Moab

On Thursday we let two of our children fly from the nest.  Melodie and Ethan are in Moab for the weekend with Uncle Mark and his boys.  They are having a holiday weekend of fun camping and river rafting.  We scared them with a few tales of people dying in the rapids - enough so that we expected they will be sober and safe and not make the list of river rafting fatalities this year.  As I picked up Joseph from school on Friday, Aunt Nancy and her family of little girls passed by us on the freeway as they headed down to join in the Southern Utah fun.  Joe's gone on overnight campouts before and several-day-long scout trips, this is the first time Melodie and Ethan have left us.  It makes me a little sad having them get lives of their own, but I guess that's life and it's inevetiable, I shall try to be strong as these occurances become more frequent.  I just got an email from Nancy that warmed my heart though...

"You have some really great kids!  So nice to have them with us- the only kids on the trip that haven't whined and complained about most everything... They help out and are fabulous to have around!!!"

Melodie and Ethan get on each other's nerves quite a bit around here, although perhaps it's no more than that which happens in all sibling relationships.  Still, I did think it would be good for them to be together and that it would help their relationship improve.  Excited to have them back home on Monday and hear about their trip and give them hugs and kisses and tell them that I'm so happy that even when they are grown and gone they will still and always be my kids forever and ever.