Quick little trip.

As I said before, we were supposed to go to Salt Lake for a whole week for training for G.J.’s work. Well it got cancelled until September….bummer, because I was actually looking forward to it. We still had our niece Katlyn’s 16th birthday to go celebrate, and Kayler had an appointment at The Children’s Center to get some updated diagnosis for his school papers.

My kids are great travelers. Give them a snack, drink, toy…turn on a movie, and sometimes we can make it the whole way to Salt Lake without stopping. It is me and my small bladder that makes the trips long! We left Wednesday before lunchtime and had to stop in Roosevelt to get a recall fixed on our car. It was well worth it because they gave us a check for $100 for coming in to do it…that was our spending money for the trip.

We made it to Salt Lake in time to do a quick Costco trip with G.J.’s parents and then headed to the party. My kids have SO much fun with their 6 cousins who live on the Wasatch front. G.J. has one brother and 2 sisters there, and I love and care for them all so much. I can’t believe his niece is 16. She was a flower girl at my wedding when she was 5 almost 6 years old. Now she is driving! I also can’t believe I didn’t catch a picture of her at her party, so I stole this one of Katlyn and G.J.'s sister Lorrie, and the other picture is of my kids and G.J. swimming at the party:




We stayed at my brother’s house, woke up and I dropped G.J. and the kids off at the movie while I took Kayler to his appointment. I just love the Dr. that he goes and visits with. She has to evaluate him for a long time and asks me a bazillion questions. I was secretly hoping she was going to say that his Asperger’s was magically gone….but she didn’t.

We picked up the kids and G.J. and I was ready to head home but Hallie reminded me that I had promised a trip to Build-a-Bear workshop since she had earned enough Good Deed Bead chore points at home. So luckily we stopped by the mall, were in and out of that store in about 20 minutes, ate at the mall food court and were on the road home (By the way...I thought just Hallie would want a bear...but the Boys insisted on one too....they LOVE them...kind of girly, but oh well, Hallie will take them over when they are bored of them!):






As we left, it was so bittersweet. I had always promised myself that if the time came when the pros outweighed the cons we would leave Vernal and move to that area. I feel like we are finally to that point. There have been many times and opportunities when we have almost moved, but things have always kept us here. We are finally to the point where I feel like there is a world of opportunity out there for Kayler to get more help. The Children’s Center has the most amazing school ever, and the Dr. even mentioned how she wished we lived closer so she could get him more help. Along with that, G.J. could go so much further in his career there.

I feel so bad that my kids aren’t around their cousins that they just love and look up to so much. I feel bad that G.J. misses out on being around his siblings. I could go on and on about reasons why we should and could and would love to go. But the 2 biggest things- and they are big things- that are keeping us here are G.J.’s good and stable job and our house. It would be foolish of us to leave those 2 things right now. So I think the question is no longer IF….but when.

So until then, I will not be naïve enough to believe that the grass is greener on the other side-it might not be right for our family out there, and I will fully enjoy living in the beautiful place I do, surrounded by the good people who love and care about me and my family.

This weekend we are going to maybe head to our ward campout for dinner, & do yard work Saturday. G.J. has to speak at church Sunday, I have Sharing time, and then it is time to breathe. I checked my calendar, and I officially have 1 big thing left this whole summer-a family reunion over the 24th weekend, and then I am free to enjoy the lazy days of summer! Hooray!