Weekend Update

Saturday
Geoff and I drove up to Oakhurst to visit his extended family. Oakhurst is a small mountain town just outside of Yosemite. The reason for our visit was to see Geoff's cousin, Trent, and Trent's wife, both of whom were back for good from their Army service in Iraq. Geoff's aunt and uncle were throwing a welcome home party for them.

It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get to Geoff's aunt and uncle's house in Oakhurst. Their house is really nice and is set in a woodsy mountain area, with a small river (more like a brook) just down a small hill. Geoff and I were to stay in a house that was just down that small hill from his aunt and uncle's, right on the river. The owner of the house was away and let Geoff's family borrow it for us to stay in for the weekend.

When we got to his aunt and uncle's house, there were quite a number of people there. This was my first time meeting Trent and his wife, Gaytha. It's funny, because I thought Trent looked like he could be Geoff's brother, more than Geoff's actual brother, Sean, does. Trent also has a brother, Chad, who I met for the first time too. Though I didn't really get to talk to either of them (there were too many people there), I did sit down and listen to Gaytha talk about her time in Iraq. She is very well-spoken and you could tell she was passionate about her service to our country -which I really liked about her.

After spending time with family and meeting new people, Geoff and I settled in to the house we were spending the night in. Geoff's parents and brother were also staying in the house. The house was rather roomy and had country decor (some of it nice, some of it cheesy). My favorite part was when you first walk into the house. Right when you walk through the front door, there's a floor-to-ceiling window in the foyer that looks directly onto the flowing river.

When settling in for bed, I noticed I could hear the river right outside my bedroom window (along with, like, 10 bullfrogs). It was a nice sound and put me right to sleep (once I got past the bullfrogs).

Sunday
Geoff woke me up early in the morning to ask if I wanted to take a walk along the river. I got up and changed and we took a nice morning walk along the river to an area where the water fans out into a small pond (where Geoff's cousins would swim when they were younger). It was quite peaceful, having the only sound be the water rushing on the river. I wish I could always spend my mornings that way.

Here are a couple pictures from our walk:


Geoff, standing at the edge of the small river. I would call it a brook, but everyone kept saying that it's technically a river.


River winding down to the pond.


You can see the pond between the trees. It looked like a private swimming pool.


Panoramic view of the river from the back deck of the house we stayed in (see the blue umbrella to the right?).

After our walk, we went back in the house, ate breakfast and changed to go to church with the family. On our way to the church, the street it was located on had a church from every Christian affiliation you can think of, a Mormon church and Catholic churches. They were all in a row. Protestant, Evangelical, Episcopal, Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, LDS, Greek Orthodox, etc. It was crazy. It looked kind of funny. I kept calling it "Avenue of the Churches." The church we were attending that day was the church Geoff's aunt and uncle belong to. People there were nice, but I'm sorry to say that the service was long and a bit boring. I almost fell asleep...almost. The few times I do go to church with Geoff and find myself getting bored, I usually read the story of Noah in the Bible. It's one of the first stories and the most entertaining to me. I like the animals. =)

After church, we said our goodbyes to family and headed home. The trip was solely to see Trent and Gaytha before they left later in the week to their base in Louisiana, where they'll be stationed for their remaining time in the Army. Trent is pretty much done and Gaytha has a another several months. Given the purpose of the trip, I knew we would only be there for a day and was anticipating the rushed travel.

When we got home, we watched the tail-end of the Superbowl and had a light dinner. Afterwards, I plopped down on Geoff's bed and meant to only close my eyes for a few minutes. The next thing I knew, Geoff was giving me a hug and kiss before he left for work the next morning. Apparently, I was quite exhausted.

Oh! Also, I wanted to add that, at Trent and Gaytha's welcome back party, there was a large heavy sword on the table that belonged to Trent and had his name engraved on it. Around his name, there was a pledge. I thought it was really nice and took a picture of the words:


(I blacked-out Trent's last name)

The engraved pledge said: "I will never forget that I am an American fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America."