Is this home?

I have to say that I have not had any inclination to return to Sierra Vista. When I have come back "home" it was to my sisters' homes. I was satisfied with with that. I didn't ever NEED to make the three hour trek south. But Jared is here, and let me tell you when Jared/Derek come, I make an effort to be come too. It's the very least I can do. If I can get 4 out of 5 siblings, that's pretty solid.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge how much I love Seattle. The plush green emerald city. The skyline.. The water. The weather.. People.. etc. I could go on. I won't. I have been dreading the Arizona heat and brown and landlocked-ness of it all. Oddly enough, annoyingly enough, I drive down and I am stunned with its beauty. The mesas and mountains. The various colors in rock formations, fluffy clouds and endless sky. Seriously, I was stunned. We drove past a dam with such a unique blue that I had forgotten I had been there before and had that same reaction. And never to be outdone, the sunsets. The whole sky was filled with red and as it slowly faded, the sun demanded to make its presence known. I watched it go down in my side mirror as the shadows peaked over the row of mountains to my left.

A sight formed before me that I hadn't quite forgotten about, but the magnitude of what was coming drew me in.. Dark clouds and streaks of grey that seemed to stretch to the ground. I have spent the last 3.5 years in Washington and I acknowledge that most of that time there was cloud coverage, grey, the works. But there was something different here.. Torrential Arizona downpour. I can count on one hand the times we had a solid storm like that in Seattle, and it was never on the same scale. Then there was the smell. Summer rain mixing with desert. There are few things quite as satisfying. I was engulfed with memories that I haven't thought about in years.
Watching the pouring rain from the front porch as it made our street look like a river, water overflowing from the gutters by sheer force and power of the rainfall.
Standing in the family room watching the lightning and counting, waiting for thunder... hoping for a blackout.
Getting drenched because I just couldn't resist the warm summer rain.

I drove that last 30 minutes from the Benson cutoff to Sierra Vista with random spurts of pouring rain, ominous clouds and lightning that streaked across the sky.

Lightning-that-streaked-across-the-sky. 

"I had this planned especially for you," mom told me.

(mind.. I'm still concerned about this 95-115 degree weather.. but I have to take good moments when they come)