The one about our family summer vacation

Our vacation was an exciting fiasco. That is literally the best way to describe it. We were gone 7 nights and never stayed in one place long enough to unpack anything. We flew to Salt Lake and stayed 2 nights at the Still’s house, 3 nights in Park City at the Deer Valley St Regis, 2 nights in Green River WY at my sister’s house (a 3 hour drive north) and then a night in a hotel in Riverton Wy (an additional 3 hour drive further north). Sunday we drove all the way back from Riverton to Salt Lake to fly back home. The Still’s home was a very comfortable accommodation for our family. The basement is set up with two bedrooms and a bathroom, plus toys in the living area. Their backyard is cozy, quiet and kid friendly so we spent most of the time relaxing out there. They were actually out of town when we got there so we settled in and spent some quality time visiting with our good friend Clark. Reed became very attached and has asked for Clark so many times since we’ve been home. I’m considering sending him as an unaccompanied minor to visit Clark for a week next summer. *grin*

I also got to spend a little time with my dear friend, Joni. Any visit with her is too short.  Especially compared to the hours we were so used to getting back when we worked together.  How can we even begin to catch up?  Reed and Decker are such attention hogs, too!  Seems like all we can talk about is the boys.  I'm so happy for her and her life - her kids are creating beautiful families and we keep saying how happy we are for each other that we both have all we wanted in life.

My dear Ella is now 5 years old and a beautiful girl with a sweet spirit. Exactly 5 years ago in August I started to nanny for the Stills when Ella was 3 months old. I watched her in my free time until we moved to OKC when she was eleven months old. Her brother Emerson is a clown and I could see a lot of flags going off, signaling similarities in Reed’s personality. The hotel in Deer Valley was booked on points from Mike’s credit card and then upgraded to a suite so we had a nice roomy space. That was a place I could see us staying for a week or two! The fun little thing about the hotel was that it was set up high on the mountain side and could only be accessed by “Funicular”. Which is basically a fancy tram car that glides up the mountain on a set of tracks. We had plans of getting out for family hikes and a little hiking date for just Mike and me when my mom and sister came up for a short stay. Those plans dissipated when Mike threw himself into a rocky ravine on the warm up lap for a cross race Tuesday afternoon.

The call I got was from Mike but it didn’t sound like him at all. He sounded distant and distracted when he told me he wasn’t going to be able to race and was headed to the ER for stitches. I had just prepared the kids and myself for a fun afternoon of spectating. Decker in the hiking backpack, Reed at my side with his cowbell, and snacks for everyone. Instead, I changed gears, called down for the car and loaded the boys up to go find the Urgent Care clinic Mike was taken to. Reed was not dampened by his daddy’s injured state and continued to terrorize the clinic’s facilities and staff. Once he noticed daddy’s “Owies” he fixated on them and kept demanding that, “Mommy kiss it better!” He wasn’t really taking no for an answer, but I didn’t want my lips anywhere near all that road rash. I tried to fake it, but eventually had to give him a firm “no” and distract his attention. The process of getting Mike stitched up and on his way was entirely too long so the boys and I made a Walmart run to pick up Mike’s antibiotic and fortunately found a nice little lawn mower for Reed to play with when we got back to the clinic. He was extremely happy with the $5.88 purchase.

We had s’mores each evening, with traditional fire-toasted marshmallows. It was picture perfect, sitting together as a family next to the fire looking up at the mountain. Luckily for Mike and me, we passed our 30 day meal plan challenge and were able to partake in the s’mores, guilt free.

We left Park City after a nice lunch with Monte, Merry and Jeremy and headed for Green River. Our days were lazy- nowhere we needed to be at any specific time. We soaked up the moments with my family and enjoyed every bit of it. Reed started learning to answer questions like, “what do cows eat? What do frogs eat? What do horses eat?” (birds, bears, and monkeys, too) He’s a jokester and likes to switch them around so you’ll say, “Noooo! Cow’s don’t eat bugs!”

On our way to Riverton on Saturday, we got pulled over for speeding in Lander. Reed was excited about a policeman visiting our car on the side of the road and went into broken-record-mode about the police man. He wouldn’t let it go so I had to tell him, “No, Reed! You don’t get to be a policeman! You can’t have a job where people shoot at you!” So we started teaching him jobs. Monte’s job is architect. Jeremy’s job is attorney. Daddy’s job is Engineer. He also likes to recite, “Fireman drives Firetruck and Policeman drives Police Car.” My favorite party trick is, “Reed, what does an attorney drive?” Reed’s answer is “BMW” (which is what Jeremy drives *grin*) My co-workers ate that one up when I took him to the office the other day.

We all enjoyed the wedding and reception. Dancing and visiting and hugging old friends and loved ones. Nicki wrote on her facebook afterwards about how she didn’t realized she missed me so much. I agree. Distance makes the heart forgetful- makes a friendship seem like it doesn’t need to be such a priority. Then suddenly, being together again it feels so easy and so right. Like we are the friends that we always were and no time had passed. Being apart magnifies our differences and makes it seem odd that we were ever such close friends, but spending just one evening together reminds us of all our similarities, our past together.

Driving back to Salt Lake from Riverton on Sunday was rough, and then adding the plane ride home, too. We let Reed play at Sugarhouse Park again and then went to visit Clark at his house before leaving for the airport. For some reason we had our itinerary confused and Mike thought we were on a 6 o’clock flight, but when I checked it I realized we still had two more hours left of our trip! We headed straight back to the Still’s. Monte sure sweetened the afternoon with a salty lime margarita- I was feeling pretty relaxed when we hit the airport terminal. Both boys snoozed all the way home on the 8 o’clock flight.