Going Home

I was fortunate to get to enjoy Father's Day weekend in good ole Topeka and spend time with my family (sans my older brother, Adam - lucky guy is traveling the country opening restaurants). I am reminded every time I head to town the reason I moved away from there in the first place. However, I think this was the first time in a while I didn't completely dread pulling off the interstate into my hometown...

Might have been the combination that I hadn't spent much time with my family in a while and that I was going to get together with some high school friends to say goodbye to our friend, Matt who is getting deployed to Afghanistan in two weeks. Or it could have been the fact that I was about to indulge in my favorite Topeka restaurants that I had been missing for quite some time (both Mexican might I add). 

In any case, my pup and I made it to town Friday evening and were ready to settle in for the weekend. 

Barrett, me, Allie (my parent's dog) and the impostor - Ryan, my little brother.

Saturday was a trip down memory lane with my high school friends (who I am still so close to) as we met up at our favorite lunch spot - Taco Villa (only the best!). I'm not sure we know what it is about this place, but we seem to always sit there for a really long time...could be the people watching, chatting/reminiscing and ordering more food perhaps. After successfully stuffing our faces with delicious Mexican food, we ventured over to Matt's house for a quality pool party, which was overtaken by our dogs, of course. 

Our day ended sitting in Matt's driveway with a fire pit and good company. 

I spent Sunday with my parents - running errands and getting a pedicure with my step-mom and chatting and watching golf with my Dad while he was smoking a tenderloin for dinner. While waiting for dinner to be ready, I took another trip back in time by flipping through some very old photo albums. My hatred for Topeka moved down the scale just a little while I was sitting in that chair smiling and laughing at old pictures. I decided to capture some of my favorite moments back in the day in dedication to my father. If he ever reads my blog I hope he makes it to this post and sees this and takes away this final thought: I have always been striving to make my parents proud, especially my dad. Even though I am still trying to figure out what I want to be "when I grow up" I know that through his sarcasm and annoyingly logical advice, he is always there for me and ready to say "I told you so" only after he consoles me in the hard times. I'm working on a way to one day prove him wrong that I can or can't do something, but in the meantime - thank you, Dad, for guiding me through this growing up process.

Bundled up at my brother's soccer game. I was such a dedicated sister.

Adam (my older brother), Dad and me. We sure were an attractive bunch.

Our semi-failed attempt at doing family pictures ourselves.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's - Dancing with my Daddy (on his knees)

Dad and his socks. Side story: Dad always asks for socks for his birthday and Christmas. So, my cousin took it up a notch and got him some great toe-socks for Christmas. Don't know if I've seen socks on his wish list since...