So far, home leave is awesome

I landed in Phoenix last Thursday night and my dad picked me up.  Even though it was after 8 and the sun was down, it was still over 100 degrees.  I rarely spend time down here during the summer (usually, I am here for the holidays) and the heat is unbelievable.  Fortunately, my parents recently moved to Prescott (pronounced like it rhymes with biscuit) Valley, which is 2 hours away and 30 degrees cooler.

On Friday, both my sisters came up to my parent's house and we had a wonderful family dinner.  As my little sister is getting married later this year, this may very well be our last family dinner with just the five of us.  My dad cooked steak and lobster - which was delicious.  We were going to play a game of cards, but my other sister was feeling sick.

Saturday, I went down to Phoenix with Katie and we headed out to trivia night.  Her fiancee Paul is a trivia buff and our team should have done well.  One of the questions asked how many states border Iowa (my home state) and the final question required us to put four countries (Saudi Arabia, Spain, Peru, and Venezuela) in order from largest to smallest.  Both of these questions should have been in my wheelhouse, but I counted Kansas as a border state and thought Venezuela was bigger than Peru.

For Father's Day, Katie and I met my parents and grandparents at the Red Lobster where Shelley works and we had a wonderful late lunch.  That night, we went and played BINGO with my grandparents (way more fun than it sounds).  My grandfather BINGO'd for $900, while the rest of us lost.  Monday we hung out in Phoenix for a while before picking up my rental car.  Today, I took my Mom to a doctor's appointment, got my haircut, did some shopping and stopped at a local casino.  I ate Five Guys burgers for lunch and marveled at the breadth of options available at Target.  


If all of this sounds perfectly boring to you all, that is by design.  I am going to spend four weeks running around the country.  I need a few days to relax first.  I hope to blog at least a few times a week on the road, but no guarantees.