This is a catch-up post from back in August when Neil got to go on some fun solo trips to the other side of the country. First, he went out to Salt Lake to visit Garyn while Garyn was in between semesters. They stayed with Neil’s little brother, Ian, and they had a great time. Dinner at an epic pizza place and Garyn’s first real escape room. Much needed male bonding time happened and several great things came out of the weekend. Neil got to ordain Garyn as an Elder in our church. Ian introduced us to our new absolute favorite family game, Hogwarts Battle. Its a cooperative game where we all are working together to beat the game. We only beat Year Four yesterday after five(!) failed attempts! We are planning to play all seven years over the course of our whole New Year’s Eve this year. Also, Neil got to check up on the boy and verify for me that he is in fact doing great all on his own. It was a very good weekend.
Then a week later Neil headed to Vancouver, B.C. for his first international work trip. He’d never been to Vancouver and decided that is was a very cool city and someday I need to go with him. I need to eat at the Ukrainian place that his manager took them to…they served chunks of meat on a sword! These are my people! He might be going back to Vancouver in December, but Shhhhh! Don’t tell the girls…we thought he was done with travel for the year and I’m not looking forward to breaking the news to them. Sigh.

We hate when Neil has to travel, but honestly I think it’s a very cool opportunity for him. He gets a ton done being in person with his team and he also gets some real down time for himself. There is talk of a Berlin trip next summer…if that’s the case I might have to scheme about how the girls and I can accompany him. I don’t know anything about Berlin as a city, but there’s no way I’d turn down that kind of adventure!