Sunday, August 24, 2008

Howdy Partner, it the Magical Mystery Tour Part IV

Another weekend and another exotic travel destination to meet up with family. This week it’s Western themed Hyrum, Utah and the Little Bear Resort and the Hogan family reunion. But first I conducted some business in the Orem area and Tiana was able to fuss over our hair so we would be presentable in public. We had a great time talking with her about her future educational plans and recent personnel change with a boyfriend. It is so hard to adjust to real life on your own when returning from a mission. The challenge of holding dearly to all those wonderful spiritual highs from the mission, the sometimes unrealistic expectations of post missionary life, the unrelenting tick of life’s clock, the pressure to make monumental decisions, and the bitter winds of real life tend to clog up the smooth transition from missionary extraordinaire to a solid, active, educated, and temple married young adult. I don’t know of many that have crossed that stream without a few bumps or bruises. Tiana, just to let you know, I think you’re doing great.
Grandma and Grandpa Hogan and Rick picked out a beautiful resort for us to gather to eat, talk, and play. Cindy did an exceptional job on table decorations and Rick even planned for opening night entertainment.
The next morning we downed a great breakfast and the ladies went horse back riding and a few guys went mountain biking. It was more uphill than my 56 year old untrained legs could handle comfortably but the reservoir was beautiful.
We followed that up with a truly manly event of shotgun shooting. It is hard to look cool with bright orange puff balls in your ears and hard to fake cool when the slow moving clay pigeon keeps evading my shotgun blasts.
This doesn’t happen in the movies. Well I didn’t get skunked and I have the sore shoulder to prove I went shooting.
More eats and some family Olympics to top off the afternoon and the best was a wild water fight where mom ended up on the wrong side of several energetic nieces and nephews.
It proved to be a very relaxing, competitive, feasting weekend with a long drive home. I look forward to next year.

1 comment:

Celeste said...

I'm crying.... wait a sec.. let me compose myself.... Aghhh! That looks like so fun! I wish I was there. I missed out one two of the greatest things. Family and shooting! Ahh, dad, I wish I was there- to show you up in shooting.
I agree, Tiana is doing well as a returned mish. It's a hard job, lots of tough choices. We just got to be there to support her- and tell her what WE think is the best thing for her right????