Don't Put All Your Adages in One Basket

I tend to procrastinate these vacation posts as they tend to be long-winded and not that interesting to anyone besides me. I have to force myself to be brief, and I never like being brief. But here is my attempt.

My flight out to Utah: it was me and my two girls going alone since Codeman had to work. I flew Delta, therefore you can probably guess what happened without me going into much detail. The girls and a very pregnant I (I threw the 'very' in there for dramatic effect) were stuck over night in Georgia through no fault of our own. You know the drill, stand in an airport line until 1:30 at night with two crazy kids who refuse to go to sleep, get shuttled to a hotel, blah, blah, blah, wear the same clothes the next day, haunt the airport the next day, waiting to fly out. It was actually fine; I mean, not a picnic or anything like that, but not as terrible as it could have been. One of the most annoying things about the whole experience was listening to the conversation behind me in the line, as I waited to get new tickets and a hotel room for the night. The guy behind me just couldn't quite grasp that time travel isn't possible. "If I would have known I was gonna be stuck here for the night, I would have stayed an extra night at my grandma's house" (this is a grown man, by the way). Or, the same guy, "I could have driven home in as much time as this is going to take." And then he would follow up these incredibly pointless musings with incredibly stupid adages. "But, you know, it is what it is." "Whatcha gonna do?" "Just have to grin and bear it." And there I was, pregnant (very, did I mention), standing in line with my two wily kids running around (which is putting it mildly), and I had to listen to this man, all by his lonesome, whine, complain, and then console himself with greeting card messages. I had a couple adages I would have liked to offer him, "Life is full of disappointments.", "Cowboy up.", "Listening to your voice makes me want to pull my earlobes into my mouth and gag on them." (what, you haven't heard that adage before?)

So much for me being brief.

We finally arrived in Utah, stayed a week with my in-laws on their farm in Utah. Claire loved playing with her cousins, and all the animals that Grandma and Grandpa have. Claire threw up, Morgan thought that she and the kitty-a-cat were soul mates, and I read a book.

There, that was brief.

And then we went to my sister's house, spent a couple of days laughing until it hurt, then went to Bear Lake for a few days for a family reunion on my side. Loved it! Got colored a toasty shade of red. The kids loved the Harry Potter themed activities, including a potions class that I taught. As a family, collectively ate three batches of Scotch-a-roos. Went back to my sister's house, visited some friends, ate a peanut buster parfait, put a puzzles together, flew home. That's about it.

I had a great time. Claire had an even better time. She was in heaven being able to play all day long with her cousins. Morgan screamed anytime it was time to eat, fought with her 18 month old cousin, and sang "I Know You" about 147 times.

And the rest is history; we rode off into the sunset; all good things must end sometime; these mashed potatoes are so creamy; and that, as they say, is that; that's the way the cookie crumbles; you can't make an omlet without breaking an egg, any cook will tell you that; that closes the curtain on this case; dweeb-da-da-da-dweeb, dat's all folks.

(Morgan, looking totally presentable, on Grandma and Grandpa's farm)

(the view from the patio of our cabin at Bear Lake)

(Claire, with her wand and Slytherin cape, probably coming up with some evil-genius plan)

(me, teaching a rockin' potions class. I even yelled at the kids, just like Professor Snape. I am the best aunt on the planet.)