We're Back!

After a long and wonderful vacation we finally made it home. It was a long drive - and since I didn't sleep well the two nights before we left I was pretty tired during the drive but we made it safe and sound. We're grateful for our blessings - as we made the turn into our apartment complex our car made a funny sound. It turns out whenever you turn the steering wheel to the left it makes a bad sound. Grr. A week or so before we left we had to have several parts replaced in the car including the front struts. A few days later the car was back because they put in a bad part on the side that is now making the noise (and we were at a good repair shop getting good parts!!). So it looks like we're going back again but we're really grateful the car made it through the trip without any problems. :)

Today has been a long day trying to unpack everything and get the house ready for Sunday. Of course there was plenty of mail to go through - several of which required immedate attention but I'm tired of doing all that so I'm eating cheese and chocolate and posting on my blog :)

We had a great trip. Really, it was wonderful. Daddy was gone for almost a week in the beginning but we did quite well. My sister has 4 kids almost exactly the same ages as my kids (and they live next door to Grandma!) and her oldest 3 are girls as well and they are best of friends so we had a great time just hanging out, letting the kids play and swim and do fun crafts with Grandma (and enjoying their Wii in the evening!). When Daddy came back we went to Idaho for a family reunion with Daddy's family. I was miserably sick but the kids had a great time and loved playing with their cousins there and going swimming and they had fun camping (A was sick and did not like camping however and she and I ended up sleeping in the car that night). Later we had fun with Daddy's family having princess parties and such. It was nice to be together. It seems like there was always at least one person sick (hello...it's AUGUST!!!) but it wasn't bad (except for when it was me) and it was so nice to be together.

My little brother and his wife had their first baby several months ago and they were coming to Utah a few days after we were supposed to leave so we decided to stay a little longer so we could get some family pictures and spend a day together. Since Daddy is busy writing his dissertation we could lock him in a room and let him out for food and the rest of us could play while he worked. It worked well and I'm grateful we stayed. I even got to beat my little brother at Mario Kart on the Wii (and I beat my sweet husband several times, too!!!) (I"m not competative!!!).

Now we're back and the dishwasher is running (thanks Daddy!) and the home is clean and life is good (although we miss our family!). Mg keeps asking when her cousin is going to get to our house! We have a short week and a half before school starts and I'm looking forward to enjoying my girls these last few days!

We're still switching to a new computer and our trip pictures are currently on Daddy's laptop so who knows when or if I'll get pictures up. Maybe I can post a picture of Daddy's discovery today - he took the big girls on a bike ride this morning while A slept so I could unpack and clean. M came home so excited - Daddy had found a moth for her - and then it was actually two moths who were mating! Great. Thanks Daddy. They rode back to our house happy and into the freezer they went. To quote Daddy "at least they died happy." I refuse to pin them that way. Thanks Daddy.

How's that for a way to end a post :) Hm, got to end a different way. Some of you have asked what's going on with Daddy. He actually had two interviews while we were visiting family. Both went well - one of them would be doing what he is doing now (which is not what he wants to be doing the rest of his life) and the other one was with a professor who is doing some neat human medical research (which is what he wants to do). We have tentative offers from both but we don't have any details worked out or anything. He needs to finish writing his thesis and get his work published before we can go anywhere. They are talking about December...we'll see. He got lots of writing done while we were gone and things are really taking shape. It is most important that he get a good publication out of his work before he moves on to a job but both professors seemed willing to wait. As with all science things may take longer and situations always change so we're trying not to get too excited but it would sure be nice to live closer to family :)

I should probably go back to working...thanks again family for the great times together and sorry to friends in Utah we didn't see...we actually didn't see any friends this trip (mainly because Mommy was sick and it just didn't happen but you can all feel better that we didn't see anyone...not just you!!) and we're looking forward to catching up with friends here! Love, Sarah