Home Calls

This is a bunch of pictures… and would you believe this isn’t nearly all of them, AND there were some occasions I forgot to even take a snapshot?? Truly though, in this case a picture is a thousand words to see the joy and excitement these babes of mine got to experience.

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We had an incredibly wonderful opportunity to visit our homeland over this past few weeks. When the hubs had to go back out to Colorado for work again and the kids realized they were out of school for this one, they started begging for all of us to come along. I honestly did not have high hopes that my energy levels would keep up, or that my pain and muscle spasms would survive the 18 hour car ride, but as time grew near it was obvious how much their little hearts needed the joy and sunshine this trip would bring, and I stopped seeing obstacles and decided it was absolutely worth digging my deepest to make it happen.

We had a outstanding time. While the man of the house worked and stayed up in Denver, the kids and I shacked up in a hotel (yay frequent travel points?) in Colorado Springs, and we packed as much as we possibly could into every day. We started with a trip to the grocery (hallelujah for actually knowing what aisle to find things on for the first time in a year!) and settled into our home base where we could easily retreat to cook, eat, rest, play games, and cool off in the sparkling outdoor pool.

It was glorious to actually be able to feel the sun on our skin again, and to breathe the thin, dry, mountain air. The brief rain showers were worth dancing in because they were fresh and actually cooled things down. Lightening bugs are cool, but my goodness how we’ve missed the sun and the beautiful mountain peaks.

We packed our days full of visits with friends from sunup to sundown, even having some camp out with us in our crowded hotel room to stretch out the hours spent together. It did my heart such good to see my little people squealing with treasured friends, young and old. We visited as many as we were able, and still felt like we needed another week or two to see everyone we wanted to! We did the best that we could, and resolved it would have to happen again some time.

We visited our favorite parks, restaurants, stores, friends’ houses, and met up with neighbors, teachers, therapists, and dear friends. We were so exhausted each night, but never enough to keep us from rising with the sun to do it again. Our friend tanks were filled, our smile muscles given an excellent workout, and our bodies kissed with new sprinkles of freckles.

We got to see some of my family on both ends of the trip, and meet up with some sweet friends from California. We worked in some epic favorites like Leon Gessi’s pizza, BJ’s ice cream, Lava Land, Casa Bonita, and Denver Biscuit Conpany.

It was a ton of work, and loads of fun, and not without pain and exhaustion and some pinching and poking in the car… but it was epic and amazing and worth every sacrifice. The car ride home was a little bit quieter; contentedly tuckered out little people dreaming of their adventures… in between waking up and breathing too close to each other’s space, but all in all it was good. So good.

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