No Place Like Home for the Holidays
The night before we caught our flight home to Utah we were seriously as excited as two kids on Christmas Eve. Seriously, we only got like three hours of sleep because we were so excited we couldn't sleep. We opened our gifts for each other and had a mini Christmas of our own but the real gift was on it's way: going back to Utah.
We woke up at 3:30 to get ready and make sure we were up in enough time to catch our Uber at 4:15. That was a great way to kick off our trip, our Uber driver was honestly hilarious. When he first pulled up he rolled down the window and said to get in the car on the opposite side of the car and to not touch the door handle. He then proceeded to tell us that he takes late night shifts because a lot of college kids need rides home from the bars and apparently one of the kids before us had a little too much to drink and got sick out the window so we rolled up to the airport in a car covered in throw up. It was so funny our driver was so apologetic and said he was going to try to run through the car wash before he came to get us but didn't have time and didn't want to cancel on us. We were grateful he still showed up because we really didn't want to pay for long term parking while we were gone. But it all worked out and we made it to the airport in plenty of time.
Our flights went smoothly with only one minor delay and as we looked out the window as we landed in Utah it just felt like home. Because it is! I think you don't know how much a place is home until you leave it. We have enjoyed it out here but I think coming back for a few weeks showed us that we really want to get back to Utah and friends and family as soon as possible.
We had arranged for Amanda and Casey to come pick us up from the airport so Casey was waiting for us as we went to baggage claim and got our bags then as we made the very long trek (Salt Lake Airport has changed so much) to the parking garage we saw the whole Richins crew there to welcome us with signs and everything. Seeing all the kids made my heart about burst it was so unexpected and so fun. Reminded me of coming back from my mission: pure joy seeing family.
The first week we stayed with Jaden's family. We rotated Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day between the families. The original plan was for us to do an early Christmas Day with the Richins' because Megan and Mike were supposed to go into quarantine to prepare for baby Hayes' open heart surgery. Unfortunately poor buddy came down with rhinovirus (common cold) and aspirated which lead to aspiration pneumonia and a postponed surgery date. It was an emotional time for everyone but Hayes is a fighter and after being on high flow oxygen in the cardiac ICU he pushed through and was able to go home and his surgery got rescheduled for January 24. Selfishly we were glad we were there so we weren't so far away getting updates through the grapevine and we could help out with the kids while Megan and Mike were at the hospital.
The week after Christmas we stayed with my family. Jaden got to go duck hunting and we spent time with my parents and were able to hear from Bridger a few times on his pdays and Christmas. We saw all of my grandparents and were even able to stop by and visit Eleanor our good friend, formal landlord and bonus grandma. We spent lots of time watching movies, making treats, doing puzzles and playing games. Jaden took several well earned naps and I was able to keep working even when we were up at the Quack Shack when the boys went hunting.
Christmas is a time where we reflect on what is really important and this Christmas in particular I think we will always remember because the best gift we got was seeing our family.
Peaches
- Smooth flights
- Looking out the airplane window and seeing Utah below us
- Cutest homecoming crew in the world
- Seeing family and friends after what felt like longer than it actually was
- Hitting our bucket list restaurants: Mandarin, Nielsons, Casa del Tamal, Even Stevens, Slackwater, and Mandarin again
- Christmas party with friends
- Finishing a super tricky puzzle with mom
- Laughing and playing games
- Finished reading a book called Mary and Martha that was an awesome take on the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and their relationship with Christ
- Getting my headshot taken at Browning for Flywheel's website
- Seeing that even at 24 years old when I color dad a picture with a letter on the back he still puts it up on the table behind his desk
- Hitting publish on the website
- Ordering business cards
- Amanda and Tanner sending us a hilarious video about how much they missed having us home
- Decorating gingerbread houses with Sloane
- Getting matching Christmas pajamas with Amy, Amanda, Meg, and Alex
- Jensen being my little shadow the whole time we were there. Jaden was his favortie before we left but for whatever reason he was my little buddy
- Playing games and doing puzzles with mom and Steph
- Seeing Steph's house she's building
- Putting together Christmas gifts for mom and dad
- Visiting Eleanor and seeing that she put the picture we gave her when we moved out up with pictures of her grandkids
- Going to church with family
- Chatting with parents
- Making get well signs for Hayes boy
- Going to lunch with friends
- Haircuts for me and Jade both
- Snuggling babies. Holding Hayes briefly
- Seeing the Salt Lake temple progress
- Meeting Sam and Kennedy's baby Macky
Pits
- Hayes getting sick and not seeing him and Megan and Mike much
- The font on the business cards I ordered was way too small so I had to reorder them
Lessons Learned
- Family is everything
- We want to live in Utah
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