The Hendricks Family rides into the desert…

Wow what a busy 4 days it has been for all of us. It all started Thursday when Jodie’s 5.5 hour drive turned into hours. There had been a major accident the night before on the road into Phoenix and the detour was a nightmare. Jodie and the kids dropped Preston off at my office so he and I could head off to the Sweet 16 games featuring West Virginia/Xavier and UCLA/Western Kentucky. Preston and I saw the 2nd half of the 1st game and then the Bruins game. This was my fist UCLA basketball game and considering that I grew up in a Bruin home I feel kind of slighted!! Oh well…it took moving to Phoenix and Steve going to Iraq for me to go to my first game. Then to follow it up 2 days later with another game was great.

Both games were like home games for UCLA, the only other place I have seen more Bruin stuff was on the UCLA campus. Preston is a great person to take to a game. He wants to watch the game (and not talk the whole time), he asks questions when the action is slow, he wants a big tub of popcorn and a big drink and only wants to leave his seat during timeouts. I had so much fun with him that we are going to a Rockies/Diamondbacks game next weekend in Colorado.
Bryson was in his glory this weekend. Three kids at his home all day/all night and they all wanted to play. I think that if Jodie and Lisa had let the kids eat and sleep in the pool they would have. The kids did enough swimming in four days to be considered a “good summer.” They would no sooner get out then want to go back in and play. It was fun.

Lisa enlisted Jodie’s help to “lighten” our checkbook and do some decorating. Both of them are bargain shoppers so I was not too worried (I think). They were gone for a few hours Saturday morning and afternoon then if that was not enough decided to go to Wal-Mart at 10:15 in the evening. When I dosed off at 1145pm they were still going strong. Oh well, a birthday only comes once a year.

Lisa turned 31 today. I was up early with the boys; Bryce and Mason were talking in his room around 715 this morning. We read a couple of books and then Preston woke up. I tried to keep them relatively quiet while the women slept but that did not last too long. Lisa woke up and the boys and I sung happy birthday while she blew out one candle on a Twinkie. The boys helped her eat her “Twinkie-cake” and they were very happy.

The Hendricks clan made their way back to CA this evening after Lisa’s birthday dinner. Bryson was very sad to see his cousins go and I was sad to see Jodie go. We will be anxiously awaiting their return to the desert when they can experience what hot is all about.

Go Bruins!!!