Trip

It is 9:42 p.m. and while I usually would be reading a book or getting this prego body ready for bed at this time, I really wanted to get at least one post done for my blog today, so here it is. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a retirement party for my high school basketball coaches. They have coached girls basketball for 25 years and were ready to be done. This presented me with an awesome opportunity to visit my family as well!

Natalie and I flew to Ontario on Tuesday morning and stayed through Saturday afternoon. During that time we were able to see all 18 cousins, one of my best friends, spend an evening at my parent's wards Relief Society Activity, and visit with my grandma and great aunt and uncle. The highlights for Natalie were cousins, Tux my parents black lab, Josie the kitty, Aunt Mary, and Grandma and Papa Corn.

 

These two are 6 weeks apart. Mr. Trey is quite the tease, but he and Natalie played fairly well together. Natalie is enjoying a "chalk-it". My Dad buys little heart shaped chocolate boxes for all of the children and grandchildren on Valentines Day. He has been doing this for several years and is a fun little tradition we all look forward to.

She was such a good girl on the flights both ways and did really well with visiting everyone. It is too bad we don't live closer to her cousins, because they are a fun group of kids. It was especially sweet to watch her love on my younger sister's baby girl. We were driving home from lunch in town and Natalie held baby Henley's hand for about 5 minutes.

The retirement party was nice. There was a special presentation before the start of the Varsity Girl's Basketball game. Then the game and a reception afterwards for conversing with our coaches. I wrote them each a personal letter and there was a basketball, picture frame and scrapbook to sign for each of them.

It was also fun to see teammates I had not seen in 9 years. We caught up on all the life happenings. I missed seeing the many who were unable to make it. It will be fun to attend my 10 year reunion next year.

Going back to my old high school was sort of surreal. I have been in there since I graduated, but there are many things that have changed from how I remembered "Ontario" High School being. The demographics of the community have greatly changed over the last 5-10 years and have thus created major change in the school. I know the school faces great challenges that are a little disheartening to me when I think about my Alma Mater. Other than that, the school looks mostly the same.

The trip was fun, the right length of time and very rejuvenating for me. I am grateful for my parents always being such gracious hosts. Hopefully we make it back for Memorial Day.

Justin was happy to have us home. He picked us up at the airport at 5:30 and we came home to Papa Murphy's pizza, balloons, chocolates and flowers for Valentines day. Natalie especially loves her Frozen balloon Justin selected for her. It was a bummer that we missed him this week. The two weeks prior he had been out of town. He was able to be in Portland for this week of work, but it is so hard to plan with his job and we never know. I am grateful he was so understanding. 

Justin and Ruth Blazzard