To grandfathers house....

To start off, 3 yrs ago we moved from Utah to Texas, a few months after moving here I landed a job as a flight attendant and the flight benefits allowed us to fly home and visit family and friends in Utah and Nevada for not very much money (unless of course a flight was canceled and we ended up spending the day in the airport or ridding the greyhound from Vegas to Fillmore, or something like that) Unfortunately when I took my sick leave last year i had to give up my flight benefits, which means no more trips to grandma's or grandpa's house and since my dad used my benefits to visit us, this also meant Grandpa couldn't visit as much.

Well, it has been well over a year since we last visited Utah, the boys were the last ones to visit Utah, they made it on the plane and I didn't, I figure it has been atleast 2 yrs since I have been to visit my Mom in Utah and remember going in Oct. 2007 to go and visit Salt Lake, I don't remember any trips after that, like I said though the boys have since been but it has been a year. One must say in the year I had the flight benefits our little boy became quite accustom to flying, so much that he still mentions it quite a lot, he loves airplanes and has probably wasted a forest of trees making paper airplanes.

Well this weekend we have been cleaning out the carport (and by we, I mean John) and some bags we have in huge trash bags have been brought inside and Dominic found a little carry on bag and he went and packed it full of toys and books (he says, I haven't looked to see just what he packed) and he came and stuck his head in the bathroom and informed me that dad was going to take him to the airport and he was going to go and visit Grandpa, at first I played with, thinking he was pretending, and I told him he ought to call his grandpa--well grandpa agreed and jokingly I told my dad all he had in his bag was toys and books so they would have to get him clothes--Dominic at that point excitingly announces he has clothes and runs to his room--this was about the time I realized Dominic was seriously about going to Grandpa's and the tears that soon followed were enough to make me want to cry.

How exactly do you explain to a 4 yr old that they can't just go and see Grandpa (or grandma) like they use to? Before it didn't matter how much money we had we just got on a plane and went--sometimes Dominic didn't even care what plane, he just wanted to board a plane and thought all planes went to grandpa's, but that is a different story for a different time. I tried to explain to him that we could only do that when mommy would fly a lot but now that mommy is home more and doesn't fly we don't get to fly anymore--he seriously looked at me like that was completely unfair, that now not only does he have to see mom all the time but because of that he doesn't get to see his bested buddy grandpa, so before he could say anything to that affect I quickly told him that we were trying to save up some money so we could take him to grandpa's for Christmas.

I have wanted to take Dominic to Temple Square to see the lights so bad--unfortunately we never made it with himto see them at night, even when we lived in Utah , we actually haven't been to see the lights at temple square at night since about a week before Dominic was born, John and I went there together but by the time we got there i had to go to the bathroom (being pregnant and all) and all the lines to the bathroom were so long we ended up walking the 2 blocks back to the credit Union where my dad was to use the bathroom, we were going to return but then Dominic was born and after our stay in the hospital and Dominic being so early and tiny we didn't think it appropriate to take him out at night to see lights, the next year we took him during the day but felt it way too cold to take him at night, and then we moved in the summer...every year since then we have droven around Tyler to see the christmas lights a few days before Christmas and he always enjoys that so I am really hoping to be able to make it to Utah this Christmas so I can take him to see the lights at Temple Square (as well as family and friends and all that too) I was thinking maybe if I could score some cheap ticket Dominic took take a week off of school and him and I could fly to Utah for his Birthday and either return right before Christmas or have John follow closer to Christmas--i figure even if we drive right before Christmas it won't be that expensive because we can save gas by not having to use the air conditioner

Either way, right now it is just a dream/fantasy, with no money in our bank account and bills coming out our ears it seems it might have to be something we put off till next year--either way, I realized today that Dominic is almost at age to be an unaccompanied minor so now I am trying to remember if they can fly unaccompanied at the age of 5 or 6 or was it even 8? and in addition to that, do i trust him to fly unaccompanied even if the airlines permit it?

the joys of children

I wanted to post an inspirational post about parenting and the joys of children, unfortunately, we are having people over for dinner and I haven't even prepared the food, not to mention the children destroyed my clean house so I have to reclean it, if that wasn't the case this so would be a post about how much children bless my life--well maybe next time

wish me luck