Grown-Up vs. Growing Up

I am well aware of the fact that I have great parents.

And I certainly dont deserve them most of the time.

I get snippy and become an ornery teenager again. I'm short tempered and melancholy and just plain not fun to be around. And even as my responses come out, I know they're unjustified.

But my parents are patient with me.

They just want me to be happy.

And love me even though I'm a jerk kid.

And I know I'm lucky. Because they are so good to me.

This trip was rather impromptu for them.

I know they worry about me. And dont want me to feel left out since I am so far away. Or alone.

So they do what they can for me. And I know I dont act nearly as grateful as I should for all they do.

But I am grateful.

There is rarely a day where I dont still feel like a child. Dental degree or not, I still feel like I have so much growing up to do. And I depend quite heavily on my parents still. But the thing that caught me off guard as my parents visited, and we ran endless errands (which were all for my benefit but had me banging my head against a wall), was that I am used to being far away and doing things my own way. I may not feel like a grown up in a lot of ways, but I like the independence being an adult has afforded me. Which I suppose is no surprise, considering even as a child I always wanted to do things my own way, regardless of how my parents thought it should be done. Its hard to reconcile the two feelings though. Because on one hand I am still a child, who needs her parents and on the other I know that time has elapsed and as much as my parents support me, they dont live my life for me and I have had to grow up and be on my own. 

But I had a heavy patient week, which meant that the majority of what I did with my parents consisted of eating... Um ya... being a little pudgy in family pics is cool right? 

This is the jist of the short trip...

Have you been to

Red Bones?

It is Awesome BBQ joint.

Took a small jaunt to the Community Boating Center

I was gonna take my parents for a spin, but it was a rather windless day and didnt seem worth it, so they settled for a picture by the boats.

So I'm an awkward girl. Who really needs to be in the right mood to run errands and shop.

Bike shopping was fun for about twenty seconds... and by fun I mean awkward.

But I will concede that the end result is pretty worth how horrendously I hated shopping for it.

Hello new bike. 

And hello being caged in the car by said bike.

It was a tight squeeze getting the bike to fit in the car indeed!

My favorite part

My parents wanted to go to the beach.

But it was cold to me - to the point where I needed to be fully clothed at the beach.

And I was tired and grumpy.

But I brought a pillow and a blanket and promptly fell asleep.

It was cold. But I slide my legs into the sand so my blanket could wrap around me tighter. 

And when I woke up, I felt much better.

It ended up being my favorite part.

Even though I had pouted about going because of the cold.

Though, hilariously enough, my mom didnt set up shop anywhere near my dad and I.

We each had our own books so it didnt particularly matter. But it was funny.

Especially when I wanted to capture each of us at the beach via photo. I had to scramble over to my mama. Funny lady. To be fair, I chose the sunniest slash walk the least amount spot and she went for the shadiest spot she could find. 

The sum of the trip? Food good (particularly the chocolate restaurant we went to). Shopping bad. Less errands and more relaxing next time please.