I'm finally home.

Well, I am returning from a long hiatus and I have a lot of pictures. But not as many as I normally would have had, because shortly after getting to Utah I got sick. Very sick. And I stayed that way pretty much until I came home. Which was enormously sad, since I wanted to do lots of fun things in Utah. Lots and lots. And instead, I mainly laid on the couch.

Here is mostly everyone at the Halloween/Birthday party.
My brother, King Tut, and his family.
Kiersten, Maloree, Hazel, and Brynne
Myles and Jethro being pulled behind the 4-wheeler on two kneeboards.
Here you can see Wyatt on the 4-wheeler and see all the animals they were maneuvering through.
Jethro riding Fahs Elle, the beloved horse of many children's childhoods.
Me and Hazel.
Dad and Ethne. And if you look, you can see the temple in the background. Is that not the awesomest thing ever?
Dad and Hazel.
The E's: Emeline, Elena, Ethne. It's hard to get a good picture of 3 two-year-olds.
Thanksgiving dinner pictures.
Here you can kindof see how crowded it was. 41 people. One table in front, a little kid table, then a couple people standing, and another table. I think there were a couple people in the front room too. Mmmm, good food.
My mom and dad and my kids. Isn't my mom so beautiful?!
Isabel and Talmage. We love how much smaller she is than him, even though she's a month older. They love each other so much already--see how they hold hands?
Grandpa pushing Hazel on the swing.


Grandpa and Hazel feeding the horses. I loved seeing Hazel's little pink head bobbing around.
Jumping on the tramp.

Even though I was sick, it was still nice to go and see everyone. I am glad I went. And by the way, the plane ride with my children went very smoothly. Even on the way back. Lots of people were helpful and my kids were good. Someone even said to me when I was picking up luggage "Your kids were really well behaved." I was proud.

Anyway, some of the fun things I did get to do in Utah were ride my dad's horses, have Canadian Thanksgiving dinner (and there were about 42 thousand people there, I swear), go to Church with my mom and dad and all my brothers and sisters--we took up about 42 rows I swear, go out for Chinese food, watch my brothers play a basketball game, watch the grandkids play at the Halloween party, and there was an unfortunate incident where I crashed my niece's motorcycle. Ouch. I also went to Vernal and hung with my in-laws, although I was sick while I was there. I also saw Brett there, because he flew out to help my brother-in-law frame his house, but I was so sick I basically said "Hi, goodnight." And I didn't even go to Ethan's football game, which I hear was the game of the century and Ethan was an all-star as usual, because I was sick. But that's the breaks. (And if you really feel inclined to read more about the game, and see Ethan in all his football glory, you can read my sisters' blogs.)

On the way home, Hazel started to cry because she wanted to stay with Grandma. I was trying to get her to be excited to go home, so I said, "But if you stayed with Grandma, you couldn't go to Joy School, and you wouldn't ever see Daddy." and she said, "I love Grandma more than Joy School and Daddy!" So pretty much we can't go visit Grandma ever again because it makes us Loserville, USA. And then I tried to make things better by saying, "It's Halloween on Friday and we'll go trick-or-treating," but she said, "I'd rather go trick-or-treating with Grandma." So forgive me Mom (not that you'd ever read this), but I said, "She couldn't go trick-or-treating, she's too old," (HA--I'm sure she could out trick-or-treat me any day of the week, but I was grasping at straws). And THEN Hazel started crying again and I asked her what was the matter, and she said, "I'm sad that Grandma's going to die!" Oh boy. I should have stopped when I was ahead. I tried to say how my grandma only just died and I'm grown up and have children of my own, so Grandma won't die until she's all grown up and has children, but she was still upset that Grandma was going to die, even if it was far in the future. She was a little overtired.

Oh, and I didn't mention that a couple days before I left, I was up in the night to feed Talmage, and as I walked down the hall I stepped on a very wet spot. I turned on the light and looked up, because it had been raining for several days. But it wasn't leaking from the ceiling. So I woke Brett up and he figured out that it was the water heater leaking. We went back to bed and before I even got up Brett had put a new one in. He had it all fixed and good as new by noon and went to school, so besides a big chunk of change gone to pay for the new one, it was barely an interruption. I love having a handy husband.

And now I think I'll go brush my teeth and go to bed. I was so excited to sleep in my own bed last night and have my husband next to me. In fact, I'm quite looking forward to it again tonight.