2010 Roper Family Reunion

This year's Roper family reunion was held at the same place we stayed at two years ago.  For some reason I didn't take as many pictures this year.  Probably because of this guy:

Actually, Cole wasn't too bad.  Although every time we set him down he would head straight to the pond.  Without fail.

Uncle Kyle helped keep him out of trouble.

So did Grandma Susie and Grandpa ElRay.  (Just not so evident in this photo.)

Taking pictures also seemed to distract him from the sweet siren call of the pond.

We enjoyed the traditional campfire that evening.  Lots of songs and memories from Grandma and her children about growing up in the Roper family.

Of course nothing goes better with a campfire than a bag of salty potato chips.  Oh wait...

Here we go - more s'mores!  (You can never have too many s'mores in the summer, right?)

We had a different room this year.  The room was great - the roommates weren't.  Spencer and Josh and Cole were TERRIBLE!  No one would go to sleep!  And no one would stay asleep!  It was a rough night.  We barely survived.  (Well, the kids barely survived.  Lance and I were about ready to toss them out the window.)

I didn't get a picture of the room, but I did get a picture of the animals up on the slanted ceiling above one of the beds. 

Charming, right?  I mean, what kid wouldn't want to sleep under those!? (If you can't tell, that's sarcasm.)

The next day we lounged around...

... rafted in the pond...

... and did a little geocaching!

The geocaching was a bit more difficult than anticipated.  We had to watch out for these little guys everywhere.

And the terrain was fairly rugged in most parts.  (Hard to tell in this pic, so you'll just have to believe me.)

But we still had a fun time.  Well, most of us.  Josh was done after one cache, and Susie was nice enough to take him back to the lodge. 

But Spencer loved it and toughed it out for all ten caches.  (Although he did start to whine during the last two.)

That afternoon we took our annual family picture.  It turned out pretty well, although I wish I had worn my hair down.  Oh well.  (I'm not sure why, but the families were color-segregated this year.  We were grey.)

We also took a few of just our immediate family.

I don't think t-shirts are really flattering on anyone, but who wants to get all dolled up during the reunion?  And that's a pretty great smirking-growl you've got there, Josh!

Later my dad let the kiddos shoot off some air rockets.  Once again, they were very popular.

That night the boys were exhausted.  We found Josh crashed on a couch next to Kyle.  Doesn't it look like Kyle stabbed him or something?

Well, despite the lack of sleep, it was still a fun time and I'm really glad we went.  A big thanks to Aunt Tammy and Uncle Teryl for all of their hard work in planning it this year!

Pirate Island

I took my laptop to UT with every intention of blogging each night.

Obviously, this did not happen. 

By the end of the evening I was either exhausted and/or lazy.  Mostly lazy.  And now that I'm back home and having to (still!!) unpack from the move, I am still exhausted and/or lazy.  Mostly exhausted.  (In my defense, we didn't get home until 1:45am last night.)

So it's time to play catch up.  I'll try to make things interesting, but honestly, this is now more about just getting the pictures up with some basic explanations.  (See?  Lazy.)  Unless I get distracted or go off on some tangent.  Which, as faithful readers know, rarely happens.

Oh look!  A blue car!!

Anywho...

Lance, Kyle and Kevin all flew into UT late Wednesday night.  To celebrate we decided to hit one of Provo's newest attractions, Pirate Island, on Thursday for lunch.  (Isn't the pizza cutter in the logo awesome?)

Wait, wait.  Let's get the real story out here.  Dad, Kyle, and Lance decided to go golfing on Thursday morning.  Since there was only three of them we assumed that Dad would take Susie's Honda Fit. Well, you know what assuming something makes you... Dad took the big car, leaving Susie, Kevin, the three boys, and myself.  To fit in a four-seater.  Which pretty much meant we wouldn't be going to Pirate Island, even though Spencer and Josh were really looking forward to it.  I even called dad to grouch about it, but he didn't seem too repentant.

Well, the pizza pirate gods were on our side that day because Dad's golfing was rained out, forcing them to come home and go to Pirate Island instead.  Don't mess with pirate pizza gods, Dad - they'll getcha.

The decor at Pirate Island was pretty awesome.  Very Disney-esque.

Here's Kevin at the entrance.  The boys were impressed with the fog on the water.

And Spencer with a pirate he particularly liked.

While we waited for our food all the boys (and by boys I mean Spencer, Josh, Lance, Kyle, and Kevin) played games in the arcade.  Poor little Cole wanted to go, but just isn't quite big enough.

Some poorly-photographed decor.

And the arcade.  It's kinda like Chuck-e-Cheese, only not as obnoxious and with pirates.

Kevin the Pirate, eating his rather large chicken. 

Randomly, our waiter (who was in full pirate dress and talked like a pirate) was named Kevin.  The Dread Pirate Kevin.  Brrr... sends shivers down your spine, right? ;)  Well, the decor was the best part about the place.  The food was decent, but a bit overpriced.  And the service was waaay slow.  Probably to get you to spend more money in the arcade.  But that's okay, because it was still fun to go and the kids had a great time.

That evening we introduced Lance, Kyle, and Kevin to the glory of GIANT marshmallow s'mores.  Kevin takes his marshmallow roasting quite seriously.

Pants were, once again, optional for the 12 and under crowd.

Grandpa showing off his s'more carnage.

While the s'mores were still tasty, they just weren't as good as the previous evening.  There's just something that can't be replicated about that first s'more of the season, is there?

Red Rider BB Guns, Killer S'Mores, and Other Adventures in Utah

We've been in Utah since Friday afternoon and we've already had plenty of adventure.

For example, did you know that Grandpa has sprinklers that come out of the ground?!  Unheard of!! 

At least for my little Midwestern boys, who enjoyed playing in the sprinklers one afternoon.  They also enjoyed throwing things off of Grandpa's newly-remodeled deck.  (Well, Josh did.)  (Of course it was Josh.)

Then things got really interesting - Grandpa brought out his Red Rider BB gun.  Apparently the local deer have been using Dad and Susie's garden as their own personal salad bar.  Grandpa likes to scare them off with the Red Rider, although the deer keep coming back.  (These are very domestic deer - I caught one just laying on the neighbor's lawn like a dog.)

The boys were very impressed with the Red Rider.  So Grandpa decided to show off his mad shooting skills.  I'm not sure what's up with the washing machine; very Ralphie and Black Bart-ish.

I'm also not sure about the overalls.  Very Green Acres-ish.  (Just kidding, Dad.  I know you only wear them when working around the house.)

The boys were in absolute heaven when Grandpa let them have a turn to shoot.

Awww... a cute Grandfather/Grandson hug.

Oh wait...

We've also been introduced to the most AWESOME marshmallows ever.

Yes, those bad boys are easily fist sized; we guesstimate around 4-6 regular marshmallow sized.  The boys were very impressed yet again.

Not impressed enough to wear clothing, apparently, but they still enjoyed making s'mores in the back yard.

Here's the s'more I made with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  Heavenly.  And extremely messy.  But mostly heavenly.

I luuuvvves me a good s'more.

One morning we went up to Bridal Veil falls for breakfast.  The boys complained about the short hike (of course), but really enjoyed seeing the falls.  I only got a few pictures - I'll have to get the rest from you later, Dad.

And today we went out to visit the Kennecot Utah Copper Mine.  The ride out there was a bit arduous.  Not because of the baby.

And not because of the middle child.  (He took a nap most of the way, as you can see.)

Nope, all of the noise and fussing was due to my eldest.  He complained and cried and even bawled about one thing or another for a good 45 minutes. 

I was about ready to throw him out the window he was so stinkin' obnoxious.  But I decided against it because I really wanted to see this:

Yep, that's the open mine.  It is deep.  It was hard to really fathom how deep it was until you saw the dump trucks the size of a house at the bottom - they looked like ants.  The pit is soooo deep.  Here, read these fun facts about it.  (Because I'm too lazy to write them out myself.)  My favorite fact is about the Sears Tower.

We also saw a huge tire from one of the dump trucks.  Isn't that awesome?!

More fun facts that I find fascinating, but am much too lazy to write out.

Since it is Tuesday and I haven't done a self-portrait in a while...

It was a bit windy, which I am sure explains why I look so goofy.

They had a pretty great little visitor's center, too.  The boys liked this picture because Caterpillar has a plant back home.  Not sure why Josh is growling...

After the copper mine we drove over to Tooele to visit my grandparents.  (My mother grew up there.)  The copper mine is on one side of the Ochre mountains and Tooele is on the other side.  Charlie, my dad's ever-faithful if not always-accurate GPS system led us on a (kind-of-mostly) paved road over the mountains.  Some of the views were spectacular; the photos don't do them justice.

Cole wasn't that impressed with the view of the Salt Lake Valley, but what does he know?  He's just a baby.

We missed a turn and eventually found ourselves at a lookout above the mine.  It was amazing!  Totally worth going the wrong way for.

Apparently my maternal grandmother had a penchant for getting lost on dirt roads going off the beaten path just to see what was there.  A bit of that has been passed on to me, because I think that was my favorite adventure of the trip so far.

Faith Can Move Mountains... and The Madsens

Oh boy.  Where to even start?  The last week has been absolute madness.  And it was all such a whirlwind, I don't know that I can remember everything that needs to be remembered.  (Or maybe I'm purposefully blocking some of it from my memory!)

Okay, here's the short version:  Grandma Susie came on the evening of the 23rd.  We packed and cleaned all weekend.  We finished all of the packing and everything on the morning of the 27th.  We loaded the truck on the evening of the 27th.  Not everything fit.  We stayed at a hotel that night.  The next morning Lance and I first went to our house selling closing and then to our house buying closing.  Then we moved our stuff into the new house.  It all fit.  Then we unpacked like mad all day on the 29th.  At 5am on the 30th we left for the airport and Susie, Spencer, Josh, Cole and I flew to Utah.  And that's where we've been ever since. 

Whew.  And that's the short version.  Are you ready for the long?  With all the nitty-gritty details?  (Or at least the ones I can remember.)  Well, first let me digress for a moment.

Remember ten years ago (or so) when this whole process started?  And how we kept running into issues even though we knew that what we were doing was right?  And then we got the house?  So I'll admit that after that I thought life would be a lot easier.  I mean, I wasn't naive and thought it would be perfect or anything; just less drama, please. 

But I was wrong.  Because the whole move (as you will later read) was fraught with drama.  Not horrendous, life-altering, oh-my-goodness-I-wish-I-had-never-been-born drama.  But drama nonetheless.  And this bugged me.  Because I assumed that because we had done what the spirit had prompted us to do, that things would just all fall into place, easy peasy.  And it didn't.  And this bugged me a lot.

So on the day that we moved I drove by a local church that always has interesting quotes up on its marquee.  And what it said that day really struck me.  So much, in fact, that I'm pretty darn sure it was up there just for me.  (Humor me, people.) 

"Faith makes it possible.

Not easy."

Good heavens.  Thank you, Wea Ridge Baptist Church, for basically spiritually smacking me upside the head so I could come to my senses.  I needed it.

We knew what we were doing was right.  We had faith that it would all work out.  But I now realize that what I really needed to learn was that just because we were doing what was right didn't mean it would be smooth sailing.  Life doesn't work that way.  I know that.  But for whatever reason I didn't think to apply that to a situation like ours.

So.  Lesson learned. 

Let's just hope it's a lesson remembered, because I don't know that I could handle anything like this again.

Sooo... digression over.  If you're ready and willing, here is the long version of the move. Well, more like the highlights, since it's all kind of fuzzy to me now.  I'll try to make it as entertaining as possible, because, quite frankly, if I didn't laugh over it all I would probably cry.  

Friday, July 23rd

• The boys and I pick up Grandma Susie from the airport.  Her flight is a little late, but no biggie because we find a McDonald's in Lebanon to help keep in business.
• I realize that I'm getting pretty tired of McDonald's food.  The boys aren't.
• Susie is impressed by the big storm that night.  It's pretty impressive, but not as impressive as storms to come...

Saturday, July 24th

• We pack and clean all day.  It's hot and we get tired.
• Susie is a miracle incarnate, and helps by cleaning, packing, and watching the kiddos.  Nothing could have been accomplished without her help during this entire process!
• Our swing set is deconstructed and moved down the street to a family who bought it from us.  Spencer wasn't nearly as distraught as I thought he would be.
• I get help weeding the garden, which I hadn't weeded in over 2 weeks because I'm a lazy thing.  Also, why weed when you're just going to have to do it again? 
• We skip the ward activity because it was right in the middle of the day.  Sorry to not celebrate you this year, Pioneer ancestors...

Sunday, July 25th

• We go to church.  It's nice to have another adult to help wrangle the kids during Sacrament meeting.
• I mourn the fact that my tomato plants are just about to go crazy with fruit, and I won't get to enjoy any of it.  Sooo sad.

Monday, July 26th

• I get up early early early to get more boxes at the Wal-Mart.
• More packing and cleaning.
• I realize that we will probably not have enough boxes, so I get some more from a friend who just moved back to Lafayette.
• The kids misbehave in reaction to all the change and chaos around them.  As expected.
• Since the kitchen is entirely packed Lance provides dinner that evening: Moe's Southwest Grill burritos.  Yum.

Tuesday,  July 27th - Move Out Day!

• We finish packing all the little things and cleaning up.  Susie and I are impressed with our packing prowess - we even have boxes left over!
• We take the boys to Chic-Fil-A for lunch while our buyers do their final walk-through of the house.  The straw goes through the bottom of my cup and I get Diet Coke all over my pants and feet.  Sticky.
• We decide to check into the hotel early.  Josh decides he needs to spend 25 minutes on the potty instead.
• I get some cryptic emails from my lender and realtor about the closings tomorrow and wire transfers.  I stress a little.
• I get a call from my lender, wondering why she hasn't seen the closing sheet for our home yet.  I have no answer for her.  I stress a bit more.  This is a lot of money at stake and the timeline is fixed - no time for this!
• Susie, the boys, and I go to pick up the big moving truck.  At this point I have had to talk to three different people at Budget to make sure that our reservation is correct.  When I go to pick up the truck it is, of course, not correct.  I calmly, but firmly, explain to to the employee that this is not okay.  He wisely and quickly makes things right.
• I have to drive the 24 foot diesel truck home because Lance is still at work.  I have a minor panic attack over this.  I pray a lot.  I don't crash and die, which is always a good thing.  I have a love/hate relationship with driving big scary things.
• We get home and lots of Lance's manly friends come to help load the truck.
• At this time my lender calls to let me know that we need to have a money wire transfer for the closing.  Tomorrow.  And that we will have to do it tomorrow morning since it's too late to do it today.  This is very problematic because our first closing is at 10am and I have to let the carpet cleaners into the house at 9:30am, and the bank doesn't open until 9am.  WHY IN THE WORLD WERE WE NOT TOLD ABOUT THIS SOONER, ESPECIALLY WHEN I KEPT ASKING ABOUT IT?!?!  No one has an answer for me.
• Our lender assures me that everything will be fine, but I've heard horror stories about wiring money.  Worry worry worry...
• While I am on this important phone call Lance tries to talk to me twice, even though I am very clearly quite busy dealing with the PURCHASE OF OUR HOME and for the love of all that is holy, look for the stuff you need yourself, Mr. Man!!!!  Sorry, Lance.  But I was bugged.  You were lucky everything was packed, or I probably would have thrown something at you.
• Our neighbor down the street sends her eight and four year old to 'help' with the move.  I am annoyed.  I respond by leaving to get the pizzas for our movers.
• We come home with the pizzas.  Half the truck is already full.  We feed all the kiddos and I send the neighbors home.  It's hot, muggy, and I am in a foul mood.  
• I get mad when we realize that the men have packed all of the garbage bags and don't know where they are, although I very clearly kept them to the side so this would not happen.  They blame the children.  I ask, in a very not-patient way, why in the world they were letting the children decide what was put in the van?
• I think not very nice things.  Then I repent because these guys are here to help us out, and I really do appreciate it.  But it's hard because it's so dang hot and I am so dang stressed about life, the universe, and everything.
• Lance informs me that not everything is going to fit in the truck.  I don't know what to tell him and tell him so.  I've done my (very large) part of this whole moving thing.  He needs to figure this out.
• I realize that I'm not very nice.
• I get mean again when Lance asks for a phone number that he really should have.
• I realize that Lance's suitcase, with all of his clothes and such for the next day, has been packed.  I inform him of this. He asks me what he should do.  I about lose it.
• Cole throws up.
• I call it quits.  I tell Lance he's on his own and that Susie and I are taking the kids to the hotel, we're going swimming, and that if he's lucky I might call and let him know what room we're staying in.
• We check into the Best Western just off the freeway.  The hotel's not bad, but you can tell it was in it's prime in the 70's.  For some reason this amuses me.
• We discover that the key card for one of our rooms does not work.  This does not amuse me.
• We try to take the kids swimming, but there's not shallow end.  Josh freaks out and won't let me hold him in the pool.
• Lance comes to the pool and informs me that all of our possessions are either in the moving van or scattered throughout the county.  I don't know what to think, I'm so tired.
• I finally get a shower for the first time in what feels like 237 hours.  We put the kids to bed.  Susie is kind enough to share her room with Josh and Spencer.  We get Cole.
• Cole fusses and fusses and fusses and nothing we do works until at 10pm I pick him up to walk him.  He falls to sleep in about 29 seconds.
• We fall into an exhausted sleep.

Wednesday, July 28th

• We decide to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  I love Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  We figure the kids will like it, too, since it's informal and fairly loud and you get your own little bottle of syrup.
• We figure wrong.  Well, Spencer liked it.  Cole liked it, although he kept yelling like a happy banshee for most of the meal.
• Josh throws tantrums and is just AWFUL.  We have to take him out.  Several times.  I don't think he eats anything.
• After breakfast Lance and I leave Susie with the boys.  I feel guilty and pray that they behave for her. I'm pretty sure she was praying for that, too!
• As we drive we get a call from the carpet cleaners.  They are early - luck!  We go back to the house and let them in.  I make Lance help me clean up some of the garbage mess he and his buddies left on the curb.  I have to interrupt the carpet guy from his conversation on his stupid iPhone so I can pay him.  I wonder about the state of customer service in America.
• We drive to the bank to do the money transfer.  It is actually fairly quick an painless.  Sigh of relief.
• We get to our first closing.  We finally meet the older couple who is buying our home.  We really like them. We're not so fond of their daughter/realtor, who we now realize was very much the driving force behind making us replace our perfectly acceptable garage door.  Oh well.
• We sell our home.  We hold a rather large check with our net profit, but ask the title company to keep it for us until the next closing.  It doesn't really feel like our money anyway, since we're just going to spend it all in a couple of hours.
• Lance and I wander around downtown Lafayette.  We sit in the shade of the courthouse and make some phone calls.
• We decide to check out the inside of the courthouse, since neither of us has ever had any reason to go there.  It's a really pretty, old building, with some great architecture.  But it's also a bit depressing because you have to go through metal detectors first, and then you're right by the juvenile court.  Sad.
• We walk down to McCord's Candies for malts, since it's 11am and 183 degrees, plus 98% humidity.
• We go to our next closing and meet both of our sellers for the first time.  (We had met the wife before, but not the husband.)  We really like them, too.  But not their realtor - she pretty much screwed us over the entire process.  I won't put her name on here, but if you ask me I'll be glad to tell you who she is and what she did.
• We goggle at the amount our sellers netted from the sale of the home.  (They finished the basement themselves, so they purchased the home for a lot less than what it is now worth.)  I wonder if it's really necessary for us to see this.  Ouch.
• We sign our lives away for the next 30 years at a great fixed rate.  I realize that I'm not as nervous this time as I was the first time we bought a home.  My hand starts to cramp from all the signing.  I wonder why this can't all be done digitally and feel sorry for all of the trees that gave their lives for this.
• We like our sellers even more when they decide not to charge us for the garage cabinets, which had been a big source of contention.  Their realtor tries to talk them out of it.  I shoot daggers from my eyes at her and try to control my fists of death.
• We leave the title company.  We OWN our new home!
• As we drive away Budget calls us, begging us to return our truck that night if possible because of a scheduling snafu on their end.  Because we're nice people, we agree.
• We go back to the house and pick up our truck, which the new owners have already complained about.  Good heavens, their stuff wasn't even coming until the next day.  And we were already planning on moving it right after the closing.  This annoys us.  So does their demand that we move all of the garbage bags from the curb.  Legally, we don't have to do this.  But because we're nice people (and suckers) we drive it over to our new home.
• We drive to our new house and go inside and admire it.  Hooray hooray!  I do a little dance in the kitchen.
• Susie and the boys are soon there.  Spencer pops the screen door out of the front door while entering the house.  Sigh.
• We give the boys the grand tour.  They seem impressed.  But they are also impressed with garden worms, so there you go.
• We unpack the car and minivan.  We do a little light cleaning.
• Josh decides to, *ahem*, mark his territory in the laundry room.  And I'm not talking about #1 here, people.  I about throw up.  
• Not ten minutes later he does the same thing in the basement bathroom.  I tell him he's lucky grandma Susie is here, because if there weren't any witnesses around....
• Susie and I run to Wal-Mart to pick up some food for ourselves and our movers.
• More wonderful men come to help move us in.  
• It starts to POUR.  Really pour.  Enough that we have to stop unloading the truck.
• It stops raining.  More of our possessions from around the county begin to arrive.  Including some in the back of a pickup truck which did not have a tarp on it.  Soggy, soggy things.  Including a very wet vacuum cleaner.
• The van is unloaded.  Food is eaten.
• It rains even more.  Seriously, it rains just about as hard as I have seen in a long, long time.
• We discover the dryer is broken.  I am NOT happy about this.
• We put Spencer and Josh's beds together and put the boys to bed.  (Poor Cole has to sleep in his play pen again because we can't find the hardware for the crib.)
• Lance goes to someone's house to get yet even more of our things.  We unload those.
• We go to pick up our plants and computers and TV from someone's garage.  It's still storming, and the clouds look really scary.  We book it home.
• We unpack the minivan.  Again.
• It's time to return the moving van.  Lance drives it while I drive the minivan.  At points it rains so hard I almost pull over because I can't see.  We decide not to fill up the truck because it was on "F" and besides we were doing them a favor by returning it early.  I realize that I will probably have to fight with them on this later.
• We get home, shower for the first time in what feels like 293 hours, and fall, exhausted, into bed.  Which is just our mattress on the floor.  We don't care.

Thursday, July 29th

• Unpack unpack unpack.  I get the kitchen and bathrooms pretty much unpacked.  The boys' rooms get kind of organized.
• Susie is wonderful in helping out with everything, especially entertaining the boys.  She even takes Spencer and Josh swimming while Cole naps.  
• Cole only naps for about 30 minutes and is a GROUCH.
• More unpacking.  And then, more packing.  Because we're leaving for Utah the next day.
• Our realtor brings us dinner, which I think is really nice.  But I don't realize until later that it's not baked.  I put it in the oven.  It's not finished by dinnertime.  So Susie and swing over to McDonald's to pick some food up.  Spencer and Josh love it.
• We put the kids to bed.  Susie the saint takes our washed clothing to the laundromat to be dried.  I finish packing for our flight the next morning.
• Another exhausted sleep.

Friday, July 30th

• 4:15am alarm.  I want to die.
• We leave the house at 5:00am.  Lance helps us get into the Southwest baggage line.  I get a random phone call but ignore it because it's 6am and I'm dealing with approximately 28 pieces of luggage, a stroller, three car seats and the kids.
• We discover that our flight is 2 hours late.  But Southwest assures us that our connecting flight will be held for us.  I am not happy.
• We make it through security with no major meltdowns.  I appreciate the fact that the Indie airport let's us go through the VIP section since we have kids.
• We find our gate and buy some milk to eat with our cereal.  (The milk, of course, costs an arm and a leg.)  We sit by a TV with the Disney Channel on it and thank our lucky stars for that.
• We finally get on our flight and take off.  I sit inbetween Spencer and Cole, and Susie gets Josh.  All kiddos behave pretty well for the three hour flight.  Lots of snacks eaten.  Lots of bruises from a baby who thinks he needs to climb all over me.
• We get to our connecting flight.  We board the full plane; all eyes on us.  Not many of them friendly, since they all assume we're the reason their flight has been delayed.  We are, but we can't explain that it's not our fault.
• The flight attendant gets on the PA and asks for volunteers to move their seats so I can sit with my kids.  No one moves.  I'm about to yell out something along the lines of "Okay, who's getting Josh, my three-year-old who's not had enough sleep in a week?!" when some people finally move.  
• I'm grateful.
• Until I realize that it's the front row, which means no tray tables and all bags have to be overhead.  Ohhhhhh man.
• I sit inbetween Josh and Cole.  I pray and pray and pray, because I know that this could get real ugly real fast.  I have no access to the DVD player or the snacks.  I entertain Josh and Cole with what I have: my watch and two hair rubber bands.
• We finally reach an altitude where we can play the DVD player.  I ignore the 'fasten seatbelts' sign and get the DVD player for Josh.  
• The drinks come.  The flight attendant seems completely oblivious to the fact that I have a three year old on one side and a one year old on the other and no tray tables.  I end up holding two drinks while trying to pour Cole's juice into his sippy cup.  Stupid flight attendant.
• I get Cole out of his seat only to realize that his diaper has leaked.  He is completely soaked.  I take him into the airplane bathroom to change him, grateful that it actually had a changing table in it.
• Have you ever had to change the diaper and clothes of a crazy 14 month old in an airplane bathroom?  Pure madness.
• The changing table won't lock back into place.  I put Cole down so I can use both hands.  I get the table back in place, only to look down and realize that Cole is chewing on the toilet seat.  
• I figure he'll either get hepatitis or have very good immunity, one of the two.  Either way, there's not much I can do about it now.
• We get back into our seats just in time for descent.  I have to convince Josh that he has to put the DVD player away.
• We land.  Grandpa is waiting for us.  We drive to Provo.  We unpack. Sigh of relief.
• I walk around like a zombie, I'm so tired.  The kids are tired, too, but they just have tantrums.

So... that's my story.  Is it the real end to our whole moving story?  I hope so.  But I kind of doubt it.  

But no worries.  I have faith it will all work out.