You Can Never Go Home, But You Must Try

Ah, Home sweet...well, it's where I grew up at least

These are the Mountains that I know, far cooler than the Appalachians

At one point in my life (my teen-age years) I had a card that had some ground rules for Zen. There were something like twelve points of wisdom. The two points that I remember verbatim were "Wherever you go, there you are," and "You can never go home, but you must try." So, in keeping to the advice given by the latter, I went to my hometown last month. "Where is home?" you may ask. I shall tell you, it is Brigham City, Utah (click the link and learn up).
Brigham City is an interesting place. It's a small town. I realize every time that I go back there just how small it is. There are eight stop lights total. We do have a Wal-mart and most of the typical fast-food restaurants that you could think of (that are found in Utah at least). On the subject of food though, they do have Maddox, which has some very tasty rolls, and my favorite turkey steak. There are less than 20,000 people who reside there, and I can't imagine there ever being many more.
I will say that it's a nice place to be from, but I am sure that it's a place that I would ever like to be living again. It's a quaint little town, and there are plenty of strange little quirks that make me not want to live there anymore--mostly because I don't think I want to live in a small town anymore, but I digress.
So that being said, I did go back home for a long weekend. You see, it was Peach Days. I hate Peach Days, but this year, my sister who moved to Colorado was going to be in town. Also, I have a friend who normally goes back home for Peach Days, and I thought she would be going this time too. She didn't (I guess that's what I get for assuming). It was a good trip home. I didn't get to spend much time with friends there, but I got to see my family, and I kinda like them. However, as the title suggests, you really can never go home [and have everything be the same]. With every trip back, I find that I relate less and less with them.
That isn't to say that I think they are weird, or anything. I just don't have a ton in common at this point in my life. I live on the east coast in the very-well-populated DC metropolitan area. Most of them, live in small town Utah. I am the only one in my family who is not married with at least two children. Our experiences are just different that's all. So they all have their own lives, and my life is pretty much out here in Virginia now, I guess that's what I am trying to say. Not that I don't like being with them, cause I do, a lot. It's just that I kinda feel like the odd man out.

So, one of the best parts of being home was being able to see all of my nieces and nephews. Though I hate most kids, I love these ones. They kind of even make me want to have some of my own one day. I didn't get many pictures of grown ups while I was home, so the kids will have to do as an introduction to my family. So here they are:

Kalee and Brady (Family N)

Hunter (N)
Brock (N)

Tanner and Alissa (A)

Marshall (N*)

MaKayla and Max(N*)


Playing before the parade (their parents aren't irresponsible enough to just let them play by the road)

I just have to say that I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world. Each of them offers something special, and in my humble opinion, they made the trip home a lot of fun.

(*note to my sisters, if I spelled any of the children's names wrong, I apologize. It's not my fault if you chose to spell their names in a funky way that isn't the normal way I would spell them)