I Made a Surprise Visit Home and Freaked out my Family

Heather and I are having a blast out in Utah. Seriously – when they say happy wife, happy life – it rings true. She is loving her new position and it’s been a while since I have seen her this happy. She says her new command is a lot less stressful, they play sports everyday before work and she’s never felt support in her career like she does at this place. So I guess this military thing is starting to treat her well. Oh and she advanced on her last exam too!

Abby and Zeeq love it out here. Zeeq freaked out tremendously the first time hail came pouring down from the sky, just as expected. Abby is as relaxed as ever, watching her younger brother anxiously horde all of the toys he can.

I’ve got my little personal training business started, have done pretty well for not having known a single person in this state before making the voyage to Salt Lake. In some way, shape or form, other folks have given me the courage and confidence to step WAYYYY outside my comfort zone and pursue this thing on my own. And for that, thank you for helping to teach me how to best guide your program, coach you through your daily stresses as well as serve as a beacon of support when I was running around with my head cut off. My parents got remarried last month on June 17th, so that was exciting. Kind of a funny story actually.

My older brother Tony and I planned this whole thing where I didn’t let anyone know I was coming to town (not even his girlfriend, Rachel, whom he lives with and I’ve always considered my sister). I flew in on a Wednesday and he picked me up at the airport. Got in safe, no issues with the flights. Rachel works at a restaurant and was set to get home around 11pm. Tony and I go out to trivia and decide to surprise her. So we come up with a genius plan. I hid in the trunk and he would tell her to come outside to help him carry in some stuff. Well, as she opens to the trunk, I see a look of horror on her face when – a glint in her eyes told me she thought Tony didn’t know there was a person in his trunk. She FREAKED out and then realized it was me. Then she laughed, we laughed and had a merry reunion.

A couple days pass and I’m going out to lunch with my brothers and their significant others, we walk a block over to the courthouse and see my mom, dad and grandma pull up to the curb. They park, get out of the car and begin to mozy on into the court house. I hang back and let the brothers greet them. They all start to walk in together as I decide to sneak up on them and sort of mold into the group to see how long it would take mom and dad to notice that their ever-elusive son was around. I am pretty sure I made eye contact with my dad five times. I creep up next to my mom and grandma, joining in on their conversation. Mom didn’t realize for a while that the voice she was talking to was the son she thought was in Salt Lake. But the moment she did, tears started flowing. She screamed like she was being attacked, my dad started freaking out thinking mom was hurt until he had a moment of clarity and realized I was there.