Easter of This Year

Sometimes things are so right and so good, they don't even need words.  Other than to say this Easter was just what the heart ordered. 

 

Early church service attended with fancy dresses and filled pews and afterward fellowship. 

 

Indulged too much in Momma Debi's homemade hot cross buns and Dad-o's egg bake while the warm morning light streamed in. 

 

Coffee sipped slow and steady long into the day. 

 

Robins spotted and welcomed with open arms as signs of this season's newness. 

 

An orange skirt's pattern - the end to sweaters and other cold weather fashion for good, thank you very much.  

 

Old home movies watched until tears were in our eyes, from laughing at my brother's Honky-tonk Man winning lip-sync kindergarten performance and my four year old rendition of reading Just for You by Mercer Mayor on a floral couch and tears of  a different kind from seeing people like Grandma Gladys making gravy in the kitchen on Thanksgiving of 1988 while Grandpa Norman read the paper in his gray recliner chair.  Both kinds kept rolling when it turned to that same Thanksgiving, only this time at Grandma Audrey's house with Uncle Tige being his usual ridiculous self and then Lacie and Lindsey holding hands and dancing on the carpeted kitchen floor while Matt wore necklaces and a goofy hat as he jigged across the screen.  Oh family is it.  The only thing, through the laughter tears and the different kind of tears too. 

 

Clothes changed and then the day was played away in the sunshine.  Baseball, foot races - a certain kindergarten boy beat the pants off his aunt, riding bikes, and giving horses treats learning the important lesson of keeping your hand.  Being tired from sunshine and wind is the best kind of tired.  I always feel something after a day outside; there's not a certain way to describe it...it's just something. 

 

Easter Sunday was so right and so good. 

 

On a serious note, take video of your loved ones and keep it safe for future eyes.  It's beyond precious to have, to see family and friends in action is much different than a still shot.  It will make your heart happy and your heart hurt all at the same time and it's a keeper of a different kind of memory.     

 



Hey Steam! Hey Tourist! Hey Random!

Food is always on the agenda when down in the desert.  My dad is a more than fabulous cook who loves to experiment and being in a real-city provides all kinds of options we don't have in our non-city and my mom makes homemade bread almost every single day.  So food, lots of food.  It's always there and around which leads me to having a two part goal while visiting the sunshine.  Number one being I eat pretty much whatever I want and number two being I never stop moving.  Running, swimming, biking, walking...all the time.  I feel better about consuming seventy-hundred calories in a day that way.

This round was pork on the grill. 

This next round was Mexican food out while shopping.  Which leads me to wonder...how many ways can a person take a picture of a margarita?  This many.  With other ones possible, of that I'm sure.  Also I would like to add that Momma Debi and I became slightly buzzed from our sweet and salty margs.  I'm not sure if I can state this next sentiment without there being some form of judgment but I've never been one to care much about others judgments so here goes...day drinking and afternoon buzzes are the absolute best.  One might say cat's meow there, but that one would be someone who doesn't think cats are rats in disguise.  One letter difference people.  One letter.  I digress.  Appetizing discussion eh?   

Hey steam for the win! 

First time gelato getter over here and let me tell you this.  Yum.  That's what.  Of all those choices, I went with salted caramel and was more than happy with the decision.  I really kept staring at the swirls; the way it looks is more exciting to me more than it tastes.  Well almost...because love a duck, it's delicious.  Delicious and pretty.  

Hey tourist!

I love my mom.  I love my mom and how she will play tourist with me and how she wears her sun hats with a side of robe.   

This is totally not staged.  And just goes to show you why I indeed have a lovely forehead crease which is semi-permanent, too much face squishing over everything.  I'm not sure if we were bossing Dad-o around or if there was an alien.  It's hard to tell.   

Then, there's this and this is a case of my dad not trusting me once again.  Oh he's kind of fake smiling through it, but don't let that fool you.  Lecture-ville was going down.  It's like he knows I am jittery in nature and get distracted easily.  He was freaking out about my camera being in the water.  Let me rephrase that.  He was freaking out about me holding the camera up to my eyes while my chin was under the water and the strap was wrapped around my head.  To this day, I just can't imagine why he would be nervous about that situation.  

Hey random!  

Triple D

While we are on the topic of new and opportunity, I'll continue right on here by sharing the first ever experience of eating at a place featured on the Food Network's show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with spiky hair Guy.  He is my favorite.  I try not to like him sometimes because I think, he should be annoying right?  Spiky hair that's bleached, loud voice, talks non-stop, etc...  All leads to annoying.  But the truth?  The truth is I love him.  I could watch Triple D all the live long day and then get super hungry and find myself in the kitchen trying to make chips-salsa-macaroni-apple pancake-with a side of-fish taco.  

Does this happen to anyone else?  

I sometimes have to swear off the Triple D for awhile because of its dangerous tendencies to lead to eating at odd times.  Odd things at odd times.

But inevitably, I come back for more. 

There was a Phoenix episode one day so when I was there in March with my parents and my sister, after an afternoon of lounging and swimming, off we went to St. Francis.

I knew when we pulled up, it was going to live up to the expectations.  An outdoor movie was playing, there was vintage chairs to sit in while waiting for a table, and the food was out of this world once seated.

Goat cheese and marinara, fingerling potatoes with thyme, the meatballs-the meatballs, and pizza.  Pizza with figs for me and pizza with lots of red for Sister Pister followed by Momma Debi sharing with everyone.  



Sunsets are Universal

The world is a big, big place.  

Obvious yes.  

But really it is beyond vast with many, many opportunities to do and see and feel.   

I think of this each and every time I travel anywhere, even if it's simply a couple of hours to a neighboring town.  There's different everywhere, in every hop-skip-and jump and I love that sentiment.  Like squeeze hug kind of love it.  

Sunsets are universal in the notion that the big orange ball which sits high during the day makes its descent down to dip behind the horizon.  A sunset is quite literally the sun setting and that doesn't change with location.  

However, a sunset is far from universal in the experience and landscape which surrounds it.  A desert sunset in March on top of South Mountain is entirely not the same as a North Dakota sunset in an open prairie field on the same evening. 

I've decided this.  I don't have to pick which different I like better, in travel and in anything really.  I can experience them both, them all, with the appreciation for the other at the same time.  I love that sentiment as well.  I don't have to be a one track person, because I am free to swallow up many of those opportunities this world and all its places and faces offer.  

The view is worth the trip up the mountain, which can be interesting.  Interesting in the sense of car sickness and random skateboarders flying down the narrow road and a man who is dressed too much like a cowboy stopping on his horse in the middle of the road.  All worth it.  Besides, I love when odd things happen.  Big fan. 

It goes without saying that a sunset is even more special when shared with loved ones, especially when they are loved ones called my parents who I catch being all together while sitting on a bench visiting away while I run around like a crazy person with my camera. 

The world is a big, big place with endless opportunities.  I know this.  You know this.  We all can forget this.  Let's raise a glass to not forgetting.  

Let's also raise a glass to traditions.  You know me, I am a tradition groupie.  Momma Debi said, "It's our tradition to go to In-and-Out Burger after South Mountain sunsets."  My heart went yes!  Because who am I to argue with any tradition, especially that one. 

No one.  I am no one to argue with that.