The Calm (well, Craziness) Before the Next Big Thing

Wednesday, July 22: Brian headed back to work. He worked 2.5 days, fighting a cold, but trying to get in as much time as he could. He also got his German night statue settled into his office: 

 Rachel found interesting uses for my flight eye mask:

 And Rachel also decided to put her toy giraffe on time-out.

 And in between all that, I was frantically trying to finish up camping preparations for the next week,

un-pack, keep life going, get together with family that was in town, and still find time to celebrate Pioneer Day with friends. We failed on the last two (although technically, one of those fails wasn't totally my fault.) So, we had our own mini-celebration Pioneer Day Celebration on Sunday night with Michael, Ethan, Brian, and I. We woke Michael up to light the fireworks that we had purchased in hopes of attending our neighborhood party. He was so asleep! He kept trying to curl back up in the blankets, but I picked him up and carried him outside. When Brian lit the first one, Michael freaked out, and I had to reassure him that he was okay. After being out there for 20 minutes, he suddenly perked up, looked around, and said, "How did I get out here? What are we doing?" Apparently, he'd been asleep that whole time, even though his eyes were open. He joined in the fun after that.

We put Michael and then ourselves in bed, ready to start the next crazy/fun thing in the morning!