Last week, Tommy and Dane flew out to Utah for five days and left me here in North Carolina with no demands on my time and nothing to do. When we started planning this trip for them, I was looking forward to it like you can't believe! It was in the midst of Dane being sick and tired and I could think of nothing more fun than a few days with nothing to do. And then as soon as they left, I spent most of the time they were gone wanting to skype with them and waiting for them to come home. But don't worry, I did enjoy myself by sleeping in a few mornings and I got a bunch of great projects done without my little companion, but I was so excited for them to come back.
Tommy and Dane, on the other hand, had a complete blast. The reason why they went out there in the first place was for Tommy to present his research at a BYU Stats Department seminar. It is a would-be job talk, because they desperately want him to work there, although he has broken their hearts by already having a job (and by not wanting to go into academia at all :). This invitation included a free flight to Utah, and he managed to work it by asking them to let him stay the weekend in addition so that he could see his family. And we figured that since Dane is free, it would be worth it to have him go out with Tommy to see his grandparents and cousin. Tommy wins father-of-the-year award for gamely flying across the country by himself with our crazy toddler, but man, once they got to Utah, it was totally worth it. Dane and Zach had a BLAST while they were there, which I could see by all the pictures Tommy and Melissa were sending me. Check out how funny and cute they are together:
Sharing a milk cup, haha.
Dane loves it when Tommy pulls him around on this blanket, and Zach got involved too.
Doing "hello goodbye!" with Tommy's dad.
Bath buddies!
Tommy and Melissa took the two boys to the children's museum in Ogden and Dane was apparently obsessed with this model fire truck.
The two little firefighters!
Tommy also got to go skiing one day, basically fulfilling all of his dreams for the winter (we hadn't gotten to go while we were there earlier). Hooray!
The two matching boys!
Dane and his grandma.
I was so glad every time I got a picture of the two of them on my phone while they were gone--it was so good to know that he was having fun there. We weren't sure if he'd remember the Leiningers' house from when we were there over New Year's but it sounds like he just jumped right in and had a blast playing and felt totally at home. And once he got home, he started saying "Grandma" and "Grandpa" whenever he saw pictures of them! How cute is that? We were just dying over the cuteness--and that alone makes it definitely worth it, that he now has memories and associations with his grandparents (although maybe you'll have to ask Tommy if it was separately; he's still recovering from flying with him). He loves his Grandma and Grandpa!
FYI: He's also starting to say Grandma and Grandpa for my mom and dad too--he's apparently seen them enough on Skype and in pictures hanging on our fridge for him to get that they are Grandma and Grandpa too. And yesterday, he looked over to the fridge and pointed to my little brother Cole's picture and just said, out of the blue, "Cole!" He is learning a mile a minute over here. IT IS THE BEST!
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