Alright ... I am back now

Utah was a very productive and enjoyable trip for Evan and I. I got back to Calgary late on Easter. We had a family day Monday and the next two for whatever reason haven't slowed down at all! I think that I will write my thoughts for the day and then cover my Utah trip one day at a time. That way y'all can see pictures and everything.

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UTAH DAY ONE

Our flight left for Salt Lake at 1:30pm on Friday. I am terrified of flying and when I was consistently sitting on strangers laps and making them bleed, while crying hysterically into their shoulders I decided that maybe it was time to medicate myself when I am on an airplane. Thankfully I still had some xanax with me because this was a little plane! I have gotten so used to flying 6-8 hours at a time that I didn't remember that the planes get smaller the shorter the flight is.

We arrived safely to Salt Lake City and picked up my sister, Alycia, from her apartment. It was so nice to see her again and have some solo time to talk and catch up! The three of drove to our first stop of the day. When Evan was first diagnosed we were introduced to a 2nd cousin of Justins that has children with SMA. We have spoken many times on the phone and were very excited to meet their little family. The Evans family were wonderful!!! Alycia, Evan and I all had such a blast just hanging out and talking with them! Their sweet SMA baby (well not really a baby, but the baby of their family) let Evan try her motorized wheel chair. This is the one that Evan will get initially as well, so it was fun to see him in it. To say he LOVED it would be an understatement! He screamed bloody murder when we took him out of it, because he wanted to continue motoring around. I wish I had video from later when he got really good at navigating, but the camera ran out of juice. The video I have is the very first time he tried it. We just had soooo much fun with this family ... thank you guys!

Sometime while we were visiting the rest of our family arrived to the valley from San Diego. My parents went to my dads mission reunion and left my other two siblings at our friends house where we were staying. When Alycia and I were done visiting the Evans family we said our goodbyes and drove 5 minutes down the rode to where we were staying.

The Sanchez family used to live in San Diego and are really good friends of my family. They just recently moved to Utah and ironically live just down the rode from the Evans'. Since all the parents were at mission reunions the siblings just stayed up and talked forever ... it was awesome! Then my parents got home and we drove Alycia back to her apartment. It was a late night, but a very good night. I hadn't seen my family (other than my mom) for almost a year. It was wonderful to be that close to them again!
Evan and Madeline really made a connection, and I wonder if their little spirits knew that they could relate to one another on a level that nobody else could understand.