We made it!!

What a return ride home!! As soon as our plane FINALLY landed at 11pm (lots of delays, sitting on the runway for 45min, circling airport, etc.), Larkin and Willa both yelled, "We made it!" about 20 times, and everyone around us on the plane giggled. Once we saw Joel they did a squeal unlike anything we'd ever heard before, and Larkin ran to him and jumped up into his arms. She hugged him and kept yelling, "This is my Daddy! Hi Daddy!" It was so cute!!

Here's a pic of the girls on the ride up. I gave them both pacis on the plane. Larkin's has been "on the moon" for a while now, so she was SUPER excited to have one and hardly talked the whole way up-she just sat there and enjoyed it. Unfortunately the pacis were not as successful on our return flight, so they are back on the moon!

Here's a few more pics that I didn't get a chance to post while I was up north.

Jaime (Ryan's girlfriend) and Auntie Lisa enjoying some smores. A few days later we made smores again and I'm pretty sure I set the record for the # of smores eaten!!


Larkin was particularly smitten over "Gampa" and would always follow him around. "Where you going Gampa? Oh, I coming wif you!" Everyday he'd take both the girls out into the yard for at least an hour- to throw corn to the deer, "fix" things with hammers and screwdrivers, paint watering cans and rocks, collect firewood, catch frogs or butterflies, walk to the mailbox, and swing!
Check out Willa's face in this pic-she is soaking up Grampa's lesson on firewood!




While Larkin was busy working with Grampa, Willa became super attached to "Gam-ma-ma." Almost everyday when Willa woke up she would ask for her, and then the two would play together-picking flowers, playing with dolls, pointing at a ceramic chicken in the kitchen (??) "Gam-ma-ma, LOOK! Chicken!!!" Willa just could not get over this chicken! She pointed out the chicken to Grandma almost everyday.

Yesterday the girls saw some of the pics that I took from our trip. Willa got really excited at Grandma's pictures- she reached her arms out to grab her, whimpered and said, "Gam-ma-ma, come!" :( It's hard to live so far away from them, and I'm sure it will only get harder for the girls (and Grandparents!) as these girls get older!


We also headed out to Auntie Lisa's house for a sleepover. She lives about 1.5 hours away (2 hours if it's me driving and you get lost!). We went paddle boating on their pond, caught lots of frogs and fish, and Auntie Lisa even waded out into the water to show the girls a lily pad and flower!

Lisa's boyfriend owns a mink ranch and we got the grand tour in a mule. The girls loved riding in it, and we also went for a ride on a four wheeler!
What I liked most about this visit was how relaxed it was-we just took it day by day and did whatever we thought the girls would enjoy most each day. So we spent a lot of time outside smelling the flowers, chasing bugs, and doing whatever our little peas were interested in at that moment.


Thanks so much for having us, Grandma and Grandpa!! See you again in 3 weeks, this time with Joel!