Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation last weekend as a group of six. It was only to Idaho Falls, but it was a good trial run. We have been incredibly lucky with our kids as far as traveling is concerned. They have all been excellent travelers...until Emilia. I actually can't complain too much. She did well for the first three hours, but lost patience in the final home stretch, both on the way there and the way back. The other kids did well traveling, but their understanding of time and distance was off. Every few minutes they would either ask if we were in Grandma and Grandpa's town or in ours. While we were in Idaho Falls they asked several times if we were home. Before we left IF we stopped at a gas station to fill up and they asked if we were home. Apparently the fact that it had taken hours and hours to get to IF escaped them. Our purpose for the visit was to see Grandpa Lynn and Grandma Cheri. They spoiled the kids rotten (and us too). If it were up to the kids we would have stayed forever. I would like to have stayed longer, but life you know. It is always getting in the way. Cody was there too. Rachel has been holding Emilia a lot, and is pretty good with her. However, if you have never seen her holding Emilia before it can be slightly unsettling. She walks around with her and holds her up to her face. She looks like she lacks control. I thought it was going to give Cody a heart attack. He followed her around with outstretched arms ready to rescue Emmy at any moment.

Carson is learning his colors right now. This is the first time he has been interested in the idea of a variety of colors. At first everything was "green". He has added blue to his list of guesses, and just this morning he proudly recognized orange. I love it when he says orange. It sounds like "urnge". I am also a big fan of the way he says burger. He says it phonetically correct, but draws out the "bur" part so it sounds like "buurerger".  It has an almost Yoda-like quality to it.  On the subject of Carson-speak, one of my other favorites is that he calls all balls "football soccers" except footballs, which he calls "Boise State".

Jackie Cat keeps pooping in our house, so she has been banished to the outdoors. Jackie sort of adopted us a couple of years ago when I left the basement door open for a couple of hours. It was a cold snowy night, and when we got home we discovered her in the basement. She was so stinking fat I thought she was pregnant. So was I, so I could not bear to make her leave. Now, three years later she is still fat and has yet to give birth to any kittens. Nothing cures me of loving an animal like having them poop in my house. Watching her be outside and wanting to come in is just about killing the girls. Especially Lilly. We have explained the problem to them both, but Lilly seems to need to give herself pep talks every now-and-then. When she sees Jackie waiting at the sliding glass door she usually says to nobody in particular, "Jackie wants to come in....but she can't because she poops on the floor."