Memories...

My younger brother Scott got home from his mission this past Monday. It's hard to believe that he had been gone for 2 years already. I really do have to say that the faith and optimism he demonstrated while in the field was an inspiration to me. I'm so grateful to have a brother that was faithful enough and worthy to serve a full-time mission and I know the people he served were blessed by his desire to be obedient to the will of our Heavenly Father. That said, I feel the need to reminisce. I have some great memories of Scott, a number of them even have photographic evidence. :)

When Scott was little probably only 3 or 4, Rachel and I liked to dress him up like a girl. One occasion in particular is documented in our family albums. He is wearing a leotard, tights and a tutu, along with make-up (LOTS of make-up) and a long black, ratty looking wig that my mom had gotten for Halloween one year. If you look the picture, you can't tell it's Scott. In fact, I saw it years ago and asked my mom who that girl was. *chuckle* Oh, good times.

Then there was the time that I was in my "movie director" phase. A number of the family movies from that time period demonstrate not only my omni-present ability to boss people around, but also what my siblings had to put up with as younger children. :) In this specific home video (that is remembered fondly and often by Rachel and I), I had dressed Scott up as a clown (we were doing a 'show' for Shauna's birthday). He had on my dad's tennis shoes, bright yellow Hawaiian shirt, and old teal sweatpants. Those pants were held up by my mom's (which she still has) rainbow striped suspenders. This was all topped off by a face full of paint and a neon orange bedazzled (remember that fad?) baseball cap. Anyway, I video taped him being a stubborn clown (you'd have to see it to laugh) that didn't want to do anything, then he decided to play music, so he reached down his pants and started pulling out random items (a shoe, a couple of baseballs, some flowers, a few handkerchiefs, etc) before finding a little plastic harmonica and horn (one of those cheap dollar store type things) from his shirt pocket. He played the horn by sticking it in his nose, and the harmonica at the same time. It was an interesting sight to behold. He ended his little skit by holding Erynn up with a plastic squirt gun, loosing his pants when the suspenders broke (unintentionally) and presenting Shauna with a bouquet of fake flowers. While this description doesn't do it justice, I still laugh just thinking about it.

The final memory I feel like sharing is much more recent. It was shortly before he left on his mission and Scott, Erynn, and I drove out to California to visit Rachel and Dave. Scott was driving and my navigational skills left something to be desired, so we ended up nearly in San Diego (we were heading for Whitter..near Huntington Beach), before we turned around and headed back north. It's fairly hilly country in that area and it was right around rush hour with a bit of fog. I was turned around in my seat talking to Erynn, who had just said she needed to go to the bathroom. As we crested a hill, I turned to face forward and all of a sudden there were a bunch of cars in front of us, all stopped. Scott's still cruising along at 70 mph and I go, "Um, Scott...cars." He still doesn't slow down, so I say "cars...Cars...CARS!" while hitting my imaginary passenger side brake. Finally he goes, "Whoa!" and hits the brakes, but we all know that we're not going to stop in time. I brace for impact and then next thing I know we're doing a Frogger impression in a very large car, going very fast, between other very large vehicles. We zoom in between the rows of cars (and I'm not talking on the shoulder), before Scott finally manages to slow down in an open area in a lane that miraculously appeared. As we all are gasping, the lane next to us starts to move and a van full of Mexicans drives by giving Scott an audible ovation. Then from the back seat, I hear a little voice go, "I don't have to go the bathroom any more." "Did you have an accident?" I asked Erynn. She says, "No, it all went back up." Needless to say, I had Scott take the next exit and I drove the rest of the way.

I am so excited to have Scott home and get to see him making new memories and see how he's grown and changed over the past 2 years away from us.