Snowflake/Taylor

After visiting "the valley" of the sun we went north to Taylor, AZ to visit my folks. There's not a whole lot going on in the middle of Northern Arizona.... so we found some stuff to entertain ourselves. A long time ago my mom once mentioned that she thought it would be fun to have a red bathroom door. So when people visit the house and ask where the restroom is we can say, "down the hall, it's the red door." People need to realize that I don't have a bad memory, just a selective memory and I'll remember the little stuff, especially if you say you like something-- you might get it as a gift five years later. So while my mom was at work, Jake and I took the door off the hinges and just started painting it as a surprise. Luckily, my mom liked the bright red color. As it turns out, when she was a young girl she had painted the bathroom door in the house she grew up in--- bright red. So her mom had a red door and now my mom has a red door.... which kinda fits the black & white movie star bathroom theme.

Then after battering up some chile rellenos, I had a pan full of non-reusable flour left over. It was a windy day, so of course I wanted to go throw the dust straight up in the air and watch it fly across the desert. Jake thought I would come back covered in flour so he had the camera ready, but it was a success. This is my 'told ya so' face.

Then my mom found an old pie tin so that meant it was time for target practice. Our men are pretty handy with sling shots. I don't know if their skills could catch us some dinner, so maybe we'll stick to using the pie tin for pie instead. We had a fun visit and once again, my mom offered an extra bedroom in their house to us for as loooong as we would like to stay. She even asked around town about some jobs that Jake and I might qualify for. Hmmm, you think my mom misses her kids just a little?

OHHHH, and I can't believe I almost forgot this part of our visit. We just happened to be there over Valentine's Day which meant we were able to attend the infamous Valentine's Party that my Mom & Dad throw. There's a lot that goes into the planning of it and if you've never been, well I'm going to let you in on a few of the secrets. One cute feature of the party is the Sweetheart Tree where the men get to "carve" their initials into the bark along with their sweethearts name. This is the carving Jake left for me that everyone else at the party got to see...

*SPOILER ALERT* Then the women left the room to make Valentine's cards for their hubbies while the men drew a picture of our first dates together. After the women guessed which drawings belonged to whom, the men recited a personal poem/borrowed poem/song or whatever they wanted to present to their wives. *SPOILER ALERT*

Let me set the scene for you: Jake and I are visiting from out of town. My parents have invited approximately ten couples (or 20 people) to the party, most of whom I don't know, all of whom Jake doesn't know. Some of these couples are from my parents church, some are work friends, and some neighbors. It's pretty difficult for some of these old guys to read a poem to their wife in front of a bunch of strangers. Somebody gets the ball rolling-- the wife sits in a chair in the middle of the room and her husband stands in front of her and reads aloud the words to a country song that reminds him of his wife. She gets teary eyed. It's cute. Another man takes the stage and gets down on one knee in front of his wife to recite the poem that took him weeks to write. Then my dad goes.... a poem he wrote about the different logos on multiple T-shirts that my mom owns (silently referring to the area of her body that is underneath the logo on her shirt. Men....) It was funny.

Eventually it comes down to Jake's turn and he leaves the room to return with a guitar. If you know Jake, then you've already realized that you can never know what to expect. In front of all of these people that he didn't know he begins playing a tune that seems familiar to me. Then the words start and I recognize exactly what song he's performing. My smile gets big but my face gets red. Some people in the room have heard this song before and some never have. Either way, he has the crowd laughing hysterically. People are literally holding their sides and close to rolling on the floor. I've never seen my dad laugh so hard-- tears were streaming down his beet red face and he couldn't catch his breath long enough to even make a laughing noise. It was a classic moment that I'm still getting comments about on facebook. My mom caught a short video of it but I won't embarrass Jake like that over the world wide web. So what was the song?