the way

Today was a journey.  Jake and I drove to San Antonio (3 hrs) and back for Nate and Andrea's baby blessing.  Code was on call so he stayed close and taught mission prep solo.  I know people tell me how jake is such a great/easy baby, and they prolly think that i'm just accepting the only experience I've had, but I know it's true.  He's my first and yet I still am amazed at how easily he can go along with just about anything (though the last hour coming home was a lil rough-cried off and on for 20 min or so but then decided that he had made his point.)  It was fun seeing where Nate and Andrea live and go to church.  I was surprised at how warm it was in their building.  I'm used to our frigid temperatures, but in there I didn't even want to hold jake cause I knew I'd get way too hot, haha-poor li guy was in a dress shirt and vest.
We took some pics outside afterwards:

Andrea's side of the family

7 years ago we were all roommates/neighbors living in our first off campus housing at BYU.  Lizzy  came up with her little brooklyn.  We made a movie called RS (ridiculously single) and now look at us.  Married, each with a kiddo- ridiculously NOT single.

Jake was very interested in the ground for these shots-I should have thought to get someone to talk to him to get him to look up and smile, o well.

Brooklyn and one of her funny faces-she just looks like she has an opinion but isn't going to share it

We got home just before 8.  After getting Jake to bed, Code and I watched The Way (it's on netflix).  I highly recommend it!  It's about a straight-laced father who finds out his free-spirited son died on the first day of his pilgrimage along the Santiago de Compostela trek.  I don't know if it's the one that Chaucer wrote about in his Canterbury Tales, but that type of deal-walking hundreds of miles, staying at churches along the way getting stamps in a lil book/momentos etc.  The father goes to pick up the son's body and decides to finish the trek for his son etc self-discovery ensues and he meets different characters a long the way.  I would link it with a movie like eat, pray, love.  You really get a feel for the different cultures and it's fascinating to watch this lil group of friends form despite different nationalities, goals, motivations, etc.  You really feel like you've taken an exotic trip by the end of it. 

 I love movies like this.  There's something about traveling/exploring that makes you feel that much more connected to life (in a general way).  It reminded me of my different adventures on the mission/on visa trips/ on my scotland trip etc. 

Code made an interesting point: too many people wait til the end of their lives to start really living.  Like oh, when I retire I'll travel, do this, do that but frankly, I'd like to do most of those things when I'm young enough to enjoy them :)  And while we can't all run off and just be a gypsy moving from one place to another on a whim exploring the world, we are still faced with little opportunities to embrace life all the time.  For example, on our way driving back to Texas form Utah, we passed through New Mexico.  We were 50 odd miles from Carlsbad National Caverns.  

Being with Code has changed how I see road trips.  In my experience growing up, road trips were something to be burned through-get to your destination and then start enjoying-there was pride in getting their faster than predicted and if it meant a few less pit stops than is comfortable that's ok cause you made it in record time!  Cody's family on the other hand would take a week to get somewhere that would take my dad 12 hours to get to-in one straight shot minus gas stops.  They'd stop at different random places that they discovered and liked.  Camped the night.  Took their time-the fun was getting there.  I figure our family will have the best of both worlds.  If we need to get somewhere never fear, but Code definitely helps me stop and smell the roses too.  

Like on our drive: we stopped and took a few hours to explore Carlsbad Caverns.  Did it add 4 hours to our trip?  (unthinkable!) yeah.  Did we get home super late at night?  yeah.  But looking back I don't remember the rolling in at 1 AM part, or how tired we were.  I do remember, however, how fun it was to ride the elevator way down into the earth and carry Jake through these cool caverns, and how he flirted with the women tour guides :)  We have a magnet from there on our fridge that will always remind me of our impromptu adventure.  We probably wouldn't have ever planned to go see that natural wonder later in life.  I'm glad we took advantage when we did.  Those are the things we'll look back and remember-not wether or not we stayed perfectly on schedule-it's the detours along the way that make the best stories for later.

Go on. explore your own detours.