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I know I’m behind.  Now I understand those expensive leather journals that writers carry with them. They use it to write their stories so they can type them when they have a moment or two.  I’m also betting they were surrounded by teenagers, because that’s what happened to me…..I have more stories from the past four days than I had time.  These teenagers kept me on my toes.

You see when we go on adventures with the family in Montana they are really fun.  The family lives in the middle of nowhere.  It is so isolated the silence is deafening.  (haha get it silence deafening) So we can do things we don’t get to do in the city like play board games for hours. What is crazy is it is fun.  Now I understand the look on my mother- in- laws face when she said, “Would you like to play —-fill in the blank with an obscure to you but everybody else knows about it b oard game. I know I gave my nephew the same look when he said, “What’s that?”

Since we couldn’t get to family I went and got some family to stay with me.  My nephews that are 13 and 15 years old. The 15 year old was too cool to hang out with Auntie but the 13 year old was on it. First he tried yoga.  I about died laughing. Apparently his love of Rodney Yee isn’t there yet. Five minutes into the dvd he starts asking how long till we’re finished.    Six minutes into the video Rodney and I are going from the crane pose to staff pose.  AJ looks like that vulture in the wild kingdom video. The one where it got caught by an alligator and is trying unsuccessfully to get away. Legs and arms are flailing all over the place. I had to focus really hard to not laugh at the child and if I’m not mistaken I think I saw Mr. Yee contain a snicker. Seven minutes into the video I hear, “Aunt Trish, we can stop whenever you want.”  How nice of him to think of me. I look over from my downward dog to see him doing the dead dog.  He is lying on the ground.  Yep he’s done. So much for yoga and hello to ice cream!

So we whip out  Scrabble.  You’d have thought I took him to the King Tut exhibit.  He oohed at the letters and we set about playing.  Of course he struggles; he is playing against the self proclaimed Scrabble Queen.  That is when Mr. B isn’t beating me.  This time I’m 40 points in the lead. Who does the charming child ask for help?  The Queen or the guy who is 40 points behind.  Yep, you got it. He asked Uncle Randy for help.  So I didn’t feel so bad when I pulled out “queen” with the 10 point “q” on the triple words tile.

Then we played Yatzeee. The child tried making a personal connection with the dice every time he went.  Lining them up he’d try to tell them how they were to appear when they hit the table.  The dice weren’t listening.  Our laughter was probably an outward manifestation of what was occuring inside that little red cup.

Mr. B decided to end the family time and go running. AJ runs track and offers to go along.  He thinks he can do a mile. Hee hee hee, I told him Mr. B runs slow.  Well he does run slow- kind of, sometimes. AJ borrows Uncle Randy’s shorts and the dynamic duo is off. Twelve minutes later through heaving breaths AJ declares “that old dude is fit!” Uncle Randy is still out there running.  He stopped by the house to make sure AJ was safe before he did his “serious run.” Now he knows why I didn’t go running with them.

The night ended on a sweet note. AJ, on the sleeper couch, and I, on the futon couch, set about watching a movie.  I  remember lying there and thinking back to when he was a baby and we’d be up until all hours of the night.  He didn’t realize that he was supposed to be sleeping.  So I’d sing to him and dance with him in the living room till the wee hours of the morning. It was a time I cherished then and never thought I’d kind of get to relive 13 years later-minus the singing and dancing.

Then I understood the smile on Grandma Irene’s face when our car pulls up into her driveway.  It’s the smile that says it is time for the adventure that kindles the heart to begin.