Wyoming Vacation

It was quick, but it was a vacation. We have been trying to get back home to Wyoming for several weeks now and each time, it has just fallen through. Last Tuesday I called Ty at work and asked him if there was anyway we could get leave for the rest of the week. There were several variables weighing in on this and it just seemed like the perfect time to make the trip. I didn't hear back from him until he walked in the door that evening about 11. He looked at me and said, "We are on vacation!" Needless to say, Wednesday was filled with packing, getting the house in order, and loading the car. Yes, with two kids... those jobs take ALL day! We were planning on leaving right after Carter's T-ball game that evening and making it part way, just to break up the long 11 hour drive across the magnificent state of Wyoming. On Thursday morning we started the second leg around 9:30am and arrived at the Schroeder household (my sister) around 4:00pm. This was perfect time to get out of the car and run, dance, play, and scream with the cousins (Allyson, Jackson, & Trey). After that pit stop we headed down to Douglas to see the Grandparents! We had a really nice time with everyone and are so thankful how welcoming everyone always is to our family. Ty got in several rounds of golf, the kids were spoiled rotten and I had 8 extra pairs of willing hands helping me with my daily job. It was great!
On Saturday morning, we headed down to Scottsbluff, NE to visit with my Grandma and Granddaddy. Three weeks ago she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer (http://www.pancan.org/Patient/pancreatic.html) and has spent the last 2 weeks out in Omaha undergoing tests and procedures. She is eligible for the Whipple procedure (http://www.mayoclinic.org/pancreatic-cancer/whippleprocedure.html) but would have to wait 10 days, so she decided to go back to her home in Scottsbluff and catch up on things there. Of course this was one of the "variables" that I talked about earlier and we were all so glad we got the chance to come and be with her and my Granddaddy before they headed back out to Omaha. Our time was filled with wonderful food, good chats and lots of wonderful cousin time.
We returned to Douglas on Sunday evening and had a nice time with Grandpa and Grandma Walsh and even got to hang out with Uncle Drew who was in visiting for the weekend. Carter made his first S'more, and between him and Whitleigh provided the conversation and entertainment for the evening.

Monday morning we woke up and had breakfast with the Walsh's and then headed in to say goodbye to my parents. We hit the road around 12noon and stopped in Ogden, Utah around 7pm. It was a very long car trip, especially for little Miss Whitleigh. She cried for the last 2 hours and nothing would console her. We tried everything from singing to Baby Einstein. She just wasn't having it and wanted out of her seat and to walk. It was as if someone flipped a switch once we got out of the car. She was laughing and smiling... just loving her freedom. We knew that we were definitely going to have to plan the next days drive perfectly or we'd be in for it. So on Tuesday morning, we woke up fairly early. We all ate breakfast and headed over to the Children's Museum that the kids and I had gone to a month before. The Treehouse Museum (http://www.treehousemuseum.org/home.html) is one of the most fantastic places on earth for any child and if you are passing through or ever visiting the Salt Lake/Ogden area with young ones... it is a MUST SEE! We let the kids play and run for about 2.5 hours and then loaded them up in the car, fed them some food and made the rest of the trip in about 4 hours. Whitleigh slept for most of it and Carter talked our leg off or sang for the entire trip. It was when we were about an hour out when we could tell he was getting pretty restless so we started playing the State Capitols game and then the spelling game. Ty would give Carter a word to spell and then he would reciprocate with a "hard" word back to Ty. A few of Carter's hard words were box, truck, airplane, golf club and button. We would giggle each time he'd say, "Okay Daddy, here is the hardest word ever!" Carter and Ty were tied with 9 points each when Ty gave Carter his final word to spell and possibly win the game. Ty gave Carter the word NOSE. He thought and thought; we could see him saying it over and over in his head and really trying to sound it out. After several minutes of this, he finally says, "Okay... N-O-S-T-H, noseth!" We both had to bury our heads and hide our laughter because of his valiant effort. N-O-S-T-H would be the correct phonetic spelling coming from a little boy who sat and sounded the word out over and over in his head and especially one who talks with a very distinct lisp!

All in all, it was a great trip and one that we all needed to take. We know the importance of family support especially when someone is hurting and we also know that at this point in our summer our weeks and weekends are limited before Ty's "big trip" in the fall. So to be able to make one last trip home to say goodbye was nice to do all together. As long and miserable as some parts of the trip were, we have family memories that will stay with us forever, and that means the world to us both.