Poor Tyler

This week I am on a business trip in Huntsville Alabama. I thought I had everything taken care of back home. - Day care arranged, lists made for each day, laundry done, etc. On Monday morning I dropped the kids off at the day care. Cried for a minute, because it is the longest I have been away from my baby. Pulled myself together and got to the airport. Spent the next 10 hours on three different flights, and arrived safely in Huntsville. I was tired, but I woke up the next day early so we could meet with the folks at Redstone Arsenal. Then I got the first text from Tyler. "It said, Sam has a fever." Instead of following my perfect plans that were left behind, Tyler had to cancel his full day of appointments to stay home with a sick kid. Today, Sam was fine, so Tyler sent the kids to day care and worked hard to make up for his lost day. Then tonight, I get a text that says, "Logan just puked all over the van." I guess Tyler is getting a dose of the reality of single parenting. I feel so bad that I am not there to take care of my sick babies, but I know Tyler has it all under control. He HAS to be in court tomorrow, so hopefully all kids will be fine and able to go to day care. So much for my super organizational skills making everything run smoothly while I am gone. :)

Here in Alabama, it is 100 degrees with 75% humidity. My hair is UGLY, my makeup lasts only a few hours until I sweat it off, and today I got chewed out by a lady who thinks we "lied" about her in a meeting. I will be glad to go home tomorrow night even thought I don't get in until midnight. I have one more meeting at NASA Marshall Space Flight center in the morning - I don't anticipate any yelling, but you never know... I can't believe I used to travel like this all of the time. It is a lot of work, and I am exhausted.

Our trip to Utah

This will be a fairly long post highlighting all of the fun we had in Utah over the 4th of July.

We made the LONG (11hr) drive with out any incident. I found out that Jack can ask questions about volcanos and thunder storms for several hours without a break, and Tyler can answer them all. We dropped Tyler off in Idaho Falls where he joined his dad and brother for their annual fishing trip. They ended up in the Island Park/Yellowstone area. Here are a few pictures of their trip.

On June 27th, we had the privilege of baptising Jack. He was very excited and very prepared for this day. I held it together even though I was so overwhelmed I wanted to cry and cry. Jack brings me so much joy and pleasure, and I am so happy that he made the decision go be baptised. After the baptism, we had brownie sundaes at my parent's home. Yummy!

The very next day was our 15th anniversary. We are normally big losers when it comes to anniversaries, but figured we better at least go out for our 15th. We ate at Rickenbackers which is another of my brother Steve's restaurants. It is a great steakhouse with a fantastic view. If you are in Ogden and want a nice sit down dinner, it is yummy. Make sure you try the butternut squash ravioli appetizer. I got sidetracked by food... The real story is that to my surprise, Tyler pulled out a jewelry box. Never a bad thing! He gave me this beautiful anniversary ring that I love. I was floored! He was so nervous, like he was asking me to marry him or something. It was very cute, and I love love love the ring.

The next big item on the agenda was a trip to Lagoon. It was a lot of fun. Jack is fearless and loves all of the rides. He was big enough to ride everything this year, so he did. Tyler was able to come which was a real treat. We all loved the ride called Wicked. It is amazing! Sam liked all of the kid rides and had fun hanging out with his cousin Lucy. They made up stories for each ride, like we are going to Costco in our spaceships... We were there from open to close. My mom took all of us, and it was a blast to hang out with her all day. Thanks Mom! I didn't take a ton of pictures, but these three are a perfect representation of the day: all of the kids enjoying their time together, Jack showing exactly how he felt about riding the "baby" rides with Sam (never complained!), and what happens when you make a 3 year old hang out from open to close.Finally, the 3rd of July celebrations. We went to the North Ogden Cherry Day Parade (took no pictures!), and some of us went to Cherry Days at the park (reliving our childhood). Then we had a slip and slide and water balloon games at my moms before we had a yummy dinner that she prepared for us - this makes it even yummier. As soon as it was dark, my pyro brother Mike and his lovely assistant Steve put on our annual fire works show :) It was a blast, and I was horrible taking pics that day. This the only picture of the evening worth posting. Happy 4th from Adam!And if anyone is counting, I ate at Sonora Grill 4 times - I was there for 9 days. Totally wish I would have gone back at least one more time.

I must end with the quote of the trip. This was a conversation in the van when I took Jack, Jake, and Lucy to Michaels to pick out their crafts.

Jake, "Jack! Your getting baptized on Sunday, there are firework stands everywhere, this is freaking me out!"

Muffled voices about Jake giving Jack a swirly...

Lucy, "Jake, I am seriously going to tell your mom, seriously!"

Jake, "Lucy, you don't understand! Jack wants a swirly! I wont get in trouble."

Jack, "Do you guys know how thunderstorms are formed?"

Lucy, "No, and I don't want to." (Coke might or might not have spit out my nose!)

Jake, "Lucy! Shut up, I totally want to hear this."

Jack gives his explanation.

Jake, "Jack, how do you know all of this stuff."

Jack, "I read it in books, mostly non-fiction."

And then they start talking about Star Wars. Hilarious kids! Jack also gave the cousins a lesson about Venus Fly Traps, but his "Science" lessons were not as intense as they were during our Yellowstone trip.

Congrats to those who made it through this entire post!!!