Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I am officially back from vacation. I walked into a mess here at the office, we are having more CSG issues at home, but even so, I am glad to be home. That said, I will also say that the vacation was just as good as I had hoped it would be. Even better, in fact. We are all tired, of course, and I could really use another vacation in which to convalesce from this vacation, but it is a good kind of tired. The kind that comes from having been busy nearly every single day of the trip, doing all that we wanted to do and trying to get it all in.

I have a ton of photos, of course, beginning from our very first stop at a rest area just outside of Boise. Eli and Sam were messing around and Eli threw his shoe, and it landed on the top of one of the picnic shelters. I have a great photo of him clambering up on the roof and holding his shoe up for the camera sheepishly, and I just had to laugh. Refined we are definitely NOT (I had to lecture the kids:"you do not burp at C. and D.'s table, even if you say excuse me."), but fun? You bet your ass. Anyway, since I do this all at work, you will have to wait for the photos, but believe me, I have some good ones to share.

All of the kids made a favorable impression, I think, which helps. For the most part they were amazingly well behaved and got along pretty good, which made it easier and more enjoyable for me as well. We did all the touristy things, and enjoyed every minute of it. On the first day, we ate lunch at the Seattle Center (I gave in and took Sam and Eli up in the Space Needle, which was quite a sacrifice in terms of finance AND mental health-I HATE being up that high) and turned around to see Sam chumming it up with some lady who was painting pictures and selling them. Next thing I knew, Sam was sitting down at her easel with a brush in hand; I got a couple of shots of that, and then when he left, this woman gave him a hug. Later, after splashing around in the kick-ass fountain they have there, we headed out and Sam saw a guy playing his guitar on the corner. He (Sam) had 37 cents in his pocket so threw it into the guitar case. C. and I were chatting and walking along and heard Sam holler at us: "Look!" He was next to the guy with his guitar around his neck. The guy helped Sam sing a couple of songs (namely Jesus Loves Me) and then made up an entire song about him, Sam. And then hugged him and gave him his guitar pick. How cool is that?

And Hannah and Eli both really enjoyed the Pike Place Market; C. and I let the three big kids go off on their own, with instructions about where to meet and when, and I think that was really neat for them. The boys (Eli and CJ) spent most of their time in the magic shop (and actually went back in the next day and let off one of their fart bombs, IN the magic shop, and had to take off running. Nice. I was proud.), while Hannah window shopped; she had souvenir money but never spent a dime of it, which made me chuckle. Cheap like her Mama, I guess. Sam totally ditched ME, asking instead if he and C, could go off on their own because Owen and I were too slow, which ALSO made me laugh.

So much more to write about! But I want to get in a couple of other things. Sorry about the non-guest posters. I know April had some Internet issues which made it impossible for her to do so, and I am not quite sure what happened to Jillian. But I am back!

Also, I have a 100th post coming up. Am I supposed to do something for it? If so, I am open to suggestions. I like the ones I have seen about answering questions people ask, so is that a good one? Let me know.

And hey, I missed all of you! I was able to comment on some posts this morning, but then I gave it up as a lost cause and marked them all as read. Even at my pace, there was no way I could read 157 posts AND work. :)