It’s about this time every year when we make our annual summer trip back home to see family and close friends, and reacquaint ourselves with the thick, Iowa-summer air.  And it also happens that about this time every year (at least for the past few years), one of our friends is getting married!  This year it’s my friend Matt whom I’ve known for about 18 years.

Lea was traveling abroad for work, so she wasn’t able to arrive until Saturday (more on that later), but I got a jump on things by flying red-eye last Wednesday evening to Des Moines (that’s, ‘di-moin’).  My folks were there to pick me up at the airport and I was in bad need of a ‘bucks run.  Once home, I got a look at their full-time summer job – nursing all of the landscaping!  And it’s a job; just get a look at all these water-thirsty beauties.

This Japanese Maple was part of our wedding ceremony.  Instead of a unity candle, we opted for soil + water at the base of this li’l guy.  Now he’s found a comfy spot in my parents’ front yard where he’s thriving!

 

Let’s see what’s around back.

I thought this kind of stuff only grew in California!

We went to lunch at the Wine Experience, had a terrific turkey, pear and blue cheese sandwich; washed-down with a couple glasses of Earthquake Zin.  It’s goooood to be home!  After an afternoon snooze, it was time to pick-up where we left off.  Smokey D’s BBQ and red.

This sauce isn’t Shad’s, but Big Daddy’s is epic Nassau-style BBQ in DSM.  And the Last Supper sauce feels like burning hot embers on your tongue – just takes a lick off a toothpick dipped in this stuff to bring tears to your eyes and a sense of what hell must feel like.  The only cure I’ve felt for such pain is hot hot hot water.  It sounds counterintuitive, but if you’re ever in such a bind, try it.

We’ll leave that stuff for the crazies (i.e., my stepbrother, Matt) and eat whatever goes well with Stag’s Leap Merlot. 🙂  Wow, that makes me sound like a sissy…but I don’t care.  This goes on my short list for all-time favorites!

Everybody came over, as they always do whenever we (or I) come back in town.  I try to get them to stop, but the kids just keep growing and getting older.  My niece, Savannah (she’s in the yellow shirt below), just graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA, which we think deserves a really well-earned graduation present – a trip to see us in CA!  We’ll be seeing her again in August after they claim the girls’ state title in high school softball.

As people were getting there things together, the boys were making a ruckus outside that peaked my attention.  And everyone else’s.

Tree frog’s!

Aren’t they cool?!

 

Soon all the hainyots (sp?) were on their way home, and I was on my way over to another BBQ.  Only this one ended long before we got there, and while we were invited for the 5pm time slot, I get the impression that our fashionably 6.5 hr late arrival was less of what they had in mind.  Nevertheless, we had arrived!  Oh, and by “we”, I mean me and three other friends I picked up along the way who were also in town for Matt and Stephanie’s wedding!  With the wedding just two days away, we had a lot to catch up on before I felt equipped to stand up for my old friend on his big day.

Beer usually helps.

We had a good long talk, got home way too late (considering I slept a combined 2 hours in the past 40 hrs), and set the tone for the rest of the trip – eat, drink, sleep, party!

If you can believe it, I originally planned to break this entire week into two posts, which I have since decided to break into seven.  Until next time… 🙂

Cheers