Matt had an interview out in Oregon, which was only about an hour or so from his sister's place. So the boys and I picked him up from work on Wednesday and booked it up to Kansas City to get him to the airport on time. We gave our kisses and bid him farewell for the next 5 days. (if you want to see his adventure click here) My dear friend Brittlee lives there in KC so we stayed with her and her family that night and had such a fun time catching up and watching the kiddo's play together.  Heath thought it was super cool that their little girl was named after Robbin Hood! (her name is Aubryn, but Heath was just sure it was Robbin)

 That night Houston started running a fever (102ish) and didn't sleep very well. The next day we had planned to go to the temple open house then drive to my parents house to baby sit Uncle Dallin while my parents were in Iowa. Figuring it was just an ear infection (he'd been pulling at his ears a lot the last week) we went ahead with our plans. (along with some help from Tylenol)

I had been preparing Heath for quite a while to visit the temple.  We've been talking about it a lot, looking at pictures, and reading stories.   He got pretty excited when he could see Angel Moroni as we got closer. Maybe he won't remember any of it, but I know I can remember glimpses of that age, so hopefully something will stick with him. If not anything else just the way he felt there.

Heaths favorite parts about the temple were "Captain Mo-ni" on the top,

(He's Heaths favorite character when we read his scripture readers. According to  him in one of the pictures Captain Moroni has cool "cowboy boots" on.)

the Oxen around the baptismal font,

  and the chandeliers in the Celestial room.

He just kept whispering over and over, "Mommy! hanging lights pretty, lights hanging pretty!" 

 It was a pretty special feeling having my two boys there with me. It's hard to put into words the joy one feels there.

 After our visit, we left for my parents house. By this time Houston was getting pretty cranky and irritated.  What should have been an easy 2.5 - 3hour drive took us 5. It was hard, but we did have some enjoyable moments along the way. :) When we got there we checked in with Uncle Dallin and went to take Houston to Urgent Care. That was probably the most pleasant Dr visit I've ever been on. The clinic was run really well and all the staff members were so kind. They said Houston had an ear and respiratory infection and gave us a prescription for amoxicillin. That night was hard, Houston hardly slept.

The next day Houston's fever was gone but he was still pretty irritable.

 Heath had a wonderful time playing with his Uncle Dallin. Houston was super needy so it was nice to have help. That night Heath and Houston both went to sleep about 8:30 but then Heath woke up at 11 crying that his legs hurt.  He sometimes will get growing pains behind his knees at night. Usually if it's really bad I can just give him some Tylenol and he'll finally go to sleep, but he was up crying past 3am. Around 2 he was so hysterical he was crying "Mommy! I want my Mommy!" and I kept saying "Heath I'm right here, I'm holding you...." It was no fun at all. So night # 3 with very little sleep. The next morning (Sunday) Houston woke up with a faint rash covering his abdomen.

 

As the morning went on it just exploded all over his little body.  I called his Dr office and they said I needed to take him back in to urgent care.  Houston had an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin, so they switched his prescription and sent us home.  

 We took a walk with Dama, since outside was one of the only times Houston was truly happy, and found this nest of super cute baby bunnies!

 Heath really enjoyed talking to them in his high pitch voice, since after all they were babies.

 Our poor little Houston. He was pretty miserable.

 That night went pretty well, and the next morning Houston seemed to be back to his happy self! Rash and grouch both gone, Hurray!

Grandpa came home for lunch and treated us to some tasty burgers and the play place.

Heath was too scared to go in alone, so I braved the tubes with him while grandpa hung out with Houston. One forgets how stinkie those things are.

Then we packed everything up (which took so much longer than normal) and headed off for KC to get Daddy! This trip went so much better!  We got there in plenty of time so went back to Brittlee's to play while we waited for his flight to come in.   Let me tell you it was so nice to get a big smile and huge hug when I saw Matt! While I was getting into the passenger seat a nice lady said to me in her sweet British accent, "You two have such a lovely family." It was awful nice to hear.  Since it was just past 11:30 and the boys were asleep we just took off driving and talking about our adventures. About 2am though we couldn't stand it much longer and stopped to fill our tummies at a Taco Bell we saw open. Heath woke up and just started saying, "My Daddy! Hi Daddy! Hi Daddy! Hi Daddy!" with the cutest smile you've ever seen. Houston saw Matt and kept his head turned almost all the way around staring at him for almost an hour. They sure missed their Daddy! We made it home in one piece and all just crashed.  Poor Matt had to get up and go to work the next morning, but I think he's caught up on the sleep by now. : ) It was sure fun to go on our adventures, but it was also sure nice to get back to normal life all together again.