I'm Baaa-ack!

Well, we survived two weeks on the road. I'm not sure how soon I'll attempt that again. While my computer downloads over 600 photos we've taken, I'll blog about what awaited us in Arizona.

I was really nervous about leaving the heat and living in cooler temps for two weeks. The last time I tried that, coming back was a horrible re-adjustment to the heat. This time wasn't so bad. We pulled into our driveway at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday night. According to our car, it was 100 degrees outside. I was still wearing my heaviest jeans that I had needed that morning in Utah (we were at a cabin nestled at 10,000 feet.) We sweated bullets while we unloaded the car, but, by the next day, I felt re-adjusted! Yeah!

Friday was spent fixing broken things. A week or two before we left, our water softener died. We shut it off while Eric searched online for the right part. He found it and ordered it and we got it the day before we left. No time to install, though, so that was waiting when we got back. Our TV lamp also burned out the night before we left. Literally, one hour before bed, we turned on the TV and the little light flashed telling us the lamp burned out. So, we ordered that part while we were away. I also got a call from my friend who was feeding the dog on Monday to tell me the pool was very green. Thankfully, there were a couple packages of shock in a box on the back porch, so she was able to shock it and keep it from getting worse until we could get home and clean out the filters. They were bad and required two cleanings just this weekend. I plan to take a pool water sample to the store tomorrow to get it properly diagnosed and treated. Never fear, my brother who lives in a cold climate and is coming to visit in just 8 days... I will have the pool ready or I will die trying. ;-)

Yesterday we took Eric's cousin and his kids to the lake. We had a great time wakeboarding, tubing and swimming. My boys love having "jumping" contests. I'm planning to post pictures on Facebook of our lake trip, so if you don't see them soon, nag me! It was crazy hot at the lake yesterday though. We ran out of sunscreen at lunch, and Brayden had a fat lip from a trip on the tile the night before, so he wouldn't drink anything I brought because it hurt his lip. On the way to the gas station, I was really worried about him having heat exhaustion, so I pulled him out of the car (kicking and screaming) and took him into the gas station to buy him a drink and get a straw. He picked strawberry milk, got two straws, and 30 minutes later was back to his hyper happy self. All the kids got burned, even though they re-applied sunscreen halfway through the day. And Grandma Carol, don't worry, no one was severely burned... just pink! Megan finally got up on the wakeboard, which made her really happy!

Last night we finally got to see Transformers. It was a great movie. I totally hated the crazy-stalker-chick decipticon, though. Come on... so unnecessary! The teenagers sitting behind us were almost as entertaining as the movie!

It's going to take me a day or two to organize my photos and blog about my trip, but I will do it this week! Stay tuned for a barrage of travel details, tons of things I don't want to forget!