Clack My Ruby Red Slippers

I'm so glad to be home! We spent the last six days not at home, and I am tired (with a capital T-I-R-E-D)!

On Sunday we drove an hour and a half down to Logan for my nephew's baby blessing, then we drove to my dad's house, which is four hours in the opposite direction, and we stayed the night there.

Monday, we continued on to Nampa, which is another three hours from my dad's house. We hung out with David, when he didn't have to work, mostly going out to eat and driving around looking at things. I learned there's not a whole lot to do in Nampa if you have small children and you forget to pack your bathing suit. We went to Boise for some shopping, though we didn't buy anything (I should've purchased a bathing suit, but I couldn't justify it 'cause I've already got three).

We also came across a little Asian market, so I went in there and got some candies and some Asian ramen, which is waaaay better than the Nissin or Maruchan brands they sell in our grocery stores. Owen found a little container full of candy that's shaped like a little girl, and her hat is the lid. It also doubles as a money bank when the candy is gone. I used the word little, but the thing is actually almost as big as him. It was cheap so we bought it, thinking that we'll make him use it and when he gets older and his friends ask him why he has a little girl money bank, it will be a lesson to him about begging for things at the store. Not really. It's made of thin plastic anyway, so who knows how long it will last.

When David was at work, the boys and I hung out in the hotel room most of the time. The one time we ventured out to find food, I got lost and ended up in the city to the north of Nampa, with a dangerously close-to-empty fuel tank.

Oh, and, raise your hand if you just spent $90 on gasoline in less than a week. I really shouldn't say any more about gas prices. It just makes me mad and raises my blood pressure. But I will say this: we are going to trade cars with the in-laws for next weekend's trip. Theirs is much more fuel efficient than ours.

One highlight of the trip was meeting David's cousin and his (the cousin's) wife and kids. They are super nice people, and very funny. It's always great to have nice relatives, even if you usually only see them once a year on Thanksgiving.

The low-light of the trip was leaving David in Nampa and coming home to a mostly empty house. But Vito made me feel better by giving me a Welcome Home sniff (I won't say where, but it's the usual doggie-sniffing-place-of-choice and it drives me crazy to be sniffed there; at least someone was here to greet the boys and me). And Merle gave Drew a Welcome Home bat-your-head-around-like-a-punching-bag, to which Drew was not sure how to respond.

Overall, it was a good trip: good to see David, good to be in warm sunny weather with no snow, good to have a change of scenery. But somehow, it's always better to be home.