The Hudson West Coast Tour ... it took me two months to recover; sue me

This expression about sums up our trip -- frantic and wild-eyed. Hudson was a trooper throughout his first vacation, which lasted nearly two weeks!

[December 27 - Sorry that it's been two months since we last posted, but we'll be much better from now on! Below is a recap of our October trip. Skip it and go to the next posts if all you care about is the pictures. I can relate to that.]

October 30 - It's hard to believe the trip came and went so fast, but our "Hudson West Coast Tour" was well worth the expense and exhaustion that went into making it happen. We're both so lucky to have families we love so much -- and who return the sentiment. It was tough to say goodbye, but that heartwrenching feeling is always mitigated by the sense that we're so blessed to be able to feel that way about our families; it sure beats the alternatives of having no family at all to visit, or of counting down the minutes until the dreadful visit is over, as you hear about and see so often in the cliche in-law situations.

Rachel and I were nervous about Hudson's first plane flight. Everyone who's flown has been on a flight -- or if you're unlucky, more -- with someone else's screaming baby and, though we all might know that there's little or nothing the mother can do about it, deep down, we blame the parents and secretly wonder if we can have someone ready to arrest them upon arrival at the gate. You can't help it. You're a prisoner in small quarters and babies seem to scream at a frequency that interferes with human reason, so you react emotionally and irrationally and tell yourself that, yes, the death penalty should be expanded to include pettier criminals. We were worried about this, worried that Hudson was going to force me to knock the rolling eyes and dirty looks right off the faces of one or more of our fellow passengers. (Or maybe it was just me who was worried about that. I had even rehearsed a few witty and scathing things to say to folks as I walked past them toward the bathroom with a screaming, flailing, poopy baby in my arms.)

Boy, were we relieved. Hudson was a dream -- all the way to Salt Lake, on both flights. He fussed for perhaps a total of 15 minutes throughout the five-plus hours in the air.

Our first stop on the Hudson Tour was Utah, where we were able to spend a great deal of time with the M-I-double-L-I-G-A-N-what's-that-spell?-Milligan! side of Rachel's family for the bulk of the week. We flew in Friday afternoon, and that night, Grandpa and Grandma Milligan had us over for some wonderful spaghetti-and-meatball fare, bookended by several hours of in-depth political conversation -- the consensus was that (a) Democrats suck and (b) it's going to be a good year for Republicans -- and fascinating family reminiscences over photo albums. I got to meet Colleen, Rachel's aunt, for the first time, and had a blast getting to know her better. Rachel relished in stories about and old pictures of her mom.

After dinner, we went over to Patrick (Pat, Rachel's uncle) and Kaye Milligan's home in Farmington, where we ended up staying the entire time we were in Utah. The original plan was to bounce around for the week, so as not to overstay our welcome in any single place, from their home to a friend of Rachel's home, and then to a hotel, but Pat and Kaye were such gracious hosts and put us up in such nice digs, we never were able to bring ourselves to leave! We loved spending time with them and their son Brian -- and even their dog, Copper, who reminded us often of how much we missed our own dog Charlie (particularly quiet moments in the car, throughout the two weeks we were gone, were often punctured by one of us crying out at random, "Charlie!" -- kind of a funny tradition we have of reminding each other how much we love that little booger).

Saturday morning, though I woke up with a terrible headache that stayed with me all day, we headed out to a local high school to play some touch football with Rachel's uncle Mark; Mark's son, Ryan; Pat; Brian; Rachel's uncle Mike; and a couple of Ryan's friends. Since I'm in miserable physical condition, it was painful (after several long runs with the ball, I needed to drop to the ground and just lay there till I was damn-well good and ready to get up), but since no one took the game too seriously, it ended up being good fun, too. Though I had to use my hands to lift my legs into and out of the car for the next few days, it was a good reminder that this old fat guy needs to get his butt back in gear so he can keep up with the young'ns on the ol' grid iron. (But have I done a single push-up or jogged a single half-block since? Nope. Lesson not learned, looks like.)

That night, Mark and his wife Dianme hosted a barbecue at their home and invited all the Milligans in the area. Rachel's sister Becca came up, as did her sister Holly with her family, and her brother Jeremy came by later in the evening. Wade, Rachel's eldest bro, and his wife, Christy, who drove out from Denver to spend the week with us, also came out with their three kiddies.

Sunday night, we went to Rachel's dad's house in Eagle Mountain, where Jim and his lovely wife, Margaret, prepared a tasty Italian meal. All of the Hardie kids were accounted for, and I got to meet Margaret's kids for the first time as well. Best part of the evening: Worst. Allergy. Attack. Ever. They have a couple cats, which meant I spent most of the night miserably, and in record time, working my way through a roll of toilet paper in between five-minute escapes to the front porch to take in some clear, dander-free mountain air. I sure had a great time seeing everyone -- and Rachel had a blast with her little nieces and nephews. Jim and Margaret were wonderful hosts and we can't wait to see them again soon!

So, those were the big Utah family events -- we spent another five days there, and I'm not going to bore you all with a thorough travelogue, but I'll summarize the rest of the week quickly: picnic in the American Fork Canyon with Wade & Co, Holly & Co, Jamie (Rachel's little sister) & Co, and Char (one of Rachel's best friends); Beto's burritos with Mike and Seth; and Rachel did a couple of nice bike rides in the hills above Salt Lake with Jane Alfandre and Char, and had a picnic with her friends Traci and Melissa.

Friday morning, one lightning-fast week later, we hopped on a plane to Los Angeles. Dad picked us up, and after a few hugs and squeezes -- he laughed his characteristic you're-so-cute Wayne laugh when he saw Hudson, his newest grandson -- we were on our way to Valencia.

By this point, we were both already spent from travel -- and yet we had almost a full week left on the road! Rachel was coming down with a solid head cold, so we weren't starting our California portion of the Hudson Tour on the best footing. We did our best to rest up that afternoon before family started coming in from all over the western United States to meet Hudson and be there for his blessing the next morning. Aunt GiGi and Grandma Ginny were the first arrivals; Rachel had not yet met my grandma, and has been talking since we got married about how much she wanted to do so. It was great to finally connect them. Doug, Pam, and Daniel arrived later that night, but Rachel and Hudson had already hit the sack, so they unfortunately weren't able to catch up until the next day.

Check out the list of Boyack Clan luminaries and VIPs who came out for Hudson's big day: Brian, from Arlington, Va.; Nate and Lisa Boyack and their kids, from Las Vegas; Alan Boyack, from St. George; Joe and Sandy Brazier, from Agoura Hills; Jessica and Dennis and their kids, from who-knows-where in the LA area; Doug and Pam, from Sonora; Josh Brazier, from Utah; Seth, from Salt Lake; GiGi and Grandma Ginny, from Santa Rosa; and Merabeth Brazier from who-knows-where in the LA area. What an impressive crowd! We loved having everyone out. If there was one conversational theme of the weekend, it was that we need to do it more often. Couldn't agree more. We missed Megan terribly, and talked of her often, and we also missed Hannah. But just about everyone else was able to make it. I blessed Hudson at around 10 a.m. -- we were nervous that not everyone would fit in the circle, but they did! -- and then we spent the rest of the day eating and chatting, two of my favorite activities (see previous reference to being in "miserable physical condition").

The rest of the week in California was spent in relative leisure -- by design, that, because we spent the entire week in Utah racing around from one thing to the next. (As you can tell from the nearby pic, Hudson was perfectly content to kick back and contemplate life under the warm California sun; he was tired from all the chasing around, too.) But we did motor up and get over to the beach one day, which was a fun adventure. Malibu is a beautiful area -- a good first experience in the ocean for Hudson!

We loved seeing our nieces and nephews again -- and meeting a lot of them for the first time: Melanie and Marshall's Madeleine and Kate and Jason's Lucas! We're reminded all the time, but especially when we get back home to Utah and California, how much we'd love to live closer so that visits aren't so few and far between. It's sad that we only met Lucas for the first time when he was six months old, and Madeleine when she was almost a year! Same goes for Wade and Christy's little guy, Preston, who we met for the first time in Utah, and Holly's two new additions. But someday soon, hopefully within the next couple years, I'll start looking for a good career out west. Till then, more trips, more often, home to Utah and California!

Till next time we post, which I plan to do more often, enjoy the pics from our Hudson West Coast Tour (which I'm putting in the next several posts).