A road trip with Jack

I had the opportunity to take Jack on a quick road trip to Utah.  It was a sad occasion, my Uncle Clark passed away and I wanted to be with my family for the funeral.  When I looked at my options for getting to Utah, I decided that I wanted to rent a car and take Jack with me.  It has been a long time since I have had time to spend a block of alone time with him.

For 4 years, Jack and I spent every waking hour together, mostly just the two of us while Tyler was in law school and then his first year of working at a law firm.  I miss that time.   He is so much fun.  He loves to talk and sing and play.  He has great ideas and loves to hypothesize.  When I asked him if he was interested, he was all in and very excited.

We planned it all out.  Jack packed all by himself.  He used b-day money to buy a new Lego set to put together while on the road, and we stocked up on snacks and treats.  He picked out some movies.  Tyler even loaded up his i-touch with music and games.  Jack was thrilled about that.

 

In the car, he immediately started chatting.  He wanted to know how close we were to Montana...Idaho....Utah.  He loved talking about the scenery and trees.  He kept a look out for lightening and storms to drive through.  We had some very sweet talks about death and funerals.  He told me he loved me about a million times.  He did get bored with me a few times and asked if he could get in the other car with Grandma and Grandpa.  I told him that it would be even more fun when he is big enough to sit up front rather than hollering from front to back.

We made it to Utah in time to go to the viewing.  It was so nice to see my family.  We went to my parents after the viewing.  We found out the Jake got hit by a car.  This became the focus of Jack's universe.  I had to tell him over and over again that Jake was OK.  He told me it was the worst news he had ever heard in his whole life.  We were dead tired!  We went back to the Wiricks and slept.  In the morning we got ready for the funeral.  Jack told me that I did not have to have a talk with him about how to behave, because he already knew that and he would never be bad at a funeral.  He was great, and tried to be a good example to all of the cousins.  It was a beautiful service.  Jack was so cute with Aunt Kay.  He told her that she could come live with us if she needed to.  He was very concerned to see her cry.  We had a side trip to the scout shop to get him his bear gear.  He told the guy at the counter that, "My Grandpa loves scouts even more and he collects scout patches.  He is in this store ALL of the time." 

After the funeral and luncheon, we stopped at Walmart to get some gifts for Jake.  Jack wanted to get him a new bike.  We settled on a star wars guy.  I bought Angela (Jake's mom) a Pepsi and some chocolate.  Then we went to visit him.  Jake told Jack that he insisted on him sleeping over.  Jack told him that he couldn't sleep over, but he would stay as long as he needed him to.  I told Jack he could sleep over after Angela said it was OK.  He was thrilled.  Jack and Jake hung out, played, and watched movies.  I asked Jack what he did, and he said that they mostly just talked.  He couldn't tell me about what - I wish I could have been a fly on the wall.  Jake and Jack have great conversations!

I have to add that I did eat at Sonora Grill.  Only once, but I couldn't let the trip go by without a stop.  I am never disappointed!  I am looking forward to a longer trip to Utah in June.  We will be there from 6/10 - 6/17 to attend Tyler's 20 year reunion.  Then staying later for some fun time.  If anyone out there wants to meet up in Utah, let me know!

p.s. If you are confused. My brother married an awesome lady named Angela, and they have an awesome boy named Jake.  I am also named Angela and I have an awesome boy named Jack.  You can imagine how much fun this is when we are all together.  To make it more confusing, most of our family calls us both Angie, but in our other lives we go by Angela.  Even better, she is now Angela Ballard, and all growing up I was Angela Ballard, so I still answer to this even though I shouldn't.

Another hotel room...

I find myself sitting in another hotel room with a few hours to spare, so I figured I would update my blog.  Here is a view of downtown Austin from my room

So much has happened this spring that I have not written about.  Logan turned 2 in March.  My baby is officially not a baby.  He loved having us sing happy birthday to him, and enjoyed his cake very much.  We had a low key party at home. 

Jack had his first pinewood derby!  He took 3rd place in the ward and got to go to the district race.  He ended up taking 8th overall, and he and Tyler had a blast!  Jack named his car blue lightening.  It sits on a trophy stand in his bedroom where he admires it regularly. 

Jack and Sam are both playing soccer.  I have some pictures on my other camera.  The weather has been miserable.  Sam has struggled with the cold.  The 4 year olds do not practice.  They show up every Saturday.  They spend the first 20 minutes practicing with their coach.  They run a lap and do jumping jacks.  Then they practice dribbling the ball and kicking it into the goal.  Then the two teams play a game.  Sam likes to run the opposite way of the ball.  When people laugh, he keeps on running and showing off.  He will not get in and kick the ball.  He eventually gives up and comes to sit on my lap.  Sometimes he cries.  Last week was his final game (halleluja!).  It was a beautiful warm day.  He played the whole game without any tears.  His team did really well, and he even kicked the ball once or twice.  He still mainly stayed out of the way of everyone else.  He just ran behind everyone and grinned the whole time.  After the game was over he told me how much he loved soccer and asked if he could play it at home.  We also just registered Sam for kindergarten.  When we arrived, they took him away for screening.  He was not having that, but luckily I knew the screener from church and told him it was ok to go talk to my friend.  He was able to answer all of the questions and write his name, so they said he was good to go.  He barely makes the cut off date.  We went through all of the steps to get him registered.  His favorite part was buying a school shirt.  He put it right on.  Then on the way out he told me, "I do not want to go to that school.  And if you don't come with me, I am never going."  GREAT.  He hasn't really talked about it since and I am not going to bring it up for a while.

Jack turned 9 on mother's day.  We had a fun day.  We went to Red Lobster on Saturday for a combined celebration.  We taught Logan how to say, "Happy Birthday". He was really cute saying, Happy Birthday Gack.  He also would say Happy Mother's Day.  He often calls me Daddy-Mommy.  It was pretty funny when he would say, "Happy Mother's Day Daddy Mommy."  He is also really really good at saying, Stop it Sammy!  Or Sammy, no hit!  Or Sammy Mean!  He loves to be outside and running around.  It is a good thing the weather is finally warming up, because all three of my boys have cabin fever!  Jack was also the mayor in a cute school play (Suessical the Musical - Horton Hears a Who scene).  He has his first piano recital this weekend.  We are very excited for that too.

Tyler is all moved into his new office.  It is really nice, and he is really happy with the way it turned out.  We are both staying busy with work, church, and chasing after the kids.  That was a great distraction, now I must get dressed up and ready to go to a banquet and award ceremony.  I would much rather crawl into bed and watch a good movie on Netflix!