Today when I was weeding through my closet, I found these two drawings.  These are the drawings Adam and Luke gave me for Mother's Day a couple of months ago.

From Luke, a sweet depiction of the love we share.

From Adam, a warped, revolting portrait of some guy named Joe.

And that, my friends, is the difference between having a six-year-old son and a twelve-year-old son.  

Luke, please don't grow up.

Tonight, Luke and Brad went for a midnight swim (OK, technically, it was a 10 PM swim).  Later, I joined them, which was actually my first time in our pool.  I look pretty good in my swim suit when it's dark.

First on the docket: mowing the three-week-neglected lawn.  It was almost like mowing hay.

On our way through Amarillo, we passed this fine establishment.  We first saw it on our trip out last month, so today we knew to look for it.  We really should have stopped there, what with today being Sunday and all...

When we got home tonight around 7:00 PM, we were greeted by the most heinous smell and millions of tiny fruit flies in the kitchen.  They were even in the fridge and the FREEZER--how is this even possible?  So Gross.

So, while Brad and the boys unloaded the car, I tore through the fridge, pulling out EVERYTHING and scrubbing it clean, trying to get rid of the odor.  Nothing like cleaning out the fridge after two full days of riding in the car. 

After I'd scoured the fridge and Brad had scoured the garbage cans, we opened the pantry to a fresh assault and found the real problem.  The potatoes I'd left on a pantry shelf weeks ago were WAY past their prime and had turned into some kind of black, maggot-covered sludge.  Brad (my hero) rushed the sludge out to the garbage can and promptly wheeled it out to the driveway so it won't contaminate the garage while we wait for Thursday's garbage pick-up.  The boys were given strict instructions NOT TO OPEN THE GARBAGE CAN LID. 

Welcome home, sucker.

Adam is feeling much better, so we loaded up the car and began the trek home to Texas (after chasing down a very naughty Joey, who decided five minutes before it was time to leave that he wanted one last adventure with Zeus.  He's lucky we didn't leave him in Utah).

Our view pretty much all day.  Southern Utah, Colorado, New Mexico--it all looks the same.

Let the record show that I have Adam's permission to post this.

My sweet Bubba-la.

Ever since he was born, I have been in love with this boy.  The minute I first saw him, I thought he was the CUTEST baby, with his white fuzzy hair, little pixie face, and pointy-outy ears.  And I still think he is the CUTEST, for all the same reasons.

But, for the last while, he has been unhappy with those pointy-outy ears that I love so much.  Kids at school both here and in Berlin teased him about them and it was starting to affect his self-confidence.  Brad's brother John is a plastic surgeon, and when we approached Adam about the possibility of having his ears fixed so they didn't stand out from his head so much, he jumped at it.

So, today Adam's awesome Uncle John fixed his ears for him.

I think the surgery was a bit more that Adam bargained for.  At least the pain-killers were--the Lortab he took for pain made him very sick to his stomach and he was throwing up for most of the evening after he got home.  It broke my heart to see him vomiting over the toilet while blood trickled down his neck from under the bandages.  Finally, after a house-call from Uncle John and no more Lortab, he felt better around bedtime and has been doing well ever since.  I hope he thinks it was all worth it.

As for me--my heart is still breaking.  I've always thought this boy was perfect.

 Today was our last day at the lake, and The Men spent some quality time discussing the status of the water.  It looked choppy from here, but they went out on the boat anyway.  Unfortunately, it was even choppier up close.  But, at least they tried.

Some of us ladies checked out the Raspberry Days Fair and had much more luck.

After a final La Beau's lunch, we came back to the cabin to load up the cars for home.  You can see how excited we all were to leave...

We headed down to spend one more day with Brad's family.  When we got to Layton, this spread was waiting for us.  Haley's family was there to celebrate Gaber's birthday--I'd say we timed that pretty well, eh?

 

Happy birthday Gabers!!