Trip to Idaho 2010

Wow...I have been a slacker. I packed up the boys and headed out to my parents for a couple weeks. It was a long but fun trip. I hadn't been home in over 10 years, so to say that a visit was long overdue would be an understatement. The boys had a lot of fun and I remembered why I hadn't been home in 10 years. It all balanced itself out though and we got to spend some quality time with my family. I thought I would like the break away from the Military mentality but I have to say I didn't like it at all. It was like people back home didn't even know there was a war or two going on. I didn't really like that feeling at all. People didn't understand why my husband couldn't go home with me, why didn't the Army just let him come. That was odd for sure.

But there was plenty of good and fun stuff that kept us busy and my mind focused on why I was there. My beautiful nephew was born while we were there which made me so happy. He wasn't due until the 21st and I had to leave by the 17th to get home in time for Michael to start band camp. He came on our 3rd day home so I got to spend some time loving on him. It was fun meeting my sister-in-law for the first time and I think we clicked.

We kept things simple, I've learned in our constant moving and traveling is to try to limit over-planning and going with the flow. My main plan was to be with my mom and to hang out with my niece. I got to visit my friend Emma and to see my friend Cathie. In order to really hang out as I would like I need to go home for longer than 10 days, that just wasn't feasible this go round.

The boys were spoiled by my parents and a family friend. They got to experience some firsts by going horseback riding, 3-wheeling and 4 wheeling. They went fishing with Grandpa, something Daniel really wanted to do since the other two boys had each gone fishing with my dad when they were little and living with my parents while I was still in Korea. This was Daniel's first trip to Idaho, so he was happy to go through that rite of passage. We got to go paint-balling and my mom is ruthless! She tried to take out her own grandkids, lol. The boys had a BLAST!

On our way home we stopped in St. Joseph, MO and met up with one of Kevin's Soldiers from our Fort Riley days. It was great seeing him and meeting his wife for the first time. I love reconnecting!

Overall we had lots of fun. We missed Kevin who was off having a different kind of fun with the Army. We were happy to be reunited again, at least for a little while before he heads off for some more Army fun.

We put over 3500 miles on our truck driving out to Idaho and back and it was a fun trip but I'm not going to lie, I won't be rushing for another road trip anytime soon.