Sending Joseph Off to Basic Training

I dropped Joseph off at the airport today. He's officially headed to basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma . . . It was so hard to watch him walk away. I stayed there staring into space after he'd passed through security. I probably looked so funny to the other passengers rushing past me as I stood clutching Joseph's journal, tears running down my face. (He took a new journal, so he gave me his old one to read while he's gone.)

A few minutes later I headed to the car and back to Rexburg. I pulled over a few minutes after getting on the freeway to see if he'd tucked a goodbye letter in his journal for me. There wasn't one, but he sent me a beautiful email tonight. I will miss that man so much.

We had such a wonderful day yesterday. We had a nice relaxing morning with the kids. Joe gave both boys and me blessings. Then, Joe suggested we go out to eat breakfast at The Flap Jack Shack. As Jack said, "The food was delicious!" I recommend the biscuits and gravy. We had such a fun time. Surprisingly, my boys do great when it comes to eating out. All you have to do is keep the food coming until they're full and they're happy.

After breakfast, we went to my nephew's (Calvin and Jude) birthday party. We bowled and played arcade games. Jack loved racecar driving with his Dad. Then, we went to my in-law's to drop the boys off with their Grandma DeBow, so Joe and I could go on a date.

We went for a beautiful hike to cress creek. We raced up some of the hills, read all the signs (even sang some, haha), picked watercress for Karen (Joe's mom), picked up other hikers' trash, sat on benches, took some really cool and some silly pictures, saw amazing scenery, identified trees, tracks, and scat (that means animal droppings), rubbed juniper berries until they changed colors . . . One of the best dates ever.

We spent a few more hours at the DeBow's with the kids and Joe's family before heading home to get some rest. We woke up at 4:00 this morning to get Joseph to the airport in Idaho Falls in time.

We had about an hour to sit and wait before he needed to get through security. It was really nice to just be together chatting with no agenda or business-type things to talk about. Or just sitting the silently holding his hand.

I'm excited to get going to Utah for the summer. I want to help Karen finish up the sanding and painting in the bathroom first though. I have a lot of organizing and packing to do too. I hope to be headed down by the end of this week.