Ken and Jeri Sorensen hosted the Spring Fling again this year! It was so fun to get together with a little bit of the Sorensen family.
Aunt Tuny drove down on Friday, hung out with Mom for the afternoon, and ended up NOT spending the night with us after all. I had called her and said we'd be gone around 3:00 and maybe through dinner, but I guess I wasn't clear enough that we would be home in time for her to come by after dinner with Mom and spend the night here with us. At MY house, as opposed to OUR House, or her hotel. Mike and I just left for 2 hours to go to the Home and Garden show between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. it was fun. It's like trick or treating for adults! And I ate Candy for the first time in a while, and way too much of it apparently. I was pretty sick that evening. (It's probably good that Aunt Tuny wasn't here, with me stinking up the bathrooms. Haha)
The next morning we met at Our House Assisted Living, packed mom and her stuff into Aunt Tuny's car, and we all headed to Southern California! They were going to follow behind. We had lunch at Stateline. Just fast food at Carl's jr. Traffic wasn't too terrible, and we were able to watch them in the rear view mirror. But when it came time to switch from I-15 to I-215, Aunt Tuny was watching the wrong black truck and followed it to the wrong freeway. We were separated! I was trying so hard to get them called as Mike could see they were not in the correct traffic lane to be following us off to the right. Between having a move my glasses, turn off the noisy navigation our audio book, SEE my phone, dial the number ( which is really just pushing one button, you know) , make myself be heard and understood by Mom over the phone with her new hearing aids that don't work too well in a noisy car while trying to talk to two people . . . well, Mike just watched them drive away on I-15 while we drove away on the other interstate highway. "What? Huh? We ARE on the right freeway. We are on I -15." " NO, you are supposed to be on TWO FIFTEEN. GET IN THE RIGHT LANES. MOVE OVER".
"What? Oh, I can't hear you. What are you saying, Tuny!?"
Well, 35 minutes or so after WE arrived in Beaumont, Mom and Tuny arrived. Via interstates 15 and 10. They were very stressed , to say the least. But they made it. It WAS a bit tricky getting them into the community and finding Ken's place, however. They did get a bit lost and flustered ("They wanted our Birth Certificate before they'd let us in!!!!" Mom said.)
We visited, ate, visited, snacked, visited. It was fun.
In attendance:
Ken and Jeri, Kara, Jorge, Gina, Logan. Steven Sorensen plus his girlfriend Francesca and her visiting grandparents from Maine. Randy & Brenda Sorensen, their daughter Mary and Nick Bruque with their two littles Andrew and Marigold. Christi and Skully. Me and Mike, Mom and Aunt Tuny. Jorge is not in the picture for some reason.
We missed a bunch of folks. ☹️
Aunt Tuny revealed to us, AFTER the sun had gone down and Mom was exhausted and we were getting ready to leave the party, that she doesn't drive at night.
Oops!
So I drove Mom in Tuny's car, and Tuny rode with Mike, who followed me 30 minutes away to Redlands to our hotel for the night. Dynasty Suites. Two rooms, three beds, some good sleeps. A good breakfast in the morning, and then we drove our little caravan down to Riverside to the Veterans cemetery. Aunt Tuny said she could follow us--IF we trusted her! Haha. Aunt Tuny found Uncle Gary's grave and that is where we parted ways. She was going to go get flowers and come back, and then after she'd spent some quiet time there, head on to Huntington Beach for some days. We loaded Mom up in the truck with us and headed home to Cedar City.
One stop for lunch at IHOP in Barstow, a drink and bathroom stop in Primm/ Stateline, and on home with no difficulties or major traffic, illness or discomfort. Success!!
(I actually drove from Stateline NV to home. )
