Home at Last!

Monday morning, we made a quick stop at the grocery store for some snacks for the rest of the trip home, then we headed to BYU to get Anna dropped off for EFY.  We walked around the campus for a bit and I showed the kids around a bit (while I marveled at how much had changed) Then we got Anna checked in and in her room, then we went to eat lunch at the Wilkenson Center (which sadly only has lame chain fast food places now).  We stopped in the BYU bookstore, and I let the kids each choose one of the t-shirts that were on sale.  Then we left Anna to her week of fun and headed up to Idaho.  I tried to stop at Beto's for nachos - because I LOVED them in college, but they were our of nachos!!!!  :(  

We stopped for gas at a fun little place in the middle of nowhere - called "the middle of nowhere."  It had lamas and donkeys and goats.  They had a little food dispenser, so I scrounged up a few quarters and let the kids feed the animals.  They also had a fun little store with lots of quirky, silly little things to see - the kids loved it!  Plus it was nice to get out of the car!!! 

We got in late, but of course, Gene and Anna had an amazing dinner waiting for us, then we got littles off to bed and played a couple games before heading to bed early.  

Tuesday morning, we headed back to Oregon, we hit traffic before Multnomah falls (yes, again - there has been traffic or construction problems that slowed us down on EVERY leg of this journey it feels like!)  We finally got back home in time for dinner, then unpacked the basics and headed to bed!!!  

The rest of the week has been unpacking and laundry and friends and walks and fun.  On Saturday, Dan smoked a huge brisket, so we invited a couple families over to help us eat and we had a great time chatting with them and the kids had a blast playing together.  Eileen decided to learn how to do wire wrapping, so Saturday afternoon, I took her out to find some inexpensive supplies, and she has been making them almost non-stop - then she had fun making them with the girls who came over for dinner!  I think almost everyone left with a new necklace.  :)  They are beautiful though, so I'm glad she's having fun! 

Sunday we got to go back to church with out a mask on for the first time in well over a year!  It was wonderful!  We also got to have our second hour meetings in person - I had a blast teaching the primary kids!  David was so excited to get to go to primary in person and sit with his teachers!  In the afternoon, we had the Blanchards over for dinner.  They had gotten in late Saturday night (having brought their girls and Anna home from EFY) so we thought they might like to not have to stress about figuring out dinner.  They came over for waffles and bacon and eggs and fruit and stayed for games.  We had a great time, then had a great scripture reading/discussion before getting the kids (followed quickly by Dan) to bed.  Now that I've got all my kids home, I'm ready to start getting into our regularly scheduled summer!