So Dylan leaves for France today. He is spending at least one year (but probably two) in Nice. Which is such a perfect location for him because he's such a nice guy! Ha! Sometimes I just crack myself up.

And because Dylan is leaving today, we spent a lot of time with him over the weekend. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to be exact. I'll start with Sunday because this story is really about Friday and really about me.

I spent five and half hours with Dylan on Sunday cleaning his house and making trips to the Youth Ranch. You can interpret this to mean that I spent five and a half hours with Dylan on Sunday trying real hard not to cry. I was moderately successful.

On Saturday, Dylan ate dinner with us and stayed for family movie night. Stephen picked Super 8--not really a "family movie" for a family with two five-year-olds, in case you were wondering.

But on Friday night we went bowling! I never quite figured out why. Maybe it was Dylan's idea, maybe it wasn't. Either way, it was fun. I bowled a thirty something. I was the loser. Not the first time.



Taking pictures of people bowling is hard. I ended up with a lot of butt shots that I won't post because I am pretty sure no one would appreciate that. I tried to get shots of people making funny victory faces or dancing, but this group wasn't very animated. Still, I managed to get a few good pictures.



Afterward, we ate. And because the eating was hosted by Dylan's good friends Steeley and Sanja, we ate well.



And then we played models.



And then Stephen and I had to leave at 11 pm. And do you know why we had to leave? Because I had to go drive the babysitter home!

So this may not sound outrageous to the rest of you, but this was a big deal for me. Huge! This was the first time that someone other than a family member put Henry and Wyatt to bed! Sure, we've left them with a babysitter plenty of times but only the during the day.

I kept telling people this on Friday night not because it was traumatic for me, but because I realized that our go-to babysitter was leaving for France--so okay, maybe it was traumatic. Plus, our other go-to babysitter (Tia-D) was in McCall with her buddy Casey and unavailable. In fact, she happens to be pretty busy these days.

This is a game changer for me. If you know me at all, you know that I don't typically drive people home--they drive me home. But here I was, being a responsible parent, leaving Dylan's last hurrah party early and with a belly full of water.

Truth be told, it's not the idea being responsible and driving the babysitter home that's changing my game. It's the idea of having to arrange for an actual babysitter when we want to go out in the evenings. This foreign to me. This is going to be a transition. I don't know if I can do it. You may never see me on the streets of downtown again!

So, Dylan, you will be missed, especially by me. Vive la France!