Montana Continued

On July 19th at 9:30 at night I left Ethan with my parents and I left for Oregon by train to check out Portland and see my sweet hubby. Ethan still hadn't walked yet (although he had taken a few steps) and I told my mom she wasn't allowed to let him walk until we got home. It was kind of hard to leave Ethan for almost four whole days but I was SO EXCITED to see Trent that I only noticed some of the time. Trent was staying at my parents best friends' house so it was good to see them too (and, of course, they adored Trent. I think they like me a lot more now that they know Trent :). Ranice (my mom's best friend) took me around while Trent was still working and then for the next few days when Trent wasn't. We went to Canon Beach and to the Tillamook Cheese Factory (white cheddar pepper cheese....*sigh*). I was in love with Portland and the idea of living there. The closest job option to both our families, Dan and Ranice close by, a beach nearby (*sigh* again)...but even as I wanted it I kind of felt like we were still supposed to go to Albuquerque. But I didn't tell Trent quite yet. We had so much fun being back together and then we drove back to Montana on Saturday hoping to get home by 6:00 PM in time to see Ethan for awhile before he got to cranky. Before we pulled into the driveway Trent told me that he wanted to go in separately. He was worried that Ethan wouldn't be excited to see one of us (like he wasn't excited to see me when we got back from Albuquerque) so he thought seeing us one at a time would be better.
I went in first and Ethan was playing in the living room. He looked up at me, smiled big and crawled over really fast to see me. Oh my heart melted. I was SO happy to hold him again. I jumped around with him and kissed him a bunch. Then Trent walked up the stairs. When Ethan saw him he stopped and stared. Then he got this HUGE grin on his face and started laughing and clapping his hands. He was seriously so excited. I was glad too, I think Trent was a little worried that Ethan would forget him. We played for about15 minutes throwing a beach ball around when Ethan took a step. Then, holding the beach ball, he took a few more steps. Then again with a few more. We ran and got the video camera and recorded him walking! He only took about 5 steps at the most. But it was so awesome to come home and see him walk for his first time. My mom promised that he hadn't walked, that she had sat him down every time he looked like he was going to. I guess I believe her ;).
During our stay in Montana we did some fun things (boating, swimming, hanging out with friends) but we worked too. Trent put in a french drain for our good friends and Trent and I built a staircase! I know crazy. We were just going to replace the treads on my parents old staircase but it was so rotted that we ended up making new stair jacks and building a whole new set of stairs. They are quite beautiful if I do say so myself ;). Trent and I make such a good team because we both think in different ways to we bounce ideas off of each other and are able to come up with really good plans. I think building stuff is our favorite thing to do together.

 After we had already torn out the old stairs and the old handrails

 Cutting and installing the stair jacks

 

The final project. I am quite proud ;).

We headed home to Provo on about August 2nd. It was so awesome to spend so much time around my family. I am sure that this opportunity will not happen again, or at least not for a long, long time so I am really glad we were able to go. I love my family so much. My parents inspire me with their testimonies and examples and I hope to be more like them every day.