Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at with Brady's parents this year. His sister, Cheyanne and her husband, Tyson were there with their cute little boy, Hunter. I sometimes forget that I married a "country boy." But I remembered that fact quite well this weekend. There was a lot of talk about hunting and also plenty of target shooting.

Confession: I always close my eyes when I fire a gun. They make me nervous. When I was 10, one of my friends was accidentally shot and killed by his brother. You better believe that I preach gun safety like crazy.

click to enlarge

My favorite thing about the trip is the two hour drive. We throw a movie on for the kids and then we spend the entire time talking. Brady has some training to go to in NC this December. Talking about it brought back a lot of memories from when we lived out there. Those were the years when our marriage became solid. We didn't have any family around and so we had to depend on each other.

We were talking about the drive back home from North Carolina to Utah when Brady said, "You know, that was the best time of my life. Spending all of those hours with you." I never knew he felt that way. I love to travel and he doesn't. All these years I thought he had hated that trip.

I remember how stressed he was. First of all, we were missing our kids.We sent them on the airplane with my mom and brother. The weather wasn't the greatest and he was worried about driving the enormous moving truck. It had everything we owned in it. Plus we were pulling a trailer with our car on it.

The truth is, I would make that trip again if I could. I loved checking the map and logging the mileage and gas. The landscape was ever changing and always beautiful. Plus, Brady was trapped in the cab of a truck with me. He had been so busy at Fort Bragg. There were times when the kids didn't see him for months at a time because he came home in the middle of the night and left before the sun came up. For two years I had wanted his undivided attention. And on that trip, I finally had it.

It really made me think about how lucky I am. It's amazing how sometimes the hardest times end up being the best times.

I am so thankful for Brady. I love him more than words can express. And we are blessed to have the adventure of parenthood. It took me a long time to change my thinking from, "I only have two kids," to "Wow, I have two really great kids." It makes a huge difference when you look at what you are blessed with, rather than what you don't have.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It's kind of like Thanksgiving has middle child syndrome, stuck between Halloween and Christmas. But I think it's one of the most important holidays of the year!

xoMJ