All Good Things Must Come to an End

The kids and I are headed back home today following a fun and exhausting week.

Or, we will be once The Girl wakes up; she went to bed last night at six o’clock and it is now almost nine. I’m not surprised she was so tired, she did a bang-up job of baby-sitting my nephew all weekend, getting up early every morning, staying up late every night, wielding an imaginary light-saber for hours on end; it was enough to tire out even the sturdiest kid.

Plus, there were all the rodeos, two days of carnival rides (the kids rode every ride they could reasonably stomach at least a zillion times thanks to Aunt Jules, who arrived from California to spoil the holy hell out of them), and the parades, not to mention the arrival of several of my girlfriends’ children with whom they could (and did) play for hours on end; in short, it was a typical and exhausting Stampede weekend.

The adults didn’t fare much better in the exhaustion category. We had a great time, though, as evidenced by my previous entry. In my defense, the altitude here is slightly different from that in Petticoat Junction; so, yeah, I blame the altitude, not the cheap boxed wine served at the dances.

As an aside, nothing says klassy like cheap boxed wine.

I really enjoyed my time with my sister and her husband (who did a fantastic job as Designated Husband for the weekend; he even let my sister and I live after we completely and thoroughly embarrassed him at the Sonic drive-up at twelve-thirty in the morning following one of the dances and too much klassy wine). My time catching up with my roommates was incredibly special to me and it is always good to see Jules.

I also had the pleasure of reconnecting with one of my oldest friends from High School, a girl with whom I spent many a weekend getting into trouble and who never failed to make me laugh until my sides hurt; we lost touch not long after my wedding (she was a bridesmaid and her adorable daughter was my flower girl. That adorable daughter is now almost eighteen and gorgeous. Also; I am old) and I can’t tell you how good it was to see her again. We plan to stay in touch and, hopefully, will get a chance to visit one another soon.

So, as usual, we had a great time. Of course, we all miss Hugh, who, as you may recall, stayed home to work on landscaping the backyard. At last report, the sprinkler system was good to go, the fence had been stained, a new chain-link fence had been constructed to fence off a portion of the yard that will house the tractor lawn-mower and many, many beers had been consumed. Actual grass in the backyard? Not so much but; we miss Hugh so much, we are willing to overlook it and, as Annie would say, there is always tomorrow.

Or, you know, next year, during which time I will be here, once again, enjoying the Stampede weekend.

It’s all good, is what I’m sayin’.