Ah, the joys of Home

A couple of weeks ago I was able to take a few days off of work and travel home to Gig Harbor, WA for Matt's mission farewell. It was certainly a quick trip, but it was SO worth it! I flew in Thursday evening and promptly challenged Matt to an arm wrestling match soon after we walked in the front door. I've been working out a lot lately and I had convinced myself that I had gotten stronger than him again. The last several years, Matt's been able to beat me in our arm wrestling matches without much trouble and it has really been annoying to me! I'm supposed to be stronger than my younger brother! I don't care that he's an adult man now. :)

So this time I was ready to take him down. I had read up on some tricks of arm wrestling, and Matt immediately noticed my different stance and hold. He wasn't getting tricked by me! So the countdown started. ... GO! I definitely held my own on the left side, but finally gave out because my elbow was digging in to the countertop and it hurt (I know -- LAME!). So then came the right. No contest! Matt took me down with little effort. DANGIT! But I was not ready to give up. How about a leg wrestle? OK. Again, similar story. Matt schooled me on the right, but this time on the left, I flipped his body over no problem! Boost of pride for me. We did other sorts of strength competitions throughout the evening, and overall, Matt was the victor. I think we put on a good show for the rest of the family, and I was just happy that I was able to beat him in at least ONE thing! So until next time.......... I'm imagining another match-up in about 2 years after Matt comes back from his mission. He'll be a softie after getting over-fed in the mission field and I'll be a beast (but a feminine one) and finally put him to shame. This is my new 2-year goal. ;)

The rest of the visit was super enjoyable. Friday afternoon, we all met my dad near his work for lunch. I always love when I have an excuse to go out to lunch while I'm at work, so I thought Dad would appreciate us all coming to hang out. It's always fun to hang out with my family. We make eachother laugh and we really do enjoy eachother's company. Bonus: The food was super yummy!

Saturday I mowed my parent's front lawn. I hadn't mowed the lawn in YEARS! Matt and I also spent a lot of time out in the backyard playing 'ball' with Seth. He's a coordinated little guy! He's going to be great at playing sports. It was nice to spend a good amount of time in the sunshine.

Sunday was a good day. Matt gave his farewell talk in church and he did a great job! After church we had the most yummy home-made lasagna for lunch and then hosted an open house for people to come and visit and say goodbye to Matt. Of course there was TONS of food and treats and I felt like a cow grazing all day in the kitchen. I don't think I felt hungry once that day. Just kept eating.

Had to take some fun pics with Grandma at the Open House!

Monday rolled around and I felt super yucky. I've gotten myself used to eating smaller portions and low-calorie foods, as well as working out almost every day. (Panama, here I come!) So I decided to take myself out for a run after all the binge-eating. I strapped on my armband which holds my Nike + iPod, so I was good to go. I set myself up to burn 500 calories, and off I went! Besides being plagued with the massive amounts of yellow pollen blinding my eyes and caking my lips, it felt awesome to be out and active. A local water delivery truck passed me soon after I started out, and 45 minutes later, passed me again. This time he slowed down and started pacing me. I finally looked over and here was this guy with a HU-AGE smile on his face, leaning out his window with a bottle of water for me. That was fun. :) And then when my iPod told me I was done with my work out, the voice of Lance Armstrong came on and said, "Good work! This was your longest work out yet!" So I was feeling pretty awesome. Thanks Lance.

Half an hour later, we all headed over to my grandma's house to get to work on her front yard. Wow! It really needed some help. I weed-whacked around all the bushes, Matt mowed the lawn and I raked up the clippings. Julie had to walk along-side Matt while he mowed because the grass was so long that the lawn mower wheels would squish it down and the blades couldn't cut it. So Matt would roll the lawn mower forward, back up, wait for Julie to rake the lawn up again, then run over it again. Mom was attending to various other things in the yard like weeding and planting a new bush. All in all, it took us about 3 hours to get it finished. Whew! I was glad we could do that for Grandma.

The fun continued with a big bonfire in my parent's backyard where we roasted hotdogs for dinner and marshmallows for S'mores. My cousin Chris drove his car around to our backyard to see what was going on. Typical of him. He usually drives up to our front door, but he saw the smoke from the bonfire, so just went around to the back. Seth thought that was pretty cool.

The last day I was there we took a trip down to the Purdy Spit. I used to hang out here a lot in High School. My friends and I would build bonfires and spend hours just shooting the Sh**. It's about 2 miles away from my parent's house. The day was beautiful once again, so we spent a good amount of time throwing rocks in the ocean and taking pictures. :)

All in all, a most successful and happy trip home! I miss it.

And now for the Grand Finale......

The most glamorous Rock-Skipper EVER!

You just try and duplicate that one! Haha