We're Ba-ack!

Over 3000 miles in 3 weeks, we've finally made our way back to Utah! It was a glorious trip, filled with friends, history, family, fun, a little arguing (after all we were in the van together for a total of about 100 hours) and many memories. The above pic was the only one we took of all of us on the whole trip, I think. It was at the City Museum in St. Louis...more on that later.

Three weeks is obviously too much for one blog, so I'll try to break up the fun over the next few posts, for your sanity, but more for mine. I don't think I can post it all at once. Besides, my body is still trying to figure out what time zone I'm in; I'm still waiting for a normal night's sleep...very elusive at this point.

So we left the beautiful Wasatch front on Saturday May 31 and headed for our first stop, Boulder, CO. On the way, about three hours into the trip, Karen looks back at Jenna and sees she has large splotches of green paint all over her shirt, as well as multiple speckles of red. "What happened?!?" Karen cried. Jenna and Emily explained that they had decided to pack their paint pens (water based paint in a tube that you squeeze out into a brush at the end of the tube). When Jenn opened the cap, the paint had pooled and and subsequently splooshed all over her shirt. The red one had paint in the cap and when she closed it, the paint sprayed her.

No, we didn't get a picture of it. We were both kicking ourselves later. It was hilarious. (Well, for the first few minutes it wasn't hilarious, but after a breath or two, we were all giggling about it). We, as I'm sure you are, were wondering why exactly they packed paint pens for a car trip. "We thought they'd be fun to use". Makes perfect sense.

The miracle? Karen managed to get the paint out of the shirt WHILE WE WERE IN THE CAR!!! She pulled out baby wipes, rubbing alcohol, even a stain remover wipe, and kept working at it. By the time we arrived in Boulder, the shirt was dry and you couldn't even tell the stains had been there.

Still can't believe we neglected the pic...it was a classic.

We arrived in Boulder for a fabulous evening with our friends the Grimes. Jeff is a coach for the Univ of Colo football team. He and Sheri and their kids were a involved in our church here while he was a coach at BYU, and they moved to CO last year. We had a great time catching up with them, and being stuffed with simply awesome food. Here's one snap of the girls playing with the Grimes oldest, Bailey.

We had such fun...it was a great first night of our three week adventure! Thanks, Grimes, for the encouragement, good talks, and the yum-o food. I'd try to describe the coffee cake Sheri made for us the next morn, but I'm afraid I'd start drooling on the keyboard.

Next stop was Mannford, Oklahoma, our old stompin' grounds and the girls' first home. But along the way we grabbed dinner at a Subway in Salina, KS. And out in front of the Salina Subway. A "statue" of a cowboy. We had to pose with it.

I know...totally random.

Upon our arrival at the stateline of OK, we were greeted with a custom painted sunset. We considered it God's welcome back!

In Mannford, we stayed with our great friends, the Bushyheads; well actually, they're more like family. The girls call them Aunt LeAnne and Uncle Dow. They, along with their boys Caleb and Sky, spoiled us rotten. We had such fun, laughing, seeing movies together, swimming, watching the boys play ball, and of course, eating! Here's the girls in the Bushyhead backyard pool.

What a wonderful time we had there! They say you can't go home, and to a point that's true. Mannford definitely didn't feel like home in any way. But spending time with those deep, long-time friends most assuredly felt like home to our hearts! It was such fun, so refreshing physically, emotionally and spiritually. Here's a snap of the girls with the Bushy Boys after Caleb's game:

By the way, Emily and Anya are holding the pieces of the bat that Caleb broke on his first at bat of the game. They were pretty impressed that he did that!

Okay, enough for the first post. More to come, including the exciting City Museum in St. Louis and the multiple hours sitting still on I-70 in Illinois and Indiana. Keep checking in!