stores, company wide, send their damaged merchandise, customer returns, etc. It's just a huge, glorified Deseret Industries. It's pretty hit and miss though, and you usually have to do a lot of digging and sorting to find anything truly worthwhile. Fortunately, for us, it was a "hit" day as we all walked out of there with some treasures...

Tuesday we did something kind of fun. John and I live about 10 minutes from the Salt River, and we've noticed, from time to time, billboards that advertise "floating the Salt River". We've always been curious, and have talked about doing it for some time now. Kim and Christian thought it sounded like fun, so we decided to check it out. We got a babysitter for the little ones, and headed to the river. We stopped at the depot where they distribute the tubes for rent, and then got on a bus that took us to the particular point on the river that we were to embark our journey. The river float lasted about 2 1/2 hours; and apart from a couple of patches of small white capped rapids, it was comparable to a lazy river float at a water park. (Which is always my most favorite part about a water park. If it doesn't have a lazy river, I'm not interested!) It was relaxing, and fun to hold on to each other's tubes, sip our favorite sodies, take pictures, engage in conservation, observe strange behavior demonstrated by other river floaters, bask in the sun (but hope to not fry), enjoy the surroundings, feel the sea weed brush our legs (and get caught in our fingers), occasionally feel the pain of our rear ends connecting with the rocks (yes, at times it was that shallow), and laugh, and laugh, and laugh...
Probably the most thrilling part of the whole experience was the bus ride. I am not kidding when I say that I saw my life flash before my eyes on that ride. The driver was a crazy thrill seeker, probably expecting a great tip (which we chose not to provide her with), by going over bumps, curves, and hills at ridiculously high speeds, which literally caused the entire bus to catch air a couple of times. A few of the passengers were hooting and hollering. I was not one of those. My sister and I were gripping the seats til our knuckles turned white...










That night we went to the Dimandbacks game. We picked up some tickets from a scalper, and got really great seats for only 5 bucks a person!







Ruby was so cute with her little cousin. She was always very gentle towards him, with her hugs, kisses, and loves. It was the cutest thing to witness...



Apart from making me feel a little homesick, I had a wonderful time with them, and am so happy they chose to spend their time off - here...with us.

I guess we wouldn't really be able to truly love and appreciate all of life's sweet and wonderful moments, without feeling some of that sorrow and disappointment from time to time. We have to take the bitter with the sweet. The reunion...the sweet hello. Followed by the parting...the bitter goodbye.

4 comments:

diana said...

after reading your post, i feel like i miss them too. i can't wait for them to come back!

so when's john's next seminar? haha... i had a good chuckle at your comment you left.

i got your message that you left me on friday. that makes me feel good that between your busy family visits you made time to call me. so sweet!

~~Heidi~~ said...

That looks like you guys had so much fun. I am sorry about having them leave, its so hard when your family has to go back home! At least they come to visit!! Right. You guys always have the best time!! we sure miss you guys!

Melanie said...

Okay, Ruby has always been cute, but when did she become so stinkin' cute?! I adore her hair!

Amber and Dallas said...

Looks like so much fun! I'm sure you had such a great time while they were here! What a sweet family you have!