Another Week With Paul- Part II

 I knew that Tuesday would be hard.  I don't know what it is about an anniversary, but they can evoke very strong emotions- conjure up all kinds of memories and feelings.  They can be good or bad, and this particular anniversary is always bad.  Joseph was killed at approximately 2:00 a.m. on July 1, 2009.  I dread that day every year, and this year was harder than any of them yet.  He's been gone for half a decade and it's a big milestone.  I stayed up very late on Monday reading old journal entries, looking at pictures and doing all kinds of "unhealthy" things to feed my emotions, like watching old videos of him.  And I did a lot of crying and fell asleep crying.  I didn't want to get out of bed on Tuesday and face the day.  But I finally got everyone up and ready and said "Let's go to brunch.  I'm not cooking."

Getting out of the house was just what the doctor ordered.  We went to Village Inn and we hit the trifecta.  #1- It was kids eat free day. #2- The World Cup was on the big TVs. #3- They had free wifi so Paul could sit there and chat with Chloe while we ate.  Perfect!  And Devin ate his first lemon and Paul caught it on video and it was pretty funny. 

 Then we went over to Smiths Marketplace so I could grab a few things, and we each ended up with new sunglasses.  Paul bought these, but I ended up getting "normal" looking ones instead of these beauties. 

 While in Park City the day before, I told Paul we should pawn the kids off and go get massages and pedicures.  I was half kidding, but it really sounded awesome.  Paul mentioned it again and I said "yeah, I wish!"  When we got home from the store, the kids ran down to Paul's room and attacked him on the bed...and I let them.  I closed the door and let him entertain them while I got some housework.  I think he secretly loved it!  While he was down there with the kids I called my favorite day spa and made him an appointment for an hour long massage.  Yeah, I love him that much!!  When I told him he was pretty dang happy. 

We dropped him off at the spa at 5:15 and I ran some errands while he got worked on.  When I picked him up a little over an hour later, he seemed punch drunk.  Yup, that's what an hour long full body massage will do!  Then we hit our favorite burger place, Five Guys, for dinner.  A-mahz-ing. 

 That night we were all camped out on the couch watching the traditional Joseph video, the same one I made for his funeral.  It's always cathartic to watch and the kids love seeing pictures of themselves with him.  While we were watching the video, I heard Cody's car pull up outside.  Cody had driven halfway to Twin Falls right after work to meet his dad who was bringing Ethan back home.  Cody was beat from being up at 5:00 that morning, working a full day, and driving to Idaho and back.  Ethan didn't know Paul was at our house, so Paul came up the stairs and surprised him when he walked in the door.  I was a little disappointed by Ethan's reaction, because when he left a week earlier he had been VERY upset and even cried.  But he is sometimes very hard to read (just like his daddy) and even though he was super happy and surprised to see Paul, he acted like it was no big deal.  Stinker. 

On Wednesday, we wanted to go back to Seven Peaks Waterpark and stay for longer than we had been able to on his first visit.  I even made arrangement for Garrett to go to the hourly daycare near us, so we didn't have to take him and worry about him the whole time.  We left the house a little after lunch and dropped Garrett off (as he threw a massive tantrum of disappointment when he knew we were swimming and he wasn't) and we made our way to the waterpark.  When I pulled in to park, the attendant informed me that almost 90% of the rides were closed for maintenance.  WHAT??!!  I pulled over and we brainstormed what to do.  We decided to drive down to Provo to the other Seven Peaks that we had never been to.  I HATE Provo and avoid that part of Utah at all costs.  But I sucked it up and drove the 45 minutes down there. 

We ended up having a good time, although the park was crazy crowded.  Upon learning that so much of the park was closed, it seemed that everyone in Salt Lake had the same idea as us.  Everything was going fine until Hailey got stung by a bee in the lazy river and it ruined things for her.  She ended up sticking around our camp while the rest of us went on some rides together.  We left the park a little after 5:00 to make it home in time to pick Garrett up. 

 When he got home, Cody was there and said that some packages were waiting for me on our bed.  I was soooooooo excited because I knew Paul's family had sent us something in the mail, and I knew what it was.  Paul's mom had gotten all of our kids jerzies to match Paul's Gaelic team back him, Gort na Mona.  She had sent me a picture of the shirts after she got their names put on the backs of them, and I could hardly keep the surprise.  Paul had no idea about it, so it was a big surprise for him!  The FOUR parcels had all kinds of goodies in them and it was the biggest treat going through everything.  I'm pretty sure I had a goofy grin on my face the whole time.  Paul called his family back home to let them know we were opening the parcels, so he was on the phone with them at the kids opened everything.  It was so fun!

Ethan's classic face in most pictures these days.  He is really good at being ten years old!

Paul's dad back home, showing off the shirts when they got them done!

 The last thing we found in the box was something fragile and wrapped in brown paper.  I opened it up and saw this.  I smiled so big as I read it, and then when I saw Paul's name on there, I started crying.  It felt like someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart.  His sister made this for us and I cried and cried and even got to talk to her on the phone.  I just LOVE Seana and I hope to God I get to meet her one day!  I hope that about all of his family because at this point, they feel like they ARE family to us.  It's hard to imagine that three weeks ago we didn't know them, and now we are all connected in a way that distance and time can't undo.  I am so thankful for whatever forces in the universe brought us all together, because we love and cherish them.  It was a fantastic night!!

Another Week With Paul- Part I

When Paul left the previous Saturday, a huge piece of us went with him.  We tentatively made plans for him to come back to stay with us during his "off week" of the 4th, but I wasn't getting my hopes up.  The next week had a lot of unknowns in it.  He had yet to meet his Colorado Springs family, and he had a whole week to form new relationships and possibly change his mind about going to Las Vegas with the other coaches.  They were caravaning down to Nevada after a meeting on Saturday the 28th.  I had a feeling that we wouldn't be seeing Paul again during the summer and I tried hard to be okay with it.

He and I stayed in contact over the week and I loved hearing about his adventures in Colorado Springs and how he was getting on with the new host family.  I won't lie- I didn't like that he was under someone else's roof for a few reasons.  He kept saying he was in fact planning on coming back to Salt Lake and that we would make plans and the day got closer and he knew how the caravan was going to work.

Because we were spending all day in Lava on Saturday, I felt a little anxious because it was going to have to be very well choreographed to get him back to our house that night.  His car was driving from Denver along I-70 and we planned on picking him up in Green River, about three hours from our house but along their route to Vegas.  Green River is about seven hours west of Denver.  As we spent the day at Lava, I repeatedly checked my phone to see if I had a Facebook message from him giving me an exact time to meet.  Nothing.  It was frustrating because he doesn't use his cell phone in America because of the outrageous international charges, so the only way to communicate is through Facebook when he was wifi.  So Facebook was our only lifeline to him.

It wasn't until 6:00 that night as we were getting on the highway from Lava that I decided to check my phone one last time, and I in fact had a message from him.  He was leaving Denver and would get to Green River between midnight and 1:00 a.m. if all went as planned.  Cody left a little after 10:00 that night to make the drive south to collect our boy.  I was a nervous wreck at the thought of Cody driving all night long when he was already tired from a poor night's sleep and a day in the sun.  Ever since Joseph died in a car accident when the driver fell asleep at the wheel, I am very nervous about middle of the night trips.  Sometime around 2:00 I decided to go to bed because waiting up and wringing my hands was futile.  At 4:30 my eyes popped open and I felt panic in my chest because they weren't home yet.  I started doing the math and I told myself to not panic until 5:00, and that even then it was PROBABLY okay.  A few minutes before 5:00 I heard a key in the front door and footsteps shuffled inside.  My body relaxed because my boys were home safe.

We had decided not to tell the kids that Paul was coming back.  Partly because we wanted it to be a fun surprise, and partly because we didn't want them to share in our disappointment if he changed his plans.  But Sunday morning I got up and was making breakfast when the girls came out to the kitchen, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  We chatted for a little bit as I made breakfast burritos and then Paul came up the stairs and Hailey and Lauren looked at him with complete shock and confusion.  It was priceless! 

We spent the day lazying around, which was very much needed.  Paul and Cody were dead tired from traveling all night, and we were playing catch up from our Lava getaway.  I worked on school most of the afternoon while Paul napped and played with the kids.  It felt wonderful to have him back with us, picking up where we left off.  That night we had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner and stayed up way too late talking.  It was grand. 

Monday morning was a little weird because we hadn't had a morning to be lazy during the week of camp.  None of us woke up until mid morning and then we stayed in our PJs for a long time.  It was fun having Paul home with us in the morning!  We decided to head out to the outlet mall in Park City to see if we could snatch any good deals.  I have never been too impressed with the low prices at that place, but Paul wanted to check it out anyway.  I found some deals at the Nike and Adidas store and got Ethan some new soccer gear.  Then we had lunch at Cafe Rio there in town and listened to a lot of Bob Marley on the drive back home.  It was nice!

That evening we decided to go to the rec center pool for dinner, so we picked up Little Caesars pizza on the way there.  The kids had so much fun playing basketball with Paul in the water, and Paul even found a fellow football player to bounce the ball off heads with.  Nice and chill evening.  You can see a short video of the kids and Paul in the water HERE.

Late that night my good friend Audrey came by to drop off a present for me.  She knows my favorite treat in the world is a Big Pink Cookie, and she brought me a case of them because the next day was the five year anniversary of Joseph's death and she thought I could use some comfort food.  That is an awesome friend, right there!!

Lava Hot Springs 2014

This was a whirlwind of a trip.  Because our summer is jam packed with activities that take up almost every weekend this year, we didn't get to spend three days in Lava like last summer.  We were up and back in 24 hours.  Because we would only be there for a short time, each family decided to find their own lodging rather than one big place for everyone.  We ended up renting this apartment type place above one of the old shops in town.  It was a very odd place, but it suited our needs for the night.  The weirdest thing was that the two bathrooms did not have doors, only thin curtains going across that didn't even come down to the ground!  Let me tell what what it's like when seven people do their business and there is no way to contain smells.  Ugh! 

We found Jane and Allan, Lance and Courtnee and kids in town and headed to Royal Pizza for dinner.  It's a tiny place and very popular so the wait was long, but it was worth it because the food was amazing.  After dinner we each made our way back to our seperate lodging for the night.

Preslee was a trooper in her pink cast!

Playing hide'n'seek in the apartment cupboards.

Our apartment was on Main Street and and besides the bright street lights coming through our windows, there was a group of loud drunks outside on the street until about 1:30 in the morning.  Cody and I FINALLY dozed off, when Garrett came into our room crying and scared. After getting him to sleep and me dozing off again, I woke up to him fussing on the floor beside our bed and he was covered in blood.  He had a bloody nose, but in the middle of the night is scared me to death because I couldn't tell where the blood was coming from!  It was a REEEEEEALLY long night for Cody and me.  Garrett woke up two more times with his nose bleeding before the sun came up.  That poor kid has my nose and it bleeds easily in the dry air. 

The next morning, I got a text from Skylar that Leighann had their baby girl at 5:11 that morning!!!  She wasn't due until today (July 4th) so it was a big surprise for everyone.  It's almost all I could think about the rest of the day! Her birth story is HERE on my sister's blog.

Evangeline "Eva" Nita Buras, 6 lbs 6 oz 18 inches of beauty!!

Grandpa came by and took the four big kids to breakfast in town, while Cody, Garrett and I stayed behind to eat cold cereal and clean up the apartment for check out.  When we walked outside, it was really windy and drizzling rain.  Southeastern Idaho is natorious for wind, but that day was crazy.  We stopped at the market to get a few things we forgot at home, then went over to the giant swimming complex.  We got in and set up our camp and almost got blown away.  Come to find out there were 25 mile and hour winds that day!!  It was miserable to get out of the water because you about froze to death.  Even though the water is warm spring water, it almost made it not worth it to swim because of the wind chill in the air.  At 5:30 there was an accident in the deep-end involving the platforms, and when the lifeguards cleared the pool and started backboarding a swimmer, we took that as our que to call it a day. 

We had made arrangements for Jane and Allan to take Ethan and Lance's three boys back with them to Filer for a few days.  I hate saying goodbye to my kids like that, even if it is only for a three days.  But Ethan was very excited to go.  We hit the road at 6:00 and barely made it back to town in time for Lauren to get to her end of year soccer movie party at her coach's house.  We were sunburned and tired, but it was a fun 24 hours!