Finally Home!

Wow I can’t believe I have been so neglectful of my site! I do apologize.

That being said we HAVE been pretty busy.

We just got home yesterday from a two and a half week stay in Washington for Christmas. It was a glorious trip but I was completely exhausted yesterday from traveling so I only did minor unpacking and mostly just sat around and watched the Planet Earth DVD’s we got for the kids for Christmas. Those are really amazing by the way if you have never seen them.

Over the course of our trip we did manage to see quite a few people and do quite a few things. Christmas was wonderful and so was New Years.

I think it was my favorite New Years ever. My parents got married on New Years eve 33 years ago so we celebrated it being their anniversary by taking them out to dinner at a little italian place that was recommended to us. It was quite good, I had the Cioppino and I loved it. It had been years since I ate anywhere that offered it that is close enough to an ocean that I thought it would be worth trying. I was also inspired by a few of the appetizers, no hints yet but I think I will be making my own versions at some point.

On the way back from the restaurant, Dad picked up some champagne and Jeremiah and I and my sister Rachel and her husband Matt all sat around in the hot tub drinking champagne and watching my Dad set off some fire works he had saved from 4th of July.

We also had some super exciting news from Jeremiah’s side of the family. He has two younger sisters, Natalie and Elizabeth and they both got engaged while we were there! Natalie got engaged first on Christmas Eve and then Liz a few days after Christmas. We are pretty excited for them and are looking forward to a busy summer full of weddings.

While we were there I got together with my dear friend, Joy, who’s husband is in the military and is deployed for the whole year (thanks for your service Matthew!), so she is taking the opportunity to live near her family so her boys can get to know them better. They have lived in Germany for the past couple assignments so of course it is difficult to see family. But fortunately for me that means she will be living near my parents so I will get to see her quite often this year. I consider it to be a special treat! So we got together for her birthday and went to lunch and went horseback riding. We both are good riders who are very out of practice so we were very pleased with ourselves for staying on. We were riding my old horse Visa who has quite the reputation and my Ruger who is a good boy but doesn’t get used much these days so not getting bucked off was a concern. We also were able to get our kids together for the first time since Linus was about a year old and they all played so nicely together that I ended up staying at her house for the entire afternoon.

I am very glad to be home but am looking forward to my next trip in April for MY sister’s wedding!