Nostalgic Post

Over Memorial Day Weekend Britton, Jake and I were able to head down to my stomping grounds in Northern California. It was a busy few days, with lots and lots of driving. We stayed in Chico with Britton's brother and his wife and 2 girls. Thanks to them for the food and place to sleep, and for helping with little Jake!We left on Thursday at 8pm, hoping Jake would sleep through the night as we chugged caffeine and drove, drove, drove. We brought along Britton's Mom and niece, 8 year old Lindsey. Jake did a great job, eventually falling asleep after the excitement of being in the car with a bunch of people waaaay past his bedtime wore off.

We arrived in Chico at approximately 6:30am, Friday morning.

The purpose of the trip was to attend my dear friend Jordan's wedding.

Me and Jordan were best pals from 7th grade on. Lots of memories. I seriously spent nearly every weekend from 7th grade through high school with Jordan. Nostalgic is the only word to describe what it was like showing up at her house, 5 years after high school, 4 years since seeing her at my wedding reception, with my husband and toddler. Jordan was my best friend, my partner in stealing traffic cones, my punk rock concert buddy, my playing in the park at midnight pal, my eating at Denny's at 1 in the morning go to girl...the list could go on and on. Life would have been pretty boring without Jordan.

Jordan married the boy we had a crush on our freshman year of high school. Taylor. He was a senior. We were awkward freshman. He was in a band. We were awkward freshman. Fast forward 4 years and they meet up in San Diego. Taylor is graduating from UC San Diego. Jordan is a not-so-awkward freshman at San Diego State. Sparks fly...fast forward 4 years and I'm sitting at their wedding.

Congratulations to Jordan and Taylor

A trip to Cottonwood wouldn't be complete without visiting my old street. I grew up on a street called Pheasant Drive. We lived in a house on 2 acres. The front acre was a walnut orchard, the back yard was grass and grass and grass with some trees. It was beautiful. It was the perfect place to grow up and it will always have a special place in my heart. I learned how to play baseball in the backyard, basketball in the drive way. I learned how to work in the orchard. We had a swimming pool...memories of night swimming are some of my favorite. I loved that house. Loved it. After visiting Pheasant Drive and standing at the end of my old driveway with memories flooding my thoughts, I prayed that in the next life, we will be ableto re-visit our childhood and see-up close the memories we made there.

On Sunday morning, the day of the wedding, we took Jake to church and left after the first hour so he could take a nap. He slept for 3 hours and woke up with a temperature of 101. It spiked to 103, and Britton and I left for the wedding feeling like terrible parents, but knowing he was in good hands with his Aunt and Grandma. By the time we got back, he was refusing to eat and would only take milk in a bottle. He was burning hot and couldn't sleep, so at 3am we packed up the car and hoped he would sleep better while we were driving. Thankfully, he did. We were back in Kennewick by about 2pm, took Jake to a walk in clinic where we were told he had strep throat and tonsillitis. Poor little guy. He's doing much better. We splurged a little bit on Tuesday, and got him a couple of things to cheer him up...

an unfinished car...and a Lightening McQueen chair. Pretty stylin'.