No Place Like Home

Oh my. As I transferred pictures from my camera onto my computer, I realized that a lot has happened in the past few weeks! A picture catch-up post will be coming soon...I know, I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats.

But for now, I must just simply say this....after returning from a week in Utah, spent with my children, I would be happy if I never set foot in another restaurant with all of them again! Eating out for five days with them has made me very happy to return home to my own kitchen. Even though my own kitchen means more work for me, I will happily assume that role, as eating out proved to be quite a bit of work as well!

Yes, this would have something to do with that cute little one year old of mine who tends to do a lot of squawking and food throwing. He gets quite mad at me when I do things like don't let him drink the salsa straight from the bowl, or make him eat his food before chowing down on licorice, or insist that I help him hold his drink. I know...so unreasonable of me. Today he expressed his disapproval of my tactics by throwing anything and everything he could get his hands on to the floor. This included his food which had just been brought out. Not too smart, is he. This morning, he dumped chocolate milk...and just as I finished cleaning that, he dumped water.

On top of that, there are the usual spills here and there, kids talking way too loud, kids not liking what they insisted on ordering, etc. Oh, and once Luke is done, he will not stay put. He is ready to go, and escapes when I am not looking. He will wander around, or lie in the middle of the floor, making the restaurant a sort of obstacle course for the waitresses. I'm sure they love that!

Once, when I was a kid, my mom took my sister and I shopping to buy a new Sunday dress. As I recall, the reason for this outing was that we had been asked to play our violins in stake conference. We went to the one and only nice dress shop in our little Idaho town, and proceeded to try on dresses. As the story is told, mom was quite frustrated with us. I believe I wanted some frilly, floofy, extremely colorful dress. I wanted nothing to do with the pretty and classy dress my mom chose. I'm sure Elise and I were in rare form as we complained and begged...so much so that on the way home from the store, my mother (after sitting quietly for several minutes) informed us that it would be a cold day in H--- before she ever took us shopping again!

You must understand that my mom was not one who was prone to swearing, so when I say we may have pushed her a bit far I really mean we pushed her completely over the edge! Well...as we left Utah today, those famous words of my mother popped right into my head and I am ashamed to admit they actually left my lips. And frankly, I don't think they did one bit of good. I'm pretty sure my kids didn't even believe me.

But, I was serious...

Sort of.

OK, enough with the negativity. It was actually a great week as we were able to spend time with family, and visit our great friends who are heading back to Okinawa on Monday. We played and played and played and swam and swam and swam. Good times.

But I am exhausted, AND I have a crack right on the tip of my finger, making typing a painful task. (Man, I am really on one tonight...poor, poor me.)

Anyway, here are a few pictures...not a great representation of all the fun we had, but something is better than nothing. It is pretty tricky taking pictures when you have a kid who wants you to hold him ALL the time!

Syd and her cousin Hallie at Classic Fun Center...a big hit with all the kids.


Savannah had a birthday party at Jump on It...a huge building filled with trampolines.


A favorite with all the kids (except maybe those under 3 years old) was sledding.