Happy Birthday Gabriel

We took a jaunt to Idaho Falls on Saturday. The trip had three reasons. The first was to see Ted's daughter, my stepdaughter, DeeDee and her son. The second was to celebrate her son Gabriel's second birthday that was on August 2. The third reason was to see DeeDee's husband, Logan, for the first time since he was released from prison. Yes, I have a son-in-law that went to prison and was just released. He and DeeDee made some HUGE mistakes a few years ago, which landed her on probation and him going to prison. DeeDee has made some great strides in her life, she was about six months pregnant when she went to jail. When Gabriel was born, it was like a light went on and she realized that she was responsible for another person. She went to group therapy and worked very hard to get her life straight. She just got a job at Home Depot a few months ago, where she has become a shining star and has received a few awards for how hard she works.

Anyway - back to our trip. We left Salt Lake around 8:00 in the morning and got to Idaho Falls around 12:30. We went to DeeDee's apartment and Logan showed up there. He had special permission to come with us (since they are both felons, they really cannot hang out together, even though they are married - he is now living with his Dad). Permission was granted as long as Ted was with the two of them at all times. OK - Logan walked in and it was kind of shocking the difference there was. Ted teased him about checking for prison tattoos, which he had none. Logan walked in and walked over to Ted and grabbed him by the hand and told him to stand up so he could hug him (WOW!!!). I usually always hugged Logan hello and goodbye - so it was no surprise that he came over and hugged me. Then he went over and hugged KayeLynn and asked her how she was doing because her knee was all splinted (again WOW!!) Then he started talking. OK - if you knew Logan before, he really didn't talk alot - he was just kind of quiet and sullen. He didn't stop talking. Ted teased him about learning to talk in prison. But, the biggest thing was, it was such positive talk - positive outlook - positive all around!! This was not the same Logan that left us when his child was five months old.

We went to lunch at Olive Garden where I kind of got sick. I really didn't think I ate that much, but, my stomach was was painful mess. Logan left us from there, because he only had permission to go to lunch and didn't want to take a chance on upsetting his parole officer. Again, he HUGGED US ALL and said goodbye.

From there we went to the Idaho Falls Zoo. It's not a large zoo, but, rather small compared to the one here in Salt Lake. But, it was fun just the same. We got a wheelchair for KayeLynn, because we weren't sure how she would do doing all that walking. The bad part was this zoo had lots and lots of ups and downs - and I was the one pushing! It's a fun little zoo. We had a great time with all of them. I hope DeeDee and Logan can both keep up on the path they are on now. They have an awesome kid who needs them.



P.S. This happened about five seconds after we got Gabe strapped in to take him home!