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.