Day 128About a month before Kristy and I were married, I was invited to attend Steven's (Kristy's youngest brother) soccer matches in Las Vegas. I thought it sounded a lot of fun so I went along. Kristy and I drove separately in my Geo Prizm and we took Aaron and Steven (Kristy's brother) and her parents drove along with their sister Renae.
We finally arrived after a long drive of just going the speed limit and I was happy to see our motel. Maybe I should rephrase that, I was NOT happy to see the closet we had to stay in. There were two beds and just enough room in between them. So Kristy's parents took one bed and Kristy and her sister took the other leaving Steven, Aaron and I to sleep on the floor. Steven slept between the beds, I slept with most of my body in the bathroom. Seriously, my feet were touching the tub. Aaron slept opposite of me and his feet were touching the front door.
One of the things that I forget every time I go to Vegas is that you are an hour behind time-wise. Milton (Kristy's dad) must have forgotten that as well. He and Steven woke up early because Steven had to meet the team before the game. So they went, an hour early! They weren't too happy about that since they were tired from the drive and little night's sleep from the night before.
The next time Steven had a game we all went and set up some chairs and watched Steven play. To celebrate the game, Steven decided to tie his hair up like dreadlocks. His hair was still a little short to do them properly but with his sister's help he managed to get it all done up. It was by far his best game, he had a chance to score a goal for his team but his shot was just a bit farther from the right. We were still proud of Steven (well, most of us anyway) for trying to score. That was the game that I was introduced to Walmart's Mint Cups. Have you tried these things? They are absolutely wonderful, it is too bad that they do not have them anymore.
The next game was one that I remember the most but it had nothing to do with soccer. We went to watch another one of Steven's games and we sat down and watched. The game was good and we started to get and up and pack our stuff. Milton was reading the paper and was a bit confused that we were leaving before Steven's game. I suspect it had to do with the whole time change thing. Dad unfortunately missed Steven's whole game because he thought it was the next one. I about died laughing hearing Colleen and Milt discuss this.
We walked down main street and played some slots. Anyone who has walked down main street knows that everyone ignores the
WALK and
DON'T WALK signs; everyone but Milt. We would quickly run across and look back and dad would still be standing there waiting for the
WALK sign. We didn't notice at first but we caught on after a few blocks.
Our hotel room may have been totally cramped but at least they had a pool. So us kids went out late at night to swim. Now back in the days I was quite a skinny lad. These days... not so much. But back in the day I was a rail. So I was exiting the dressing room I called out "No skinny jokes" and Aaron called back "No fat jokes either!" and then I yelled out "Hey look! A blimp!" and pointed towards the sky and in the direction of Aaron. Aaron yells back at me, "Hey! I thought we said no fat jokes!" There really was a blimp in the sky. I promise.
We finally left Vegas for the long drive home. Steven and Renae accompanied us as we drove my Geo Prizm back to West Jordan. Steven took his hair out of his dreads and his hair just floated. It is kinda hard to explain exactly how his hair looked but it resembled an afro with the top cleanly chopped off flat. We would pass cars slowly on purpose so the car we were passing could clearly see Steven and his fro. I thought we had pictures of it but I cannot find any.
The air was not doing me any favors and I was congested. I had to spit while driving really bad so I rolled down my window and hocked a lugee. It landed on Steven's window and I woke him up and asked if he would wipe it off. The combination of Steven being woken up and the disgusting nature of this huge lugee made him wince and freak out. I didn't make him wipe it off, I am not that mean. But the look of fright on Steven's face was priceless.
We met for lunch at a park and ate sandwiches. We were all pretty full when Aaron asked he could polish off all the meat. Mom gave her okay and Aaron made this huge sandwich. After he was done, he showed us his final product and announced
"Now this is what I call a ham sandwich!" I don't know why we thought it was so funny; it wasn't really funny at all but we about died. We quoted that all the way home and at almost family get-together that involves food, one of us will quote it and laugh.
After spending the weekend with Kristy's family, I knew that I would have no problem with my in-laws. I appreciate that they took me along and that they welcomed me like family.
I have said this before and I will say it again. I have been blessed with in-laws that I like. I just smile when other people complain about their in-laws because I have no complaints.
