Raspberries, cousins, and errant felines

I don't know about you guys, but I had a busy weekend. My family and I did lots of fun things, but now it's Monday and I'm exhausted and need another two days off to recuperate from the weekend. How sad is that?

This past weekend was Raspberry Days at Bear Lake, so David and I drove up there with my family to enjoy some delicious fruit. The ironic thing is that there were no fresh raspberries to be found. The raspberry shakes were amazing, as was the raspberry pie, but there were no signs of any fresh raspberries. We passed a fruit stand on the way up to Bear Lake advertising fresh raspberries and we thought, "We're not stopping there, we'll get the real thing when we get to Bear Lake." We should have stopped.

There was a wonderful craft fair at Bear Lake, where I got a beautiful seashell bracelet and helped my poor, girl jewelry-challenged brother pick something out for his girlfriend. Aw, cute. :) We ate a chuck wagon dinner before seeing a play at the Pickleville Theater called "The Return of the Bandito;" or maybe it was "Bandito Rides Again." Anyway, the majority of it was hilarious; some of it was just too silly, and I really could've done without the Obamacare and "The government is taking over our lives, what will we do?!" jokes. But, after all, we were on the Utah/Idaho border, so David and I were the only ones who laughed disdainfully instead of appreciatively.

David and I didn't get home until about 1:45 am - much later than anyone had anticipated, and I hadn't arranged a substitute to play piano for me in Primary on Sunday. So, I managed to drag myself out of bed, go to church and play piano, and then come back home and crawl back in bed. My cousin Tyler and his family invited us down to their house in Lehi for dinner, so we again climbed into the car with my family and drove down there. A few more aunts, uncles, and cousins were there as well, so it was a lot of fun. We spent most of the time outside talking and enjoying the unseasonably cool weather. At one point, one of Tyler's kids got hurt playing on the trampoline with David. As all of us turn to ask what happened, Tyler says, "David beat him up - he started spouting conservative rhetoric and David couldn't take it." Oh, he knows David well, and don't worry - children are one group that David would not beat up for spouting conservative rhetoric. :)

We had a rather eventful morning today, though. Yesterday as David and I were watching a movie, a gust of wind blew open our back door. I got up, shut it, and locked it, and neither of us thought anything of it. Until this morning. I got up around 6:00 am to use the bathroom, and looked into the living room to where we keep the cats at night, and saw that the back door had again been blown wide open - and the cats were gone. Fortunately, Chloe - the tiny, paranoid, homebody - was sitting on the back steps, and she was more than happy to come back in the warm and dry house; our other cat, Riley, was nowhere to be found. I woke David up, and he and I searched the canyon for about an hour yelling his name before we heard him crying in the bushes about a hundred feet up the canyon from our house. David climbed through the scrub oak and found Riley shivering in the bushes, covered in burs. It took us the better part of half an hour to cut all them off of him and make sure he was otherwise uninjured. Then the stupid cat fell asleep instantly after what, I'm sure, he deemed a night of adventure and David and I still had to go to work after a morning of frantic and frenzied searching. This must be what parents feel like when their toddler goes missing, only to be found in the neighbor's backyard a few blocks away. You're at first happy and relieved that they're safe, and then angry that they ran away and caused you grief; there's a simultaneous impulse to cuddle and throttle, and you might do a little of both. I know I would/did. Just kidding, don't call PETA, or Child Protective Services. :)

So now you see why I need another weekend. I might spend my entire lunch break sleeping. It's a good thing there were donuts at work this morning. :)