and then there were five: Avoiding unpacking ...

Well, we're settling in at home once again, and I am realizing how much I hate unpacking and putting things back together. The house is a mess, I haven't made it to the grocery store yet, I have 22 messages on my home phone that I haven't had the strength to check yet, and my lovingly planted vegetable garden is a jungle of weeds. And what am I doing about it? Not too much. It seems like much more fun to look at vacation pictures, catch up with friends on the phone, go to the pool and, as you can see, catch up on the blog. I found that I really did miss blogging while I was gone. While we were there, I kept thinking of little things I would have liked to write about, but once the moment passed, it was gone. The computer situation at my parents' house was much better when we first arrived, as they both have new computers, but, unsurprisingly, about a week into the trip their internet stopped working completely. I really feel that their house is a black hole where technology cannot exist, but scientists can't explain why.

Anyway, now that we're home I thought I would write about all of these interesting and funny things from the trip, but I find that when I sit down to write, there's nothing there. Lately I feel like my whole life is so like that though, that all of these really remarkable things happen every minute of the day, but then when someone asks me what we've been up to, or what we did in Texas, I draw a blank. My responses are so boring: not too much, it was really fun, we were really busy. I guess it's because now we're on to the next thing, and since my mind is so full just keeping everything together from one minute to the next, I can hardly remember what I did an hour ago.

Mostly, friends keep asking my about the car trip part of our three week trip. They're like, "I can't believe you drove so far by yourself," while thinking to themselves, "wtf?" I know, it seems either crazy or just really cheap. Probably both. I will say, in my own defense, that it was oddly satisfying to be on the road for two days with nothing to do but drive. In my regular life, I often find myself wishing that there was a way to stop time for a little while and just see everything clearly for a minute. Just appreciate where we are and who my children have become. And during the car ride home, in between the misery of having to take everyone into every nasty gas station bathroom and trying to think of a way to keep Ruby from soaking herself in juice (she refused to use her sippy when she saw the boys drinking from juice boxes, so she would shriek until she got one too, but then half the juice would invariably end up on her, resulting in more shrieking), I had a few little glimpses. At one point, when Finn and Gus were playing a game they had made up with each other and Ruby was babbling at her baby doll, I realized that I was really, truly happy with my children, and, consequently, with my life. That's so rare for me, since I'm usually annoyed with someone for making a mess or hitting someone, or exhausted with the effort of keeping them all fed, clean-ish, and well-rested that it's hard simultaneously to appreciate the big picture. But in the car, at least for a few minutes, I was like, you know what, self? these are great kids. you just spent three weeks with them, and 75% of was really fun. the boys dealt really well with being tired, moving around alot, not sleeping in their own beds, and mostly just having each other for company, and Ruby was so outgoing and funny with all of these new people that I really got a chance to see how far she's come since we brought her home. you are incredibly lucky to have these little people in your life.

So that's it, that's probably the best moment of the trip, among many other great ones. We had so much fun with my parents and my brother and his family - their little boy Jack is almost 3 and he is a wild, hilarious little kid. Ruby really loves seeing him and he is so sweet with her. She also loved meeting her new baby cousin Abby, 2 months, and was surprisingly gentle with her. I kept expecting her to treat "baby" the same way she treats pretend "baby" - a loving hug followed by being slammed to the floor, but she seemed to apprehend the difference between living baby and plastic baby. I also got to catch up with my oldest girlfriends and their kids in Austin for a few days, and that always makes me happy.

Here are a few pics from the trip.