Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Some trips are easier than others. While I am grateful that I am able to make a trip up to Oregon every year, the eight-to-nine hour plane flights are taxing.

It was the end of October and with it came several ends and beginnings. First, my grandfather passed away. He was well into his nineties and the last time I was able to chat with him I was certain he would break one hundred.

However, grandpa Madsen's spirited demeanor diminished over the past couple of months due to unforeseen circumstances. Since I had the chance to get to know him better, I enjoyed his gruff company and found his eclectic nature to be endearing. It brings a smile to my face remembering the phone conversations I had with him while working on my graduate degree; he would call up and I would have to shout everything for him to hear me. Rebecca would shy away from the phone because she couldn't understand him very well over the phone -- due to the low bandwidth nature of phones -- but he would always want to talk to her. She was grandpa's little crush. :P

But grandpa passed on and I was left with a complex decision. Ultimately, for complicated reasons, I chose to spend part of this week in Oregon with friends instead of in Utah with family. It wasn't an easy decision. Rebecca managed to survive at home. It wasn't easy to get work done while she was watching Paela, but both of them did quite well. I, however, was battered by late flights, the threat of removing my row of seats due to malfunction (true story!) and a horrible time change. I do not appreciate waking at 4am because my body tells me to.

Paela had her two-year old check up this week. She was very brave with her shot. This is the first time since her first shots that she didn't cry. It shocked her, but she was a tough girl. We also did Halloween this year, and we didn't just give it verbal recognition. Paela dressed as a tiger, we made a "scary" Halloween meal [witches' fingers, ghoul potatoes, frankenstein brains, and a lovely slug] and took Paela trick-or-treating. The first house she was hesitant to do anything for, but when they dropped something in her bag, she was more than willing to approach each house. Her favorite houses were those which permitted her to select her own candy. She has strong opinions about these sorts of things [surprisingly strong...seriously, on what evidence did she base her decisions since she's not had most of the candies she saw last night before? But she was most insistent that she wanted this one instead of that, and three of these instead of one of each. Hope she likes the choices she made!].