Hearts & Rockets

Summer on Fire

Stephanie was able to bump her flight a few days early. I dropped her off at the airport and reminded her I was just a phone call away. While I had the rest of the morning off, I decided to take Sutton to a drop in toddler yoga. I pulled up to the building and we walked inside to see three other children she knew, and happily went in to the room. I sat back and watched as she followed along and texted Hunter.

J: dropped Steph off, took Sutton to drop in yoga. She's doing so well on her own.

H: Cute! We are writing at home, there's mail here for you.

J: OK should be home in an hour.

I continued to watch as Sutton followed instructions, sort of, and tried to follow the teacher's moves. Hunter and I knew enrolling her in regular programs could be tricky with our schedules but we wanted her to spend time around children her own age before going to school. Learning to share, and follow directions from someone other than mom and dad was very important. The class was dismissed and Sutton came rushing over to show me the sticker she earned, "Fantastic baby!" I helped her get her shoes back on, "We are going to go home for lunch and see daddy." We walked back to the car and I loaded her up, our drives together were always full of singing. 

We arrived home and I helped Sutton wash her hands as we got ready for lunch. Part way through lunch, Hunter emerged from the basement, totally full of smiles. "Hey, you look pretty cheery." I kissed him hello, and he greeted Sutton who was working on some apple slices.

"We have a release date, a track list and a tour." My eyes were wide as Hunter continued to explain, "Release date is October fifth, and the tour is going to be big. I'm going on Chris Young's world tour."

My hands covered my mouth, "Hunter!" I hugged him, "That's amazing!" Sutton was clapping, not totally aware of what's going on. "World tour means where?" Hunter explained that they would actually be starting in the USA, and after the holidays they would be going to Europe and Japan. There were only two Canadian dates, London and Calgary. Although I was incredibly excited, my heart sank, realizing this tour was going to be almost six months long. "Wow, that's unreal." 

He hugged me, sensing I was overwhelmed. "Tour leaves September tenth. We get two weeks off at Christmas, then it continues overseas. We can skype every night, whatever you need, whatever Sutton needs. And I got you tickets to the Nashville show." I hugged him again.

"I'm so happy for you. This is exactly what we wanted." His eyes were sparkling before he broke away to grab a rather heavy box from the island.

"This came for you in the mail." I opened it, puzzled as to what it could be. I unwrapped the package to find a white box with the infamous red YouTube logo. I opened the box to uncover a silver award that was engraved with: Jenna Hayes 100,000 Subscribers. "Jenna, that's so awesome."

"I guess we should consider putting a bookcase or something downstairs for all of these awards." I smiled, "I'll take it on as a project when you're on tour." I had an idea of framing all of our magazine covers in the basement with some glass display cabinets for our awards.

"That'd be great," Hunter kissed me before freeing Sutton from her booster, "Sutton, you ate all your lunch, good girl. Did you have fun at yoga. Can you show me some moves?"

She smiled, gabbing at Hunter and showing him moves in the living room. I had to laugh watching the two of them play. I was thinking this tour might be really hard on her, having her dad gone for so long. I decided we can make a photo booklet for her that I can read to her to help explain Hunter's job. After doing some yoga, Hunter and I had Sutton wind down for a nap and I pitched my idea to him.

"I think it would be the best way to help her understand why you're gone."

"You're a genius, and you know we can Face-Time and Skype as much as possible" I held his hand and nodded, we talked about how we would make this little book, and before we knew it, Sutton was up from her nap already.

The rest of the day was spent together, splashing in the pool. Hunter had Sam and Amy join us for dinner and we talked more about the tour and Hunter told Sam how we were going to make the book for Sutton. "You guys are amazing, that's such a good idea," Amy chimed in.

"Well, I guess if our men our leaving, we will get to have some girls nights," I raised my glass toward Amy.

"Yes - absolutely. It's nice to have someone who gets it." I smiled through the sting I felt in my chest. That's exactly how and why Joelle became so close. We understood this life, we knew our relationships were different, and it was important to have that girl gang to lean on.