We're home!

It feels so good to be home. The trip was fun though! The kids did really, really well on the road. They used the activity books and played games. Hardly any fighting, which was such a blessing to us! We left last Thursday morning, early and drove 13 hours to stay here. Can I tell you that we were treated like royalty?!!! I mean, us, the family of 5. Not at all that exciting, in fact we are down right boring. Certainly not royalty. We pulled up to pizza awaiting us. Then we slept in the coziest bed ever. E.V.E.R. Friday morning woke up to yummy blueberry muffins, spinach and egg frittata, fresh fruit, bacon, juice and milk. Was provided a very generous gift and all the love you could imagine. I mean, seriously, these people are the nicest people you could ever meet! (oh, and she decorates her house like a show home. It was beautiful! Even my husband commented on how nicely decorated it was and that is saying alot.)

Friday our drive was only about 6 hours to my mom's house in Portland, Oregon. One of my brothers, my oldest sister and my niece Ellen who is 29 and my nephew Simon who is 24 were all there too. We talked and laughed and ate and ate some more before fighting each other for the bathrooms to get ready for the wedding. We all drove to the wedding together. It was in the atrium of the World Trade Center downtown Portland. It was beautiful in there! My niece, who is pretty anyway, looked amazing!

Saturday, my husband and brother-in-law (father of the bride) got up and went out on the boat until about 1 or 2 while my sisters and I took all the kids and ran errands, preparing for the ocean camping trip. You would think 6 kids would be a bad thing for errand-running, but they got along real well and entertained each other!

Sunday we left Portland by 9 and got to Newport beach about 12:30. Set up camp and then the boys (the big boys) disappeared on the boat again. So I took the kids to the beach, where it was very windy and freezing cold. They enjoyed it though, I did not enjoy it as much. They played in the sand. Gathered shells and Lady Bug found 2 heart shaped rocks that are so cute!

We packed up camp Monday night and headed back to my moms while everyone else stayed at the beach. It was good to hang out with my mom for a little while longer. We left my moms about 9 on Tuesday morning and drove for 14 hours to finally stop for the night at a hotel. It was cheap, but it was fairly clean inside. We left there about 9 am Wednesday and rolled into our driveway about 4 or so in the afternoon.

I was able to tackle almost all of the laundry (yay for me!) and relax a little before bed! It is good to be home and not living out of a suitcase anymore!