Monday, June 23, 2014

Day 81

We're home! What a week it has been. The trip was full of ups and downs but we had a good time. Mostly, lol.

We made sure the kids had a great time, but for me personally it was kind of a difficult trip. I was so looking forward to being up in the mountains and I had been researching nature hikes and I had all sorts of plans for hikes and tons of picture taking but then I hurt my foot and that derailed most of the rest of the trip for me. I wasn't able to do any nature walks and I actually didn't take very many nature pictures because I couldn't get around well enough to get to the places I wanted to be. After a few days my foot was fine enough to walk on flat surfaces, but uneven surfaces, like dirt paths, still hurt, and the shoes I packed to wear hiking hurt too much to wear.

So that was kind of letdown for me. I spent a good portion of the mountain portion of our trip laying on the couch reading a book while Shawn and the kids went out and had fun. I didn't want anyone sitting around just because I couldn't go, so they went without me, and I'm glad they had fun. The kids really enjoyed the hikes.

And there were things I could do that were fun. The drive in movie was super fun! We all really enjoyed that. And I was walking well enough by Saturday to walk around Jackson Hole and we had a really good time there. We took the kids to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum in Jackson, which is totally a teenage boy place. The boys had an absolute blast there and have been talking about it ever since. If you like shrunken heads, things made out of human hair, and two headed animals, that is the place for you, lol.

By Saturday evening we had made our way back to my moms house and we had a nice weekend with them. Yesterday morning we went to church with them to hear them speak about their upcoming mission, which was especially fun for me because some old friends of our family were there who I haven't seen in a long time, and I really enjoyed catching up with them. Several relatives also came and I always love seeing my aunts and uncles and cousins. We had a luncheon after church and I enjoyed sitting on my moms back porch and catching up with family.

Last night I did a photo shoot with the kids in my moms backyard. They have a beautiful backyard, so I always love taking photos of my kids there. Since my first photo shoot didn't work out the other day because of my foot, I was happy for a second chance. I got some pretty cute pictures, including the one I posted yesterday, which makes me smile every time I look at it. I love my kids!!

Then this morning was the moment I have been dreading. It was time to say goodbye to my mom and stepdad. I'm excited for their new adventure but I hate goodbyes and I'm going to miss them while they're gone. They're assigned to serve for 18 months but they have already told us that they will most likely plan to request an extension of a few more months, so they will probably be gone closer to two years. They're really excited and I'm excited for them. I just really hate change and goodbyes. It will be strange not seeing them for so long.

After we said our goodbyes we made the long car ride home. We spend so much time in the car this week that we were really anxious to get home and get out of the car! Vacations are fun, but it feels nice to be home.

My happy thing today is just being home. You know that feeling you get when you've been away for a while and you finally walk back in your house and kick off your shoes and sit on your own couch and it just feels so nice to be back in your own space? I love that feeling. I'm happy to be home.

But I can't take a photo of that feeling, so instead you get photos from our trip.

First up are a few photos I took of the kids last night. I'm happy with how they turned out!

kids

m1

j1


c2

Here is the cool abandoned schoolhouse where we took the first photos last week. This is where I stepped in the hole and hurt my foot! That's what I get for hanging out around abandoned buildings.



Here is the top of Jackson pass, where you have the basically drive over a mountain and then back down the other side. That road always makes me a bit nervous, but it's beautiful when you get to the top and can see Jackson down in the valley!



And here are a bunch of random photos from the trip. Some of them were taken by Shawn with his cellphone while he was hiking with the kids and some of them are just random photos I took.






















It was a fun week with lots of adventures and a few unexpected moments. Even though parts of the trip didn't turn out like I thought they would, looking at these photos makes me happy and makes me so grateful for my family. I love them so much and spending time with them is really my favorite thing in the world. I have noticed that as I have done my happy things project that the majority of my happy things have been my family. No matter what happens in my day or in my life, those four people make me happy every single day, and getting to spend the week playing in the mountains with them was amazing.

No comments: