The No-Labor Day

I was born on Labor Day.

I thought for a long time that it was called that because my mom was "in labor" with me. (Kind of like when I was little I thought that the line in "We wish you a Merry Christmas" that says "Good tidings we bring to you and your kin" really said "good tidings we bring to you and your KIM". I know, I know. I was a very self-centered little kid.)

It was a while before I could see the irony of having a day off of work to, well, celebrate work.

I had a few projects that I thought about doing today, but true to Garrett fashion, we decided to play instead.

We went for a 30 mile bike ride.

We hit the REI Labor Day clearance sale. (can't beat $20 Keens!)

And then, we went to the last Salt Lake Bees game of the year.

Layne's dad had 3 tickets for our family to his company's suite. Layne, ever the gentleman, insisted that I stay in the suite and he and Michael got tickets in the seats below us. Here they are:

The suite was awesome. The Bee paid a personal visit to us. He danced with Emalee and they put it on the JumboTron. Here's Doug with the Bee:
We were in the best suite in the stadium-- right next to the announcers, right behind home plate:

This is what a suite looks like inside, in all of its air-conditioned, catered glory. There was a fridge full of drinks. There were gourmet hot dogs and hamburgers. There was a tray full of cookies and brownies. And, yes, there was even a big ole' bowl of peanut M&M's.

Here's the thing about the suite, though-- with my husband and my son sitting below me paying $6 for small drinks and sweating in the hot sun, I couldn't really enjoy my luxurious surroundings. It made me wonder, is this what it would be like if only half of my family made it to the Celestial Kingdom and the other half were somewhere below? How could I really enjoy an endless and eternal supply of M&Ms if I knew that the people I love had to settle for stale churros?

I know it's a silly comparison, but it was definitely a learning moment for me. One of those moments that made me re-commit myself to doing everything in my power to make sure that we ALL end up in the BEST place TOGETHER.

It was a lot of work to get that analogy all put together so nicely.

I guess I did some LABOR after all . . .