The one about a trip to see family, good friends, best friends, old friends, my friends your friends!

For the 4th of July weekend we took off on a flight to Salt Lake Friday afternoon and didn't return until midnight Tuesday.  Sounds like a long trip, but not to worry, I found a way to make it fly by and feel like just a few hours.  I have a knack for that- speeding things up when I really want them to slow down.
Friday night was an awesome dinner spent with the Stills.  Amy and Monte are the role-model parents that Mike and I talk about and compare to all the time.  Ella and Emerson are 4 & almost 2, and complete the picture perfect family.  Reed was unleashed into the back yard with them and was never happier!  It was great to watch him play and interact.  Ella has that nurturing maternal thing going on and loved smothering Reed with it- the most adorable thing you could imagine.

Saturday morning as the men went off for their bike ride- I hopped over to my dear friend Joni's house, who I haven't seen since we moved to OKC. More than 3 years, but you'd never know it.  Joni is fun, beautiful and full of wisdom.  I'm lucky to be able to call myself under her wing. She can really appreciate my love for Michael and Reed, which made it so special for her to be able to play with my little guy.  And play they did!!  My regret? Not getting a picture of them together! What's wrong with me?? I guess I was so wrapped up in the moment that I forgot that I wanted to remember it.

We drove up to Wyoming after that, to be with my family.  My mom was (sort of) patiently waiting, imagine her anticipation to see her shining star!  Reed got to play at the water park in Green River- hesitant at first and a little afraid of water that shoots from the ground, but soon he was exploring and playing.  I got plenty of pictures of this!
Sunday we drove north to Riverton, the town where I grew up with my best friend, Nicki.  I drove Mike through the old trailerhood so he could see where his wife really comes from.  It's hard to explain how it felt so familiar and yet so distant.  How I could feel connected and yet so completely removed. It was like a scene from a movie I'd seen a thousand times, but not actually the backdrop of my real life childhood.  You're not going to get a picture of it, because it was hard enough to take Mike there!

We had dinner at Nicki's house with her family.  Her parents, who were like 2nd parents to me are still just as wonderful as ever.  Her daughter Adrianna, (almost 10!) tried to make us feel at home, while her son, Aiden (16mo), tried to make sure Reed knew whose toys he was messing with. I love watching how differently kids interact.  Mostly I'm interested to see Reed's reactions to different personalities and how he deals with it all.  He's a pretty chill guy. He'll play with just about anything and if the toy gets taken from him he'll just pick up the next closest thing.  This is Reed at 10 months. We'll see how he changes in the next few :o)
We saw a couple sights in the Sinks Canyon and walked a nature trail along the Popo Agie (popo-ja) River.  Beautiful, fresh, clean air was quite a treat after the stuffy heat we've been suffering from for weeks.
Monday morning Mike was up bright and early for his first Wyoming half marathon in Lander.  He did amazing considering the altitude change and the hilly course that ran up the bench of the mountain. We are both convinced that had it been an acclimated course, he'd have broken 130.  But that's why you race em! They're always different and challenging in their own way.

After the race, we hung out in Lander for their 4th of July Parade.  I wish I could have gotten better quality time with Nicki and her family, it seemed like all the time we did spend together was pretty distracted.

Back in Green River that evening I was able to meet up with and old friend of mine who I haven't seen since my junior year in high school.  Beau was in town visiting his family at the same time and although both our schedules were very busy, he dropped by the neighborhood after his trip to the grocery store.  The benefit of the small town! You're pretty much "in the neighborhood" where ever you go!  Mike and I ran out to the parking lot and met Beau and his son Tyson, who have been living in Denver.  It was cool to see him again after all this time and meet Tyson in person (his pictures on facebook are pretty cute, but he's so adorable in person!)
Tuesday after lunch, it was back up to Salt Lake in the car for a visit to the old Williams building where the love connection all started.  I remember the first time I met Mike when he came strolling up to my cubicle.  I remember all the flirting and what it lead to... our engagement and relocation to OKC.  Reed got to meet some of the old gang but the building was pretty much a ghost town at 4:30 on a Tuesday.  I can't blame them- the windows wrap around the building and the mountains have their "reach out and touch me" taunting ways, there's no putting up a fight. When you live somewhere that beautiful, with that climate- you take advantage of it.  If you don't see people out on their bikes, skateboards, roller blades or running shoes, then you have your eyes closed. I swear you can almost count the population of the city with an aerial shot.
Dinner with our good(GREAT) friend Clark at Bombay House was the icing on the cake. How I have missed good Indian food.  I'm going to stop there before I get emotional about it.
Reed did pretty well on both flights, there and back.  They both timed out to good for sleeping, but our mistake was that he was overly tired at take off so it was a struggle to get him down both times.  I think I'm done flying with him for a while.  I bragged about how great he's been on all his flights and now he's to the point where he's got this mind of his own, and it's not very convenient.  He wants down, he wants to play, he wants to blow raspberries on the window- and we can hardly stop him because he's so strong.  I think road trips might be the wave of our future.  I cringe as I say that because I'm so NOT a road tripper.
Thanks to all the friends who made this trip so memorable! LOVE you guys!