We're back

Because I'm kind of obsessive about internet stalkers, I never like to post that we're leaving on a vacation or anything like that, so now that we're back, I can say that we just spent most of July in Utah. We left the evening of the 1st to get a few hours into our drive after Norm got off work. We drove all day on the 2nd and arrived at my sister's house on the 3rd. That evening we spent with my family and then saw some friends on the 4th. Then Norm flew back here to work for a week while the kids and I spent time with my parents, siblings and grandma. I have to say, my grandma is totally amazing. She keeps up the most enormous garden every year. She has some help, but does most of it herself. On top of that, she's always ready to play with the kids. You might picture her sitting at the table with them playing a nice little board game, but no. While we were there, she played Mother May I with them. At first, she was the mother telling them what they could do, but when I came over to see what was going on, she had me take over as mother so that she could be with the kids. It was pretty fun to watch her take her three big leaps and all that good stuff. Anyway, after Norm got back, we spent some time with his family. Some of the time we all went visiting and some of the time I stayed with my sister while he went visiting and we split the kids up. It worked out well because I often have a hard time keeping up with things like laundry when I try to rush around to so many different houses.

While we were there, Isaac and Tabitha turned 4. Pretty amazing. They got to have two birthday celebrations because we celebrated on their birthday at my sister's house and then left the next day to go to St. George to see some of Norm's family there. His sister bought a cake for them, so Isaac's wish to "have my birthday some more" was fulfilled.

Once we got home, Norm met with his doctor to discuss the celiac diagnosis. It's going to be just as terrible as I was afraid it would be, but I've successfully fed him three good gluten free dinners since then, so I guess we'll survive. I'm grateful that this is something treatable and not some horrible cancer or something, but I must admit that I'll be even more grateful if none of the kids have it. :)

So, now it's back to real life for all of us.