Friday Flashback

So I wanted to start writing about fun events that have reminded me of happy and even crazy fun times in my life. I thought that Fridays would be a good place to start.

Year: 1992
Time: Summer Trip to California

So I was 14 at that time, it was the summer before my freshman year in high school. My grandparents live in Thousand Oaks, California and we hadn't seen them in a while. So my parents thought that it would be fun to send Caleb(13 yrs.), Brandon(6 yrs.) and me for a visit. We were going to be there for 2 weeks, and we were flying all the way out there alone. My grandparents assured my parents that they would take some time off from work to hang out with us.

We get there and the first couple of days are great. Our cousins from California also spend the night at my grandparents house too, while we are there. So there's five kids altogether. Me (Mira) age 14, Caleb age 13, Bianca (cousin) age 11, Noel (cousin) age 9, and Brandon age 6. My grandparents house is not very kid friendly and as a matter of fact there were several things that we were not allowed to even sit on while we were at their house.

The first week comes, and since my grandparents own their own business, they go to work early at like 8:00 am, leaving all of us kids alone in the house. The only rule was to not touch any of the drinks in the refrigerator. So as things go, that was the first thing that we touch. We didn't drink anything, but it sure was tempting. Mostly that first day we sat around and watched TV. My grandparents had cable which was a privilege for us. I have never had cable TV even to this day.

Incident #1
As the weeks goes on, we start to get bored just hanging around my grandparent's house. So we walk up and down her street and meet some of their neighbors. The boys met another boy we'll call him J. My brothers don't get along with him at all and as a matter of fact, J is kind of a rude little boy. So J decides to show off by bringing out his boxing gloves. What a 7 year old is doing with those I'll never know. Brandon who had not ever even used boxing gloves puts them on and punches J so hard in the face that he runs off to his mom crying. I have to laugh, b/c he kind of had it coming. By the time my grandparents got home, we were all in so much trouble and had to apologize to him.

Incident #2
We get up after my grandparents go to work. Noel is running around the house naked chasing Brandon. They both finally put on clothes, and continue chasing each other. Noel runs outside through the front door and around the house and comes in through the back door. As he is running in, he closes the sliding glass door behind him. Brandon keep running and "smacks" right into the glass door. So we all had to get him ice so that he felt better. Nothing broke though.

Incident #3
We all get bored and decide that we are going to walk to the mall. It is about 5 miles from my grandparent's house. On the way there, we have to cross about 2 really busy streets. It is no wonder that one of us didn't get run over. We get to the mall which is larger than any mall here in Ks. We all wanted to go to different places, so Bianca and I go together and the 3 boys go together. We set a time to meet and everything is good. We meet the boys, and ask them where Brandon is. They just shrug their shoulders. They said that he couldn't keep up with them, so they left him. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for him, and finally had to page him several times. We finally found him, and when we got back, my grandparents were already home. We got into a LOT of trouble.

Last thing before I go. The trip was filled with us 5 kids getting into trouble every day, but it was the most memorable and fun time that I had growing up. One last story. The last day that we were going to be in Ca, us kids went to the park down the block from my grandparents house. It was pretty fun, but as our luck would have it, there was a deep ravine close to the park. So where do you think we decided to play? That's right, the ravine. Well, my youngest brother Brandon fell into the ravine and it was too deep for any of us to reach him. So I layed down on my belly and had Caleb who's only a year younger than me hold onto my ankles so I wouldn't fall in. As I reached for Brandon, Caleb let go of my ankles and I fall face first into the ravine which had plants gowing in it. Not a problem, but the plants had leaves of 3. That's right, it was poison ivy, and if you don't know me very well, I am extremely allergic. (Ask me about my adventures with poison ivy later) Anyway, we get back to my grandma's house and my aunts, grandma, and grandpa are furious. We are all soaking wet and filthy. That next morning I couldn't open my eyes very well, and when I looked in the mirror, my entire face was swollen. My grandma gave me some type of lotion and had me put a patch over my eye. They sent us on the plane back to Kansas this way. My parents picked us up and asked me if I was in a fight.

What a fun time!!!! Remembering this makes me realize that I do have a lot of things that have been good and fun that have happened in my life. Looking back at those times allows me to know that sometimes life is just plain hard, but right around the corner is another adventure that is better than I ever thought it would be.

Until next time.
Mira