Well aside from our fabulous Vancouver island road trip, there were several other adventures had while visiting my family.
1. My parents took me on their usual Saturday Garage Sale hunting.
It had been a while since I have been to any garage sales, it's much harder in San Diego because it is so big and spread out. However, we do have the advantage of POJ.
I love the happy sense of community that exists in the garage sale world, both with the
people hosting them and with fellow garage sale-ers.
I also love how cheap things can be. We got a whole pack of knives for a loonie (that's one dollar for you Americans :)
The best part of course was hanging out with my parents (and laughing as Marving and I tried working on a sokoku without Mom knowing).
2. Michael got to partake in his traditional "let's give the city boy a taste of farm life" activity. WARNING: The following account may be too graphic for audiences unaccustomed to the horrors that accompany life as a piglet destined for the sole purpose of bacon, ribs, and all other forms of pork.
What you are unable to see here (possibly on purpose) is the castration of this poor piglet. Actually, it didn't seem that bad (speaking from a non-male perspective) and pigs are known for their incredible healing abilities. It only took four of us to hold it down and keep it from screaming.
The whole process went rather smoothly considering times past where we had a pig, cow, and horse all running around the barn trying to break the doors down. I was really quite surprised at how easy the process was.
We won't go into too much detail for the comfort of our readers but let's just say that I was in charge of the front hoofs, Michael was in charge of the back hoofs (so he could really get a first-hand account), Dominick was in charge of sound control, and Marvin did the deed. Again not going into too much detail, I was surprised that all you need is an exacto knife...and no stitching is required. Amazing.
Really we just like giving Michael's things to talk about at work.
3. We deep fried a Turkey
From the left: Marvin (my dad), Justin (my cousin), and Kip (my Uncle)
It was an interesting adventure. Our family had never done it before and so we got everyone together, poured gallons of oil into a pot, and put in a Turkey. It was only after we had already started that we decided to read the instruction. Apparently you aren't supposed to deep fry Turkeys on a deck, within 10 ft of your house, and within 5 ft of other objects. It was a good thing we were on our wooden deck, 5 feet from our house, with objects scattered all around.
Next time we'll do better.
It turned out pretty good, although not exceptionally better than our oven-baked turkey (and you don't get the stuffing and gravy that accompany an oven-baked turkey). I think the consensus was that this would be a one-time thing.
Either way, it was so nice to have all of my family up, like my beautiful sister Jessica.
Unfortunately we don't have a picture of everyone who was there, but it's always a hoot getting all the Orth's together. I love you all so much.
4. We went to another family dinner with my Avis relatives, but sadly we don't have a picture. There was a lot of visiting done this trip which was good because I always miss everyone very much.
5. We visited my grandma who was in the hospital due to pneumonia and other complications. I am glad we had the opportunity to visit with her and we wish her all the best as she recovers.
6. I got to see my best friend Rosie! It had been way to long and it was great to catch up. We went to the petting zoo for a round two with the goats. Fortunately this time they didn't think Michael was a rock worthy of climbing on.
7. We flew home. I guess that doesn't count as an activity on the trip, but we wanted to include these beautiful sunset pictures taken during our flight.
All in all another successful trip. The only downside it that it went too fast. I loved being with my family and showing Michael what my life was like and all the things I did and places I visiting during my childhood. A big thank you to my parents who not only put up with us, fed us, and did our laundry, but also took us on a fabulous roadtrip in the RV. Michael and I always say we were both so lucky/blessed with the families given to us.
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