The drive to Ohio was beautiful! The colors of the trees have been less than vibrant down here in Virginia where there has been very little rainfall. Most of our leaves are falling off without even bothering to turn red or orange or even brown first! How rude! So we enjoyed the gorgeous colors, even though we ended up driving through rain almost the entire way there.
We met up with my dad at the hotel around 7:30pm, unloaded our stuff, and headed out to eat at a place we discovered after moving to Ohio:
That's right, Bob Evans. Seeing as we live in Virginia now, we happen to have a Bob Evans right around the corner. My parents, however, only get to eat at Bob's when they come to this side of the Mississippi, so we humored my dad and took him to dinner. Then we settled down in the hotel room, played a round of Guillotine! I love that game. Killing French people has never been more enjoyable! And then we headed to bed!
On Saturday we bummed around until my mom arrived at the airport. Then we headed off to explore the world of my late teenage years. We drove by the house I spent a few years in (and loved):
And then past my old high school which, incidentally, never looked like a high school to me. The first time we drove past I couldn't believe it was my school and said it looked like an office building:
We drove up to Kirtland, Ohio and thought about doing the tour of the local LDS church historic sites, but decided that we'd rather do other things and save that for Sunday. But - WOW - what a change! I spent quite a bit of time in Kirtland during my few years there and they've changed so much! We drove past the Kirtland temple and Sidney Rigdon's home, but spent the rest of the time driving around Hudson, Ohio - where we had lived. We also ate at some little pie place I'd never heard of but my parents had, so that was nice.
That night we played Ticket to Ride, which is a super fun game that my parents hadn't played before. I won by a landslide and that rocked. By the time we finished it was really late and we all had to be up, packed, and moving early on Sunday, so we called it a night. I think we must have played a round of Guillotine that night as well.
On Sunday we went to church in Kirtland and then toured the LDS church sites.
The Newell K. Whitney Store looks pretty much the same as it always has.
His house, however, is nothing like I remember it. Mainly because it just wasn't there before . . . or it was, but in a different spot and definitely not that color.
The John Johnson Inn was definitely NOT there, so that was new!
And neither was the saw mill or the ashery! So that was exciting!
We also ran into some old friends and that was quite a surprise and very nice! Then it was time to say goodbye to my daddy and head home. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad, so the drive home was much more enjoyable than the drive out.
The past week my mother humored me by joining me on errands and what not. She taught me a few sewing things (though I'm still terrible with that machine), and we watched some silly shows on TV, played card games (our tradition) and chatted about various things. She played with Soren while I went to work and helped me pick out all the various Halloween clearance items I should not have purchased but couldn't resist. I'm a sucker for Halloween. And speaking of Halloween, she helped put Soren's costume together:
That's my mom on the floor and there's Soren, in all his mummy glory. If you didn't know, Soren loves ancient Egypt. This is my friend (and basement-dweller), Marie, doing Soren's makeup. He wanted to be a decaying mummy:
He has the look down perfectly, eh?
After Halloween my mommy helped me take down all my decorations and get ready for Turkey day, which is just around the corner. She also came to Soren's last soccer game of the season on Saturday and watched me direct the singing time for the little kiddies at church on Sunday. I just got home from putting her on a plane and now I will have to wait to see her again until the summer when, unless something bizarre happens, we shall all be at the family reunion together.
*sigh*
It was nice to see my mommy and daddy. You sometimes don't realize how much you miss someone until you see them again. Then it just makes the parting again that much more of a bummer.
However, onward and upward. Yesterday was dress rehearsal for my On Stage class. Our performance is on Monday and then I get a few weeks off (and my paycheck - haha) before that class begins again in January. This Saturday is also dress rehearsal for my other classes - they are called my Little Stars - and our performance is on the 17th. Then we get some downtime before we start preparing for our next production - Adventures of a Comic Book Artist. Yay!
Soren is off of school today (teacher work-day + parent/teacher conferences + voting), so I need to go poke him for a while. I'll be back to updating more frequently now that life is returning to some sort of semblance of normal - however loosely I may use that word - for the time being.
