We're Home!

Typical Wyoming View

Jeremiah loved seeing lots of trains on the drive

Our happy boy

The roads, which were closed that morning from white-out conditions, snow and ice, were bone-dry by the afternoon and the driving up there and back was great! We hit the perfect window between two blizzards. About 10 hours after we got home there was a few inches of snow again and snowy roads!

Learning to drive at gas stop!

We're home and had a really good trip to Billings. King Jo's surgery went well and he never even took pain meds for it and went right back to work the next morning! Now he'll just have some physical therapy for a while to get it working again.

Even though it's always a lot of work to go places with kids, the trip went very smoothly. Our kids were great in the van (except for someone asking "Are we there yet?" about a billion times.) It's AMAZING the difference a minivan makes. This was our first family trip in the minivan and the ability to move around and have some breathing room was wonderful. I am so thankful for it and hopeful that any future trips to MN to visit family will be much easier thanks to the van!

It was great to see my aunt and uncle again and they were gracious to host us. We all slept in their downstairs guest room and the kids went to bed on the floor very nicely. While King Jo went to sleep with the kids I headed downtown for some late-night shopping. Why not make the most of every opportunity to shop without kids? I discovered Target closed at 10pm but found a super Walmart that is about 3 times bigger than the one I normally shop at in a nearby town. I had a ball in the fabric department and decided to skip JoAnne's the following day because I found such cute fabrics at Walmart! It was nice to shop late at night when stores were empty and there was no traffic!

The following day my aunt gave me the gift of a lifetime. She told me she wanted to take Ali and Jer for a while so I could shop with only one child. As many of you moms know, this is a huge blessing and a lot of work for her! It ended up being FOUR AND A HALF hours that I was gone, dropping hubby off for surgery and hitting stores and finding my way back. That's a long time with my kids, but they did pretty well. Aunt Suzee took them to Toys R' Us and let them pick out a toy. Then she took them to lunch at McDonalds and let them play in the Playland. Then she let them watch kid's cartoon movies. Of course they love Aunt Suzee even more now than they did before and kept asking to go back to her house on the drive home!

Meanwhile, I got to hit Target (I could spend a FORTUNE in there! Seriously, how do those of you with Targets nearby hold yourself back?), Coldwater Creek (gorgeous, feminine clothing and they were having a 70% off sale!), Ross, and a shoe store. Justus was his typical laid-back self and never made a peep the entire time in his carseat in Target and didn't start fussing until the very last store as I was ready to check out. He is such an easy baby! My aunt said you almost forget he's there he's so quiet! Exactly what he was like in the womb too!

On the way home we had four kids and it all worked out really well although it took about 7 hours to get home instead of 5 due to a few bathroom stops and a dinner stop.

It's really fun to get to the city now and then. A Wyomingite in a city kind of feels like a kid in a candy store. Colors! Lights! Stuff everywhere! Awesome! At first it's like the biggest adrenaline rush and is so exciting but after a few hours of it, you start to feel tired, overwhelmed, and freaked out about traffic and finding your way through the city. And keep in mind this city is only around 100,000! By the end of my shopping I was thankful I live in a small, quiet, town where I'm not tempted at every turn to buy this and that and be discontent. I do wish I had had a chance to hit the Christian bookstore (didn't see it until I was driving past in a hurry), and some bulk food/natural food stores. Oh well!

I praise the Lord for the perfect roads and thank you for your prayers!

Home again, home again, with laundry mountains to do, and bags to unpack!