Southern Comfort

The last few weeks have been very eventful for the Winns, and no matter how long this gets, I’m not breaking it into two parts. You may all feel free to regulate yourselves and break your reading into as many sections as you want. When last I wrote to you, Jarom had just returned from his weeklong vacation in the Western United States where Alixa and Jenna were continuing their own trip. Jarom once again was able to enjoy sleeping through the night, but certainly began to miss his family as the days wore on. He finished his internship at the University of Delaware, and then started a couple of jobs around the house for his dad (mostly the power washing of the back deck.) JD and Jamie arrived in Delaware with Hailey, so he also spent time hanging out with them. JD is now attending Villanova Law School and so they will likely be there for the next three years. They took advantage of their last remaining days of freedom to play a few rounds of golf together, which was fun for them. Jarom was even kind enough to donate a few golf clubs to his brother-in-law as payment for a 5 wood he broke a year ago. All in all, the last two weeks that Jarom spent in Delaware were mildly uneventful, and he then packed up the car with one suitcase of his own stuff and about 5 times as much stuff for Alixa and Jenna, and he and I began the ten-hour drive back to Knoxville. The ride was pretty great. There was an accident on the DC beltway that slowed us for a bit, and we made two stops for gas/food/bathroom (Jarom, not me). Jarom was very happy that he didn’t have to make that trip with a wife and baby.

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Meanwhile, on the left coast, Alixa continued her vacation. She spent a few more days with her aunt and uncle going to parks and babysitting before moving into her friend Amanda’s house. Amanda has a baby boy and she and her husband are seriously considering procreating again, so they wanted to have another runtlet in the house as a trial. My sources tell me that the experiment was a success. Most of her time there was spent playing settlers of catan, both on a board and online, sometimes including Jarom via the interweb. Dave and Amanda were great hosts, and Dave even put up with all of Alixa’s stuff in his TV room, which surely pushed his hospitality to the limit. Lix got to have lunch with her old PG crew at the Pizza Factory, and was able to plan visits with her old friends Megan and Heather, which was a lot of fun. She very much loved showing off Jenna to everyone that she knows. After a week in Utah by themselves, Lix and Jenna went with Zak to Salt Lake to catch their flight to Cleveland for Abram’s missionary homecoming. Unfortunately nobody in that brain trust actually looked at their flight’s departure time and so they pulled up to the airport at 6:50 for their 7:10 flight. Luckily they made it through check-in quickly and they were barely able to make it onto the plane before it left.

Travel Buddies

Cleveland was filled with sports, sports, and more sports. Zak has been working on his tennis game, so he and Lix had some lessons scheduled and played a few games. The Hegewalds also played some Wallyball, a family favorite. Lix got to play a round of golf with her dad and brothers, and held her own. More games of settlers of catan were played, there was some yard sailing with Pidge, and the customary visit to Buffalo Wild Wings. Despite a serious talking-to from Mars about being nice to Abe, both Alixa and Zak teased him incessantly from the moment they picked him up from the airport. Sadly, no amount of talk can change the older sibling/younger sibling relationship, and Abe, like many a recently returned missionary, is a great target for fun making. But Lix enjoyed seeing her family, and they all seemed to love Jenna. Zak was especially helpful and seemed as though he might be ready for his own soon. The former Elder Hegewald spoke in church on Sunday, and Lix was impressed. “If I was a non-member in the audience I feel like I would’ve wanted to get baptized,” she said, “although he did go six minutes over the allotted time for sacrament meeting.” She finally made it back to Knoxville late Sunday night, with a Jenna strapped to her chest in her Baby Bjorn. That made four flights for Jenna, and she has been pretty good on all of them.

What if?

The next big task for the Winns was getting organized, which meant finding places for all of Jenna’s stuff and getting rid of some old clothes and things that were no longer needed. Four big trash bags were delivered to the local goodwill, and boxes were filled with clothes for a 6-9 month-old and a 12-18 month-old. Jenna got her two-month shots, which made her very sad and confirmed to Jarom that she is Alixa’s daughter. No creature that small should be able to yell as loudly as she is capable of yelling. But some baby aspirin was purchased and that calmed her down enough to go to book club, where Lix was able to see a bunch of her Knoxville friends again. Jarom is back at school and has started a new job tutoring football players. This makes Jarom part of an institution that Alixa hates, helping athletes who have no business (other than sports) being in college get through their classes. But it is a pretty easy job that will add a few dollars to the meager Winn accounts, so she doesn’t complain too loudly.

Alixa's favorite aunt, child, and treat

Finally, tomorrow is Jarom’s birthday. He will be very old. His loving mother got him some golf stuff and Alixa is going to make him a tasty breakfast omelet. Other than that it should be a fairly common day, which isn’t a bad thing considering that the last month has been constant moving around and visiting people. Vacations are great and we all love them as much as the next group, but after a while it sure is nice to be able to sleep in your own bed and sit on your own couch and not have lots of people around. After a few weeks they will probably want to go on vacation again, but for now everyone in the house seems content to just be.