August 22, 2010

August 22, 2010

Dear Family & Friends:

Monday morning M got picked up at the airport by a friend who then dropped him off at work. He worked a very long day before finally heading home. He was able to sleep almost all of his flight. While M was working I went up to visit with Jewels and her children one last time. B-man was so excited to be able to play with his cousins again before leaving. We went up earlier in the day and then came home earlier so that we would miss traffic and have time to work on all the packing that had to be done. Packing is never fun, and somehow we collected A LOT of stuff. It was a big pain trying to get it done, and eventually I just gave up once most of it was done.

M got back into Virginia flying in on a red-eye, having a friend take him to work and home.

Tuesday morning I finished the packing and tried to get things organized for the trip. As much as I really tried to be ready well before it was time to go, I was still jamming things into my purse when we were leaving. We were right at the weight limit for several of our bags, and my dad was a little surprised at all of our luggage. It was a good thing I was flying Southwest. I drove with my mom and we picked up my dad from his office. It was nice to have a few more minutes with them in the car, and B-man kept saying the funniest things to try and convince them that it was okay for us to go back to Virginia. For example it was okay because we would be able to chat on the "web cam" and that Grandma and Grandpa would "have more funner because they would be together" just the two of them. It was at least good for a laugh. My dad helped me in with the bags while my mom stayed in the car with the kids. It was a short luggage line and everything went smoothly getting checked in. I have my system down. The flights went fine. Nothing too horrible. Every seat was taken on both legs which meant that J and I got to share... In Chicago we stopped but didn't change planes. I kept asking B-man if he wanted to get off and go walk around, but he just wanted to stay on the plane and walk up and down the aisle. He did go say hi to the pilot, and the pilot let him sit in the "driver's seat" and touch some of the controls and ask lots of questions. I made sure to get pictures. He and J spent the rest of the time walking back and forth up the aisle. Once we got in the air again B-man fell asleep and slept the whole way to DC. It was pretty tricky having J and B-man trying to sleep in my lap. Eventually I had to make poor B-man lean against the window because it just wasn't working. M met us at the airport, I loaded up J in the car and he and B-man went to get the bags. It was very late by the time we all got to bed that night.

Just a glimpse at what our flight was like…

Wednesday M went into work a little later and slept in after the very late night. It was nice to have nothing to do in the morning. B-man slept in way later than J and it meant that I spent the morning unpacking and trying to organize things a little bit. He woke up we had lunch and then headed off to a presidency meeting. After the much needed meeting we had to go straight to a doctor's appointment for J. Then I had to go to Costco so that we had some food in the house. We got home only a few minutes before M, it was a very busy four hours.

Thursday morning I had to go to the doctor's for me. I got a babysitter slightly last minute and was grateful I didn't have to take the boys. I planned it well and got home ten minutes after J woke up from a nap. I was nervous I would get home and he would still be sleeping. That evening I met up with the youth from our ward and drove a car load to the temple to help them participate in Baptisms for the Dead. It was a great experience and everything went very smoothly. While I was gone M took the boys to the pool. Both of our boys love the pool.

Friday morning I had to go back to the doctor (with the boys) so that I could do the glucose test. The rest of the day I spent trying to get caught up on laundry and other things around the house. We had pizza for dinner and then headed back over to the pool before getting the kids to bed.

Saturday morning was a busy but productive day. I spent the morning at garage sales and found several good things. One is a mattress to go on the bunk bed we just bought for the boys. The bunk bed is currently still in the box in our front room, but we needed a mattress before we could set it up. Originally I thought we would just wait and hold it (it's from Costco) until we needed the bed, but when M unloaded it from the car he decided there was no way he was going to carry it down to the basement, and then have to carry it up two flights of stairs. Hopefully we will be setting it up soon. We spent the morning going through some things in the house, taking pictures, and listing things on Craigslist. We also had a friend stop by to use the Internet. He and his family just moved into the area and needed to check some things online. After dinner we once again headed to the pool.

Sunday was pretty typical for us. We started the morning off with meetings for M. I finished my lesson for Young Women's and then when he got home we worked on some dinner preparations. Church went well, and after church we came home and started working on a new recipe that we were making for dinner. We had a family over that just moved into the city and that we knew in Provo. We're so excited to have more people we know in the area. Dinner was great and before we knew what had happened it was time for kids to be put in bed.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J