When we were in Alabama last Christmas, Jeremy and Ben had talked about Alex coming to stay with us and work for Ben during the summer. I thought it was a great idea and I was happy about the idea of Alex coming up and staying with us for the summer. Him and his parents hadn't been seeing eye to eye and they thought it might be good for him. I truly believe he is a great kid, but he's a teenager and I thought it would be good. Then in February, we got a call and thought maybe he would be coming a little earlier! I was preparing to enroll him at CV and getting cross country kids all lined up for him to train with. It didn't end up happening. But...he still did come for the summer. And because we were leaving for Alabama at the end of the month, and his family was going on a family vacation in the middle of July, it turned into him only being here for the month and not even all of the month. The kids were so excited to have Alex here, even though, for Taylor that meant that she had to give up her room! :) She was so sweet about it and totally ok with it. I tried to de-girlify it as much as I could. This was the best I could do:
Alex happened to be flying in on his birthday on June 4th, so I made sure to have a little welcome/birthday package for him when he got here! Towel, swimming gear, flip flops, summery stuff. I was excited to introduce him to the awesome youth of our stake and I was hoping he would be able to use this stuff when he hung out with them!
Taylor had to bunk with Tucker for the month and I tried to make that as much as her room as I could. We moved all of her close into the wardrobe in his room and turned his bottom bunk into a stuffed animal paradise for her.
Me and her spent some time laying there just chatting about all of it after I got her bed all ready. She was being so cute and sweet, I got some really cute pictures of my beautiful lady...
I just love her so much!
FINALLY....after a day and a half of traveling, he arrived. The poor child left Atlanta late on the night of the 1st and was supposed to get in even later in the night/early morning of the 2nd, but because of some weather delays in Denver, or Phoenix, or somewhere, I can't remember, he ended up having to spend the night there, and because he is a minor, they cant put him up in a hotel room because he can't leave the airport. He said he was in a room in the airport with other minors that basically had a whole bunch of cots set up and they couldn't turn the lights off, so the bright florescent lights were blaring all night. And then for some reason, the next day they couldn't get him out until like 1 in the afternoon!!! I was shocked by that one! So, he didn't get in until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon on the 2nd. The poor child hadn't slept in a day and a half and had hardly eaten anything. He was delirious and tired and weak. I told him to get some sleep right away when he got to our house. He was really adamant about getting a run in, so he attempted that, but he came back like 2 minutes later too tired. He finally did rest and we had a nice big dinner and Uncle Ben came home, and these two are buds, so it was fun! He was happy and kind of had a second wind.
Of course, arm wrestling matches had to happen:
He showered and went to bed that night. Then like at midnight we got a text from Laura saying he didn't feel well and thought he was going to throw up. If you know anything about the Pypers, you know that throwing up is a HUGE phobia in that household. I think the idea of it freaked Laura out just as much as it did Alex. We reassured him it was that he was tired and had been traveling all day, and finally he went to sleep.
The next morning-the 3rd- was his 16th birthday and I wanted to make it special for him, so we made him breakfast in bed. Ben let him sleep in on his first day since he had had such a rough night. Alex wanted to call in sick for the whole day, and I kind of wanted to take him around downtown and show him the city, but I ended up taking him into the office a little late so he could get a start on working!
Anyway, really fancy cinnamon rolls:
Which he devoured. I really didn't understand before this month just HOW MUCH FOOD a 16 year old boy ate. It is A LOT!
But we are so excited to have him here with us and are glad that he finally made it in one piece! :)
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