Cousins, BYU and orange cream soda

The trip has come to an end. We left on the afternoon of July 4th and flew straight into the night. Two layovers later we landed in SLC at around midnight, relatively unscathed...the girls were near angels and I felt great relief to have that part of the trip behind us. We didn't fully miss out on the 4th's festivities, we saw several little puffs of lights during our initial ascent out of Houston....I know Houston, right? I just left there a few weeks ago with a heavy heart and have endured a couple of truly difficult weeks adjusting, and there I was, back again, just like that...20 minutes from our beautiful, empty home, sitting in the airport watching a special on Anna Nicole Smith's love child and eating Papa John's pizza in terminal C.
The girls spent the first 15 minutes of each flight reviewing the safety information found in the seat back pocket in front of them. I then, spent 10 minutes answering questions about the pictures, very gently and diplomatically: "Momma, what's that a picture of?" "Well sweetie, that's if the plane crashes into water, then we get to float around on big rafts...if we survive the impact (that is if we assume the correct "crash posture" as seen in diagram 4 up there...")
We spent a day recuperating at Mo and Papa's and then headed off to Clark's family reunion, minus Clark. We met back up with all the family we just said goodbye to and were happy to be together again. The cabin was gorgeous and we had fun fishing, hiking and four-wheeling. Haley was the only one who caught a fish while we were there (she did a really good job reeling in the 12 inch trout that Uncle Randy baited and cast...she was really excited.)
After the weekend with our Texas and Utah cousins we headed back to my folks' for a week with my fam. Actually I spent one more day with Clark's family who returned to Grandma's house in Idaho. Monday was a long day that we took driving up to Idaho Falls for a short visit at Grandma's eating hamburgers and hanging out in the lush grass of her front yard while we played in the climbing tree. Then I drove up for an even shorter visit in Rexburg with our good friends Mandee and Dallan who we haven't seen in years. It was so fun to see them and play with their adorable kids in their gorgeous new house. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead at that point so Mandee will have to post pictures of that visit. We got back home around 10pm after a much needed visit to our dear old stompin ground, Sonic...have you noticed a significant drop in Sonic's stock since our move from Texas? (did I mention that there is no Sonic or Chick Fil A in Connecticut?...I guess we'll just have to give up fast food and lose a few pounds.)
[I want to take a moment at this point in time to sing the woes of the Connecticut Restaurant conundrum...there is no place to eat out. In Utah or Houston we had our pick of any flavor or cuisine within a ten minute drive. Now, our family who likes a bite out on occasion (or on lots of occasions) sits in a stupor of thought before deciding on one of the three decent places we have found thus far. We know there are more places out there, we just haven't found many yet.]
So we spent the week playing at the pool, bringing chaos to BYU campus, playing with cousins, sliding the Alpine slide and enjoying good company.
Not to forget that my kids got to visit with four great grandparents still living, do you know how lucky that is?
(Did I mention how beautiful all of my family is? It's because of these people, are they not the most handsome and beautiful 80 something year olds you've ever seen? I mean, look at her skin!!)
Our trip was fantastic fun but coming home was even better. Mind you I spent enough time commiserating about my red eye flight with three kids but we made it home...and when we arrived we were met by one handsome Dad who came bearing flowers for all of his girls. We even came home to a box free house, cleaned and air-deodorized, new potted plants on the front porch and more flowers, cards and a new movie for each of us waiting on the table inside...I think he missed us. We slept much of yesterday to catch up then enjoyed a family dinner and Sunday outing to Groton Long Point to climb on rocks and watch the boats.
Trips are good but home is best.

*For a trip addendum please go look at Ab's blog...she puts it all so nicely and mentions all the things that I want to say.
Things that I didn't even mention:
-the isolated throw up incident that I didn't even gag at
-the bear skat scare of 2007 and my visit about poop with the handsome Wildlife man
-orange cream soda for breakfast
-my adorable and fashion conscious mother who does her homework faithfully
-the glorious food
-the girls' hours of laborious efforts to create a chipmunk habitat
-sunburns and chapped lips
-chickens with cute names and an amazing chicken coop built by my sister, her first ever
-slumber parties with Aunts
-and the fact that it's 2:15 in the afternoon and I have sat at the computer all day instead of unpacking.