Booking It Through Summer

Five days after Jeff left, Jeff and I celebrated (called each other to say congratulations in honor of) our ten year anniversary! I had been working over the last year on my first book and I had a goal to have it published by our ten year anniversary. Thanks to much feverish editing by my mom and sister, I was able to accomplish this goal! Here's the day I made Eli take an awkward picture of me because my first printed copy of Date Your Spouse From Your House had finally arrived!

My running friends insisted on celebrating the accomplishment of my book and the accomplishment of my marriage for a book drop/anniversary/ice cream party at the park (after making me run a few laps for the treat beforehand).

I did it! And I love the way the book turned out. Check it out if you want some nearly completely free date ideas that can all be done right in your living room (or sometimes backyard if you're feeling adventurous).

If you'll remember back to the picture I posted of Carson two posts ago, he sleeps with a lamp shining in his face. He also takes approximately 30 years to fall asleep every night so I let him draw or read to calm himself down before bed. I found this picture one morning of what I interpreted to be Carson's fantasyland--our house with every single light on.

Carson is our little artist. When Haley offered to paint rocks with him one afternoon, he was in heaven!

We did much adventuring the last few weeks of summer to keep our minds off of Jeff being gone and to help pass the days. A favorite was Wardle Fields Park.

I feel like the girl in this picture wants you to know she holds no association to Jonah and his shenanigans.

We scored some free tickets to the aquarium so that was a quick way to fill up a day.

Same Wardle Fields Park, different day.

In a snap summer was over and school was threatening to be in full swing.

Jeff's Farewell Tour

Jeff strategically quit his old job to give himself an employment free week between jobs. We took the opportunity to quickly scope out Las Vegas and then we swung around to our summer vacation home (Panguitch). 

Then we came back home and had to visit Becky to tell her all about the house we would have bought in Las Vegas had my checkbook not mysteriously disappeared. Spoiler alert: It was very obviously (now that we are under contract on a different house three months later) not meant to be.

It took six months of planning before we were finally able to make it to the skating rink with our Bess Friends.

Becky graciously offered to watch our kids so Jeff and I could have one last date night before he left, which we used to play Frisbee golf.

And yeah, so we may have double dipped in our babysitting offerings. Teresa also offered to watch the kids so Jeff and I could have "one last date" together. For our second one last date we completed a 7 mile hike to Elephant Rock. Whew!

Jeff's last free day was spent on a family date as the boys were dying to go swimming and I gave them plenty of warning that swimming would be a firm no with Jeff gone.

The morning of his departure I made Jeff a hot breakfast and sent him packing!

The boys were very nervous to send Jeff away. Nobody was sure what to expect and I can still feel our hesitation to let him get on that plane.

But he did get on the plane! And the great part is, I'm writing this 3 months late so I can spoil the ending for you. He did such a great job at training and is graduating this week! We are so proud of the hard work and dedication Jeff has given to this career change and we were happy to support him chasing his dreams. It's probably been the hardest thing we've done as a family, but it has also been the most rewarding and forced us all to grow in new ways that we are all grateful for. But we are definitely ready to be reunited again!