A momentous week

People have been hounding me for more pictures of Carter, but I have a goal to keep this from becoming a baby blog (not that that's a bad thing:)), so I'm going to post about some other momentous things before you get more pics!
First, Cary came home from his mission on Wednesday!.It was a joyous reunion, but it seems like he's been gone way longer than two years. I mean, when he left, we were still living in Utah, I was working for Costume Craze (www.costumecraze.com!) and we were newlyweds. It's nice to have him back, although the poor guy has two years worth of holes in his jeans. He definitely needs a wardrobe upgrade. That is not meant to be insulting, it merely reflects one of the things a mission does to you -- turns you into a fashion pariah.
Second, my family and I got to ride on the Goodyear Blimp yesterday! A guy in their ward works for Goodyear, and he hooked them up with a ride. Originally, I wasn't going to be able to go because we had a tour of the hospital's maternity building scheduled for the same time, but events made that tour moot, so I got to tag along. It was pretty darn cool.
Here's some interesting things about the blimp: 1) it's filled with helium, not hydrogen, so it won't explode and burn like the Hindenburg; 2) to take off, the crew members on the ground lift the blimp into the air, then bounce it down on its one wheel off the ground; the blimp bounces up into the air and then the pilot slams the throttle and it takes off at a really, really, really steep incline (it's kinda scary); 3) it's easy to drive.
Yes folks, we got to drive it. Cary, with his missionary audacity, asked if we could drive and the pilot obliged. Seeing as the blimp's so slow, it's not that hard at all. There's two rudder pedals and then a wheel for altitude. The weirdest part is that they leave the windows open in the front part of the cabin; you can just stick your hands out into the air! It's also kinda scary. The funniest part of the ride, though, was that after we got off, the crew had to add ballast for the group after us. I guess we're not the lightest family.:)

David getting into the cabin

Just to prove we really were up in the air

Me flying the blimp

The crew rushing to haul the blimp in

The family crammed into the cabin