The Barber's Virginia Adventures: Driving my mom cross country

As some of you know my mom hit her head last February and had a bad concussion. She sold her home and moved to Minnesota for a year and stayed with her sister. On July 25th I flew out to Minnesota to drive my mom home. We were able to have a mini reunion with some family on Sunday and early Monday morning we left for Kansas. At the last moment we learned that my mom could not go above 5000 ft because her eye has a nitrogen bubble and she could go blind. So, luckily Jason helped me find a route that would make us go through Kansas, TX, NM, AZ, and eventually Utah. We drove 8 hours plus each day. they were long drives but we finally got mom home. I was glad to be back in Texas because it is where I served an LDS mission for my church for a year and half. It was nice to eat barbecue from Rudys. So good. We did a lot of praying because there was a part of Utah that was above the elevation mom could go. The Lord gave us a miracle and all was alright with her.

Friday July 31st we arrived to my sisters home. Sadly, the night before we got news that my dad was on life support and a little bit after we arrived my dad passed away. It was bitter sweet. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad but in the past he has done some things that were hard to forgive him for but I have forgiven him. He was a great dad for a lot of my childhood and he was a great father to my brothers and sister. My mom and sister and I got our nails done and we got my sister a ticket to go out and be with my brothers for a few days while they all grieved. Jason was supposed to fly out Thursday night but his plane got delayed so he went back home to try it again on Friday. Luckily all went well and he got in Friday night at midnight. He drove a rental car so he was exhausted. We woke up at 5am for some reason and we went to kneaders for breakfast. Gabby had taken off for Atlanta that morning. Jason and I went to Provo to get our BYU football shirts, eat In n Out, and to buy knee length shorts for work. Saturday we ordered pizza and went and saw Mission Impossible. It was pretty good. Sunday we went to church with my brother in law and hung out with Jason's aunt and uncles in Utah. Monday we saw a friend that we used to work with at BYU and her sweet baby. It was good to see friends again and be back in Utah for a short time. It was fun to meet my sisters dog Augie, he is so cute.

I am sorry if we did not see everyone but we will be back in December for ten days and would love to see many of you. We went to cracker barrel Monday night and Jason and I drove to the airport. We drove by our home in Sandy and looked at dowtown Salt Lake city. A lot has changed. We flew out on the red eye and I struggled to sleep. Some poor little girl woke up from her nap and cried a lot and I could not get comfortable. We flew to Orlando and had a lay over for 3 hours. As we got to DC our luggage never appeared on the luggage belt. They told us they lost it and so we got a credit and when they found it they would bring it to us. So, we left and about a half hour later they called and said the luggage was on the plane. They brought it to us five hours later and Jason had to turn back around and go on a work trip that night.