Where have we been hiding?

So I know what you are all thinking. I write this post about how lucky I am and how I am going to focus more on the positive, and then I no longer have anything to write about...

That's not it at all, I just had a WAY busy week full of TONS of really boring, not even worth mentioning things, and then the kids and I went out of town for the weekend. We went to LaSal to visit my parents. It was so much fun! We made the LONG trek (six hours alone in a car with my two kids seems like an eternity even though it isn't really that bad of a trip.) on Thursday morning, and it was our best trip yet. They waited until we were about an hour into our trip before they started with the never ending "Are we there yet?" as opposed to starting that as we are backing out of the driveway like usual. They also did very little fighting. There was an incident about a french fry, and one about a toy, and one about one looking at the other with the "stink eye", but for the most part there was a lot of singing and laughing, and all around happiness in the car.

While we were there we spent a lot of time with my niece, Kalista. Some of you know, she has Autism and has a hard time with our family (particularly one of us who is quite a boundary invader) She tolerates us mostly, and usually escapes into a bedroom, or on a ride on the 4-wheeler, or something when we come and invade her world. She has been doing better recently, but still only lasts a few minutes before she has had her fill of us and wants us to leave. She has been known to throw our bags out of our rooms, and push us outside and slam the door in our faces :) We don't take it personally, we just laugh, and sneak back in through another door. This weekend was an entirely different story. It was monumental, history making, unbelievable! She liked us! She played on the trampoline with the kids, and laughed, and had fun - FOR HOURS! She even LOVED ON ETHAN!!! I don't mean to yell, but wow, if you knew what a giant step that is you would be yelling too:) She came over twice when we were there, and both times she had a great time, and didn't have any problems with us. She is doing so well, we are totally impressed. She signs a lot, and even talks a lot! When she first got there she kept telling us "BYE" like she wanted us to leave, we just kind of ignored it, but Adia was pretty upset by it. Each time Kalista would say it Adia would shake her little finger and say "We aren't going anywhere!" :)Anyway, it was an awesome thing, and I am so happy about it.

We did a little Mary Kay so I could write off the trip come tax season. (I had a huge sale, if you couldn't make it, or don't live close enough to have come, but are interested in what the sale is, or if you want to know about the FABULOUS new holiday products let me know.) I got to visit with my Grandma Bobbie who I haven't seen for a long time. I got to enjoy church because Ethan did REALLY good. (I don't know what it is about La Sal, but usually when we go to church there he acts TERRIBLE!) We also went on a four wheeler trip/ picnic to Coyote Springs. Adia thinks that every time we go visit we have to go on a picnic. It's like a mandatory thing like eating or sleeping, you have to go on a picnic. So we went. It was a lot of fun and the scenery was beautiful. The leaves are starting to turn, but it was still warm. It was perfect. The only problem was that it rained on us. It was the strangest thing. The sun was out, there were only a couple of little clouds in the sky, and then all of a sudden it started to POUR! I don't even know where it was coming from. It was so strange. We got soaked, but it wasn't cold so it didn't matter. I got some pretty pictures of the drive back down. In fact I got a lot of pretty pictures this weekend. I guess I had kind of forgotten how pretty La Sal is in the Fall. It's my favorite time of year. All in all it was a great visit.

Then we had to go home :( Usually Adia starts crying about missing her grandma the moment we buckle her car seat, and doesn't stop until a few days later. This time she did pretty good, until we started leaving Moab. Usually when we go down we take a little time out to visit Uncle Levi and Aunt Cassie, and then we go back to Grandma's house for the rest of our trip. I guess she thought that is what we were going to do or something because as we were driving out of town, NOT in the direction of Grandma's house she started to get a little upset asking where we were going, and why I was driving the wrong way. After she realized that we weren't just out for a day trip she started to cry. Luckily she was really tired, and fell asleep after about an hour of crying. Then when she woke up she was over it - mostly. As we drove through Price I asked if anyone needed to stop to use the bathroom. Nope, everyone was fine. Then, as we were leaving all of civilization I asked again. Still nope. As soon as we started driving up the canyon-where there is literally no place to pull over without being run over, Adia announced that she needed to go to the bathroom. Well, it took a while, but finally near the top of the summit I found a place that was safe to pull over. By that time she looked like she was about to explode. She did a great job of holding it, but I knew it wasn't going to last much longer. We stopped, and she went, and went, and went... I made a comment about how she was going to flood us out or some silly thing. As they were getting buckled back in a Highway Patrolman pulled up behind us to see if we were alright. Never one to let someone do her talking for her she piped in and said " yup, we are fine. We had to stop so I could pee. I did a BIIIIIG pee! I peed so much that I made a river, and we were about to drown. My mom said..." I'm not sure what she said after that because I slammed the door shut, told the officer we were fine, and hopped in my car. Why do I say things like that to her? I don't know. You would think I would learn. I just put it on my list of things to say when I get old and SHE has to take ME places. See the plan.

Another funny thing she said was this. We have to pass through a town called Spanish Fork, and usually we stop there for treats, or a meal depending on the time of day we drive through. It's about the half way point. Right after the big pee I guess she made a little extra room and needed a way to fill it. As we were getting back on the road she asked "Mom, can we stop at Mc Donald's when we get to Spoon-and-Fork?"

Finally we made it to the freeway, where it is mostly smooth sailing on a Sunday evening (unless there is a TON of road construction, a million extra cars from who knows where, and you have a hard time remembering to breath when you are driving in heavy traffic.) I was a little stressed out trying hard to run into or be run over by anyone, and then Ethan keeps YELLING "Holy Crap!" over and over. First of all, why is he saying that word?! (I know why, he gets it from me, but that doesn't make me feel any better) Second, why was he yelling when it was already a high stress situation? When mom's about to pass out from lack of oxygen yelling a "danger word" is not a good idea! No, really it wasn't so bad, and we made it home fine. We had a great time, but we were happy to be home.