We Are Home!!!!!!

It has taken me this long to try and get caught up..and I can't exactly say I am really caught up at this point. But there is much more to come later. Stories that only we are capable of coming home with!!! But we arrived late Saturday afternoon after a very long fun 2 wks. It is good to be home. It is good to be held within the loving arms of a husband again. And good for children to sleep soundly and peacefully within their own beds. It is good to see them out jumping on a trampoline for hours on end and riding bikes until the sun hangs low on the horizon. Yes...it is indeed good to be home.

So, I am working on getting caught up on trip details. It may take a few days. How can you ever summarize a 2 wk trip with children???? Um, you just kind of can't. I tried. Being a little naturally long winded anyway summarizing doesn't come naturally to my writing abilities. And it seems to do the story such injustice to summarize such events.

But we are home safe and sound and enjoying all life has to offer back on the home front. Spring blooms, warm sunny windy days, pink tinted cheeks, and beautiful outside weather as they do their school work outside, jump, play, ride and wander in freedom exploring all of life and what spring presents.

Brad deemed it a good bus day and the bus was in need of a good outing anyway. So, he tuned it up and loaded everybody up and we took off for an outside dinner miles down the highway. It was something to capture in time. A moment when I wish time would just stand still for a little while longer. I looked back as we wound our way down the curvy highway and hilariously saw our crew of children with heads up near the open windows allowing the air to blow freely. It was childhood freedom at it's greatest. Long brown hair and long golden hair blew away from their faces and they looked at me from their very backseats and laughed in their carefree ways. Little boys' eyes squinted from the combination of wind and sun and their cheery eyes' glee could not be rivaled. Of course, the moment was made even better given the fact I could not hear their racous laughing or screams due to the roar of the bus engine. And given the fact they were having contests spitting ice chips out the windows it seemed a little more heavenly just to envision their youthfulness and humor at life rather than light into them from 50 seats away. They seemed to be having the time of their little lives.

I am feeling overly sentimental..maybe because of impending change, maybe because of pregnancy induced hormones, maybe because I am just glad to be home in wide open spaces, maybe because I am just so in love with the ages the children are right now and life seems good...life is good.

All ramblings to say that we are here. I will work a little more devotedly...translated into, as time allows.....on the hilarity of our journey's experiences. I think we now can be nominated for the old, vintage original "Cheaper By The Dozen" of the year award. Or, I suppose, we'd be in the "Cheaper By The 1/2 Dozen plus another and pregnant" category.

And just a bit of info the trip revealed, as a fun forerunner of the tales to come...

........Sonogram reveals just 1 lone baby. It's still way too early to tell gender but my bets are hinged on a girl given the amount and severity of morning sickness and all of the other crap I have put up with this time around. Or maybe it's just what being over 30 and pregnant does to a woman? Or maybe being over 30 and being on the 5th baby in only 3 years. I guess that would do it to anybody. I'm glad to report that though the uterine muscle memory was surely enough to convince anyone and everyone that there were at least 3 in there my size has evened out nicely and I am now a very normal size for being 13 wks. I've reached the 2nd trimester! I'm not sure I ever thought that day would come with this pregnancy!