New York: home

We had to have a wake up call so I'd make sure to not sleep through my alarm. The car was going to pick me up at 4:30 AM so the lobby called at 4:10 to wake me up. A quick shower, dressed and then the 5 minutes to jam my suitcase shut. (I even had to take out a lot of my clothes for Mr. Wiedz to bring home so I could leave the toys for the kids in my case.)

I met the car, hugged Mr. Wiedz good-bye and left for the airport. My flight left at 6:30, so I was hoping to get there about an hour before. I'm lucky the drive didn't take as long as I'd planned. The line to get checked in was long and the security line was longer. By the time I'd stopped at the magazine shop for a snickers bar and got to my gate they were boarding.

The flight from New York to Phoenix was long. Since it was early most of the passengers slept. I also dozed off but was not too comfortable in the middle seat so couldn't SLEEP. I flew US Airways which I think is the cheapest airline around...they don't give out snacks and you even have to pay $2 for water.

It was great to get off the plane in Phoenix. I walked to my next gate with a stop at Burger King for a whopper and got there just in time to board. The flight to Portland from Phoenix was great, I had an exit row near the front and I was on the aisle instead! I was able to sleep a little. The trip was shorter so it wasn't so bad.

After getting my bag from baggage claim I met Grandma D and the two older kids who'd come to get me. The kids were so excited to see me. Grandma D wanted a run down of the whole trip so I talked most of the way back to her house. When we got there Grandpa D went right in to wake up #3 from his nap. I think he was ready for us to leave so he could have his house back!

Grandma D stopped him from waking up #4 so we visited a little bit more. After #4 woke up we packed up all the kid's stuff and loaded up in the car. We headed off for home, happy to be together again!

Since I wasn't too sure of the food situation at home I stopped at McDonald's for dinner which the kids thought was great.

We got home and went straight to work checking on all the animals. The cat had had another batch of kittens while the kids and I were in California. I had prepared them that even though someone was coming and making sure the mama cat had food I couldn't guarantee that all the kittens would have survived. They had and the kids were so excited to see them. The pigs were needing food and the dog was excited to be untied.

I had promised that once the chores were taken care of I would get out presents. So we unpacked my bag of all the treasures I had brought back with me. No t-shirts from this trip. Just a bunch of toys! It was a hit. Everyone set off in different areas of the house to play with their new things. They had fun and were so thrilled to be home!

After some hours of just being home...relaxing, playing, checking things out we hadn't seen in awhile, petting kittens, etc. We had a snack and started the bath process.

Once I got all the big kids into bed I sat down to nurse #4. I had weaned him to just nursing before bed before I left for New York. Course now I'd been gone for 4 nights and didn't think he would nurse anymore. To my delight he did nurse that night. I was so thrilled and felt that maybe I hadn't ruined him by having this wonderful adventure all to myself.

Everyone was tucked into their own beds and sound asleep by 7:30 and after some blogging and computer time I was anxious to follow at 9:00.

So good to be home.