Weekend at Stephy's

...not to be confused with Weekend at Bernie's--quite possibly the stupidest movie EVER.

Okay, okay. Sorry for the distraction. Kenna, Alec, and I went to see my sister Stephanie in Pocatello, Idaho this weekend. Stephanie is my soul's other half--the cute, creative, funny, daring, awesome half. I adore her. We couldn't be more different or more perfectly matched as sisters. Here are some of our weekend's adventures...some pictured, some not:

* We attended the Idaho State University homecoming parade. Three words...LOTS O' CANDY! The kids had a blast building their stashes while dodging horse poop and old men in fez hats driving antique fire engines.

* I told Stephanie that my day's goal was to score a T-shirt from some float. I worried that my mission would fail when I had my fingers on a Gold's Gym shirt but ceded to the cute, blonde teenager I'm sure it was intended for. My second opportunity went better. I winked at and pleaded with the skinny, mullet-sporting DJ driving the K-Bear 101 van. He must have spotted the 80's hardrock fan lurking inside because he handed his LAST shirt out the window to little 'ol me.

* I was exhaused after flirting with so many parade guys and from being kicked in the face all night by my bedmate, Alec, so I decided to take a little nap. My one-year-old nephew, Kasey, was tired too. He snuggled with me until we both fell asleep. I love being an auntie.

* The kids enjoyed each other so much. They played a game of baseball until Alec smacked one over the fence, spent hours sifting pea gravel, and wrestled until each had his/her fill of injuries. We visited a nearby hollow with a tire swing and no one suffered an impaling with a dead branch or palm-ripping rope burn .

* When I told Alec that we were going to Idaho, I named everyone in Stephy's family. I obviously left out some important information since he shouted his inquiry, "And Cocoa too?!" Cocoa is Steph's shihtzu. Alec and Kenna were so happy to play with Cocoa and the other neighborhood dogs that congregate at Steph's house. Yeah, not me so much--not an animal gal. If you can't count it as a tax deduction, I'm not cleaning up after it.

* Some guy with a lot of tattoos flirted with me while we were stopped at a traffic light. Good thing I was wearing sunglasses to hide yesterday's mascara and had tinted windows to hide the FIVE kids in the back seats. Can you sing Desperado? My favorite of his body drawings was a swirled design on his pointer finger that he held up underneath his nose to make a mustache. Awesome.