Saying Good-bye to Utah

We're leaving tomorrow to start our long drive home. This time we're doing it more slowly. We'll go to Colorado Springs tomorrow and spend Wednesday going up Pike's Peak and looking at some Indian village DH has planned out for us. Then Thursday we'll drive to Amarillo, see Cadillac Ranch, swim in the hotel pool, relax. Friday we should be home be afternoon. In time to go to the Butterfields good-bye party.

It's been a good vacation. It's been great being with MSV (my sister Val) and her littles for so long. I feel like the cousins have really gotten to know each other and love each other more. G is going to be SO sad, T and M are great with her and will play for hours. H, who is a wonderful girl, doesn't have that natural careful instinct with babies but she has learned so much from watching her cousins with baby G. She is so much more gentle and trustworthy with her now. H and M have been playing well the whole time. I think they have had less then 5 minutes worth of disagreements. They've played dress-up and swam, and played school and so many things it's hard to list. I wish, wish, wish, they could grow up together. E adores T, he's a good role model. The boys have done well together as well. DH, who is an only child, enjoys being an uncle and loves having brothers now. They played golf, went shooting, got in trouble together for being late to the movie (when they had the tickets in their pockets), played dodge ball in the back yard long and hard (so hard Ama and DH could barely move the next day:) and they broke V's fence (which DH fixed today.)

I always enjoy my family a lot. They are fun to be with. We had very few hard days, and with so many that's pretty good. I guess we're ready to go home, back to our routines and what not but I can't wait to do this again.

V had some breakage, which was too bad and I feel badly about and we had a few ruffled feathers once or twice but that's the only bad I can think of. Oh, and one brother didn't make it to our temple day and I hope he gets his act together quickly. And we had some hair accidents and a few fights over toy guns and little S fell down the path at Bridal Veil.

So that's it, the good, the bad, the ugly in a long ramble and 700 photos taken. I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a pleasant drive home with some interesting stops and then we're back to "normal".