Home, at last!

Well, I’m back!! Thank goodness. Whew…….what a hectic 5 days of my life this has been. We left on Wed morning for Arizona for our big family get together for my auntie’s 50th birthday!! But of course whenever you have to be up at the crack of dawn to go anywhere, surely a good night’s sleep is NOT to follow! Hopie……..poor Hopie. She had an awful stomach bug pretty much our whole trip. But Tuesday night she kept Kris and I up pretty much the whole night. So we left right on time (hee heee NOT) for the airport with sleepy sick kids in tow.

The ride to Arizona, the girls did amazing. Even the Kennyboo was VERY good most of the way their. We made sure to be the last ones to board the plane thinking this was the best way with Kennedy, and it was. It was quite amusing to walk onto the plane and people see our three girl’s all matching of course, Kennedy acting like her silly self playing peek a boo with everyone she walked by, the people would smile so sweetly when deep in their souls they were absolutely thinking “PLEASE KEEP MOVING BACK”. I was a nervous wreck thinking what a mess she was going to be, but God is good, all of our flights were on time and very smooth sailing on the way THERE. =) We arrived in Arizona and my aunt and uncle picked us up and took us out for some yummy lunch. We were starving since they don’t serve you pretty much anything on planes anymore………..w/o a cost! After that we were pretty much exhausted, it was a full day of traveling to get there so we headed back to the hotel and got settled and called it a day!!

My parents and my brother and his fiance, Jenny, flew in later Wed night so we met up with them the next morning at breakfast. Our hotel was awesome since they had these made to order breakfasts each morning! It was very nice! Meeting my brother’s fiance went well, the girl’s all behaved themselves and it was good to catch up with them. After eating we all loaded up in a big 12 person passenger van (THAT was a sight to see) and headed to our old hometown Coolidge…………wow. Somethings never change!!! This town was one of them. It was very run down but now was on the map since it has a Walmart and McDonald’s…….the two essentials for any city to be on the map!

It was good to tour our old house…….wow was it small!! And pass our old church, school and of course our old baby sitter’s house. However, as fond as I was of that little old town, I don’t foresee us packing up anytime soon and heading that way again! =) It was kinda one of those, once you see it, you’re good for about……..oh 20 years! But, it was fun to walk down memory lane…….although it made me feel a little old to know that I had a memory lane to walk down!!

Thursday night was my aunt’s family birthday party in which it was just a great time of relaxing and catching up with everyone. The girl’s were great, but again very tired so we didn’t stay out to late. Friday, Mike and Jenny had to head home so we said our goodbyes and took a trip to Target for guess what? WARM CLOTHES. Who woulda thought that it would be FREEZING in ARIZONA??? Well, apparently not the woman who packed all those clothes!! =) I was thinking 70’s……….uh no…….more like 50’s!!! Warmed up and Kennedy with a good nap we headed to the ice-skating rink!!! THAT was a blast!!! Even Kennedy skated!! It was just about the cutest thing I’d ever seen!

Saturday was another BUSY day. We went and drove to this mountian where you can look out and see all of Phoenix. That was cool, and then headed to this old western town called Rawhide! That was a great time!!! After all that it was time for my aunt’s big party bash with everyone so we went to her house and had ourselves a BLAST!!! We played this game called Kahuna……everyone puts money in a pot and passes an envelope to the story of the Grinch who stole Christmas……you pass on the word “THE”, well the pot ended up being $108!!! And GUESS WHO WON?????? HOPIE!!!!! =) Oh ya’ll………she was just beside herself!!! One of my aunt’s went all out to make this party super special for my Aunt Karen she had food……a babysitter for the kids!!!…….games, everything! It was so much fun!! I so enjoyed watching our girl’s playing with all their cousins and second cousins…..it made me so happy to see all that. It was hard to leave that night……..it’s how things “used” to be growing up, big family, all together, laughter and just a good time. I miss THAT more than anything!!!

Sunday morning we got up and packed up everything…….funny how you always leave with way more than you came with! We took our very tired selves to the airport where the true chaos began. Rude baggage checkers, frustrated customers, three tired girls and a mishap in the elevator (Taylor and Hope got left OH MY)…………was pretty much a recipe for a very long day and the Kennyboo held her end up to make SURE NO ONE was happy because SHE WAS NOT. =) Bless her sweet heart…….she did good the first flight but um……..the second one…….well let’s just say this, I sure hope I never have to see that woman who was sitting in front of us EVER again. Yes, Kennedy was being awful………but she only made things way worse for this overly tired and WAY stressed out momma. I was so thankful for the man beside her who so politely said at the end of the flight after I apologized to everyone around, “Anyone who doesn’t understand must not ever had children.” I smiled SO sweetly at her after that comment. =) See, God always gives us just what we need…….or what we wish we could say to other’s!

Tired, tired, tired is I’m quite sure the theme today. Sleepy girl’s are still curled up in their beds, we got home around 11:30 last night. So after our 13 hour traveling day, I’d have to say, it’s going to be a bit slow around here!! We had a great time and I can’t thank everyone enough for all your prayers and e-mails of encouragement to let me know you were praying!! It made things so peaceful for me!! So, I had to pop on and just say hello to you all……..I’ve missed all my blogger’s and I need to just take some time to catch up with everyone! Have a blessed day!!!