long weekend

i am posting this picture because a) katie is beautiful and this picture is irrefutable proof.  so pfffft to the leah sister theory.  and b)because i seek relief from the muggy heat even if such relief is not quite physical but visonary.

i think when i ventured out to buy myself a chicken shawerma this evening that i saw glimpses of actual blue sky.  maybe the smoke is moving on.  then again i see and orange full moon rising, so what do i know.

it's been a good weekend.  i needed a weekend like this.  on friday i did not have a nap after work and we all know what a super human feat that is for me.  it goes against my nature.  my nature is to nap...especially on fridays.  instead i got gussied up, packed a beach bag and an overnight bag and met mom and dad and katie and brent in langley.  we were too late for the 6 session.  (well i wasn't.  i would have just skimmed in there on time) so we met for vietnamese food at a place near the wendy's.  it was pretty good.  dad and i both got the villiage specail which was this crispy chicken on thicker noodles with coconut milk, and basil and sprouts etc.  pretty yummy.  brent got a curry on noodles and spent his time putting the basil in and then taking it off right away and eventually giving it to mom who can't get enough basil and sprouts.  basil and sprouts are her jam.  katie got the lemon grass pork noodle bowl i think and mom got chicken i think.  feel free to correct me for the sake of the future generations.

after a good meal we went to the temple and did a session.  there were only 5 women in our session and 4 guys.  so it's good we went to that one.  katie and i both felt sleepy during parts but i saw her doing the sign language trick i taught her and it made me proud.  katie said she never noticed how much taller i am than her sitting down.  yeah, that's where my tallness lies!  i got short legs and arms!  i'm like a t-rex...with short legs.  anywho, it was a really really nice time in the temple.  i saw the deyels there and donna took me through the veil which was nice.

after the temple i abandoned my car and jumped in the jeep with the others and headed out to c-wack-a-mole.  i figured heavenly father would bless my car to make it to the temple and i didn't want to push it further.  

at katie's and brent's i sat with the fan on my feet which felt GLORIOUS.  hallelujah!  and talked to natalie about blueberry picking and such.  she wants a photo shoot when she gets her braces off and i'm like yeah i can do that but don't expect 100s like back in the day with michealah and her 3 clothes changes.  like that just aint possible no mo.  like i'm an old woman.  i gots my limits.  katie and i talked until i was like, let's go to bed so you're not grumpy tomorrow.  she looked at me and said "i'm going to be grumpy tomorrow."  to which i asserted that one cannot trick me out to one's home only to be grumpy the next day.  

and so it was that i was in michealah's room, undressing and chitchatting with her a little bit before we both went to sleep.  which was quite soon truth be told.  

next morning i woke up early a couple of times and forced myself back to sleep.  until around 8.  i got up and went upstairs.  katie made me a yummy avocado and tomato toast sandwich for breakfast.  then we went together to drop natalie off at a ladies house.  i went in my pjs and no bra because i'm like that.  on the way there we made natalie read random entries from my 2012 and 2006 blog books.  on the way home we talked about the good and bad of the 3 refugee ladies that katie and her group sponsored.  we sat in the driveway a while talking.

then i helped mom download and learn how to use open office.  we practiced.  i opened a new page and dad, who was watching woman in gold, was my subject.  "dad is a potato" i wrote.  then i saved it as dadspud.  then mom attempted.  she opened a new document and wrote "laura is a zucchini". and saved it as laurazuke, but managed to save it in her ttap videos folder instead of her doc folder so we had to do it again.  then she kept her finger down on the mouse when opening a new document and accidentally opened over 40 new documents, which was its own kind of good time.  eventually i think we got all the kinks out.

we had mac n tom for lunch.

we got ready for the beach.

i helped mom empty her stuff out of the van and i went with mom and dad and queen e and katie took the rest in her van.  mom and dad needed gas and i spotted a teeny tiny place on the side of the road that seemed completely abandoned, but aparently a boy from the little corner store next door came out with a  portable debit and helped pops beet with his transaction.  mom made dad repeat the card pin to her.  it's the same pin he's had forever and he said as if i'd forget that!  i remember numbers!  sarah and dad are similar this way.

once we made it to the lake we parked in handicapped parking and found katie and kids at a nearby picnic table. they nabbed one between two families both with delicious smelling bbqs.  we ate cherries and spit the pits on a paper plate.  we read some more entries of the blogs while i was sunscreening katie and while she was braiding natalie.  dad left to drive michealah to work.  eventually we were feeling warm and ready for a swim.  mom wasn't going to do it but we convinced her and she put on her sassy little suit she got from sarah.  katie and i jumped off the doc but mom didn't want to get her hair wet so she waded in.  we bobbed around a while, but mom doesn't like to go over her head, so i made up a game.  mom had to recite a long scripture from memory and katie and i would swim out as far as we could during that time.  when she yelled stop we would come back.  so we did the forward crawl on the way back.  i led with my right and katie with her left, for some reason and we both went the same pace so we were head pop out and look at each other at the same time every time.  the next time mom's memory task was to name all her 46 grandchildren in order of oldest child's family and down to youngest.  she was to try for middle names but she didn't really know a lot of those.  that time we went out farther.  when we got back we tried to think of all the middle names.  there's a lot we don't know.  the next time her and natalie sang all the verses they could remember of how firm a foundation and that time we made it almost all the way to the buoy so we just went all the way.  we hung on to it on either side for a while floating and talking.  one eye peering at one eye through the sign on the buoy.  then we swam back.  

we ate croissants and rotisserie chicken and chips.

we borrowed a knife from our neighbour bbqers, getting the 5 year old natalie was babysitting to ask for it.

on the way back to the car it's a bit uphill.  not drastically so, but enough to poop out dad.  he stumbled up to the concession stand asking the lady how much for a popsicle.  she said it was a dollar something and he reached in his pockets and was like, "oh i don't have anything just my keys" sweat pouring off his brow, "oh i'll buy you one." said the lady taking the change out of the tip jar.  "you are fast becoming my favourite person." says charming dad, who it turned out had his wallet in his back pocket but forgot about it.  then on the way home dad bought the kids 1.00 cones.  he came back with one too, after just finishing a popsicle, and with michealah bringing him home a frozen yogurt.  mom was like wuuuut, and dad was like do you want this, and mom was like noooo, i'm getting a frozen yogurt! and we were like give it to katie, and katie took it.  

michealah brought me a coconut with mango poppers and skor bits.  i got dressed and after futilely trying to help mom put the seat down in the van i jumped in the jeep again with all my stuff and with michealah.  we dropped her off in abby at the mcdonald's. to meet up with her friends.  they went to the fireworks.  katie and brent drove me to the temple and i got in my car and drove home.  a good day.

big breath there's more.  sunday was fast sunday. i spent most of young women's time catching up on how trek went and such.  the girls had a lot to say.  the lesson was on families and we came up with a hieroglyphic from emojis of what family is to us.  

after church i napped because it had to happen some time folks.  then i had nuts and then soup with hot sauce. this is sooooooo interesting!

evelyn took me to theatre under the stars again this year.  i went with her and rob and their friend maria on alumni night.  we saw mary poppins.  it was great.  loved it.  

today heather and i met up on commercial and had bao down.  i love bao down!!  i feel like it's the perfect food.  we got a flight of bao for $36.  heather had 3 and i had 4.  lucky i didn't eat anything before because 4 bao is filling!  i also got the guy to make me some kind of lemonade drink.  it was really good.  he put mint in it and i milked the mint and my lemon long after the drink was gone buy squishing them and swirling them in my water. heather and i had good chit chats.  it's been a while since we've been together.after bao which heather loved too, we went for rain or shine ice cream because heather had not tried it yet.  after that we sat a while on a bench in the heat and any will for walking left us and we parted ways.

long weekend. full.  i'm satisfied.  and my hair is super frizzy.