Flying home and the 4th of July in Utah

Flying home was an adventure. Man do I hate flying such long distances with kids. I flew without Kelly since I wanted to get the kids home a little earlier to spend some more time with the grandparents. Also, my grandma wasn't doing well, my grandpa already passed and I didn't want to miss seeing my grandma. And, I just found out, a week before flying, I had partial placenta previa. Which meant that I shouldn't lift anything. Well, that is a problem when you have 3 kids and you are flying back home. Luckily I was flying with a boy from church, 16 year old Luke Bailey. He babysat for us a ton and the boys loved him. But of course when kids are tired and out of their element, they just want their mom anyway. The kids did pretty good on our first 2 flights. They watched TV a ton and played some games. Lincoln only had one meltdown when he got his meal. I know he was really hungry, but the poor picky kid took one look and started bawling. I wasn't sitting next to him either and I couldn't get to him because of the food trays. He was next to Luke and finally calmed down and just ended up eating more snacks. Isabel is at the really hard flying age, but it wasn't sooo bad. But of course I had to be sitting next to an older man who kept plugging his ears every time she would make a noise. Very annoying. Luke was leaving us in Atlanta, and everyone was worried about me and the kids since I wasn't supposed to lift anything. So my bro was able to meet me in Atlanta and help me the rest of the way with the kids. He brought with him 2 IPADs and the kids were really really happy. Lincoln actually did not end up sleeping at all the whole trip. I think he got over jet lag quicker though. Poor Sawyer fell asleep on that last flight and was pretty out of it on the ride to my parents house. When we got there, Sawyer woke up and really flipped out. He was so tired and wanted to go back home. He kept screaming and running back to the car. He was pretty freaked out. He finally calmed down when my dad brought up all the toy airplanes to play with. He was too young to remember my parents house last time we were there, but as soon as he calmed down he had a ton of fun. It took him a little while to not want to go back home to Latvia though.

Here is our 4th of July. We arrived on the 2nd, so we were all pretty tired on the 4th. My aunt has a youth production company called "Jaks". They do an awesome job singing, dancing and acting. My whole family in Utah basically helps out in some way. I just wish I could be there more often to see the shows. They had a float for the Kaysville parade and we got to ride on it. We rode on it with my cute nephew Dylan. My sister-in-law Beth was the sound lady, so she had to be on the float making sure everything went smoothly. The "Jaks" kids walked behind and sang the whole time. They did an awesome job. It was tons of fun being on the back of the float, I was so amazed at how many people come to the Kaysville City 4th of July Parade.

We did not make it for the fire works. Jet Lag overtook us and we were all asleep by 7pm.