home with my boy

After a very long ten days, I am home.  It is always difficult to be away from home for a long period of time, but this trip seemed especially long since the bombing in Boston happened on the day I arrived in High Point.  While I was away, all I wanted to do was hug and kiss my little boy.  Like you, my heart and head have run the course of emotions and while I realize it is old news according to the news cycle, it is still present in my mind.

So over the weekend, I have hugged and kissed my little Ryan about a thousand times and thanked heaven for my little family.

Whenever I'm gone for awhile, it seems like Ryan grows a month or so older.  This time I came home to a very imaginative little boy.  His daddy has a very curious, imaginative mind, and it seems Ryan is following in his footsteps.  He's been going after every bug, monster and dinosaur in our house.  Luckily, for the bugs, monsters and dinosaurs, the green laser gun has a dying battery otherwise they wouldn't stand a chance.

On Saturday we went to downtown Salt Lake for the annual Nihon Matsuri (Japanese festival).  I was shocked to see all the white people dressed up in full anime costumes.  Celebrating Japan isn't what it used to be!  But we were able to meet up with Janelle and Sienna, Trent, Sarah and Charlotte and Brian - although Brian was working his Liberty Mutual booth (anyone need cheaper car or home insurance?!).  We brought Charlotte home with us and the two littles had quite a fun time just riding home in the back seat.  How cute are they?

The weird thing was, having two children in our car gave us the feeling of what it would be like with two kids.  I can't explain it, but it felt real and it felt like we were a proper grown-up family (as opposed to the pretend family??).  One thing we realized is we will need a different car because Tony's knees were practically in his chest from having the seat so close and poor Charlotte had to put her legs on either side of her seat for lack of room!

As I said before, it's good to be home.