We have returned....

From vacation, that is.  There is so much that I have to catch up on in old posts, and I'm sure I will eventually.  There is also so much that I have to catch you up on.  We had such an amazing time.  I'm looking forward to blogging about each part of our trip, but it will take a few posts to get that done. 

There are a few things that I found out on this trip. 

First, that my baby is not so much a baby anymore.  Little Miss decided to go and grow up while we were away.  She decided that life is much more to her liking if she has her way on things.  For example, her choice of foods.  A few nights ago, while we were at dinner, Kamdyn spied some french fries on some one's plate.  And it was ALL over, I mean O-V-E-R.  Sister decided that she would NOT be eating anything other than french fries, and she didn't.  I tried other good stuff like mac-n-cheese, one of her favorites, and she was not having it.  She flailed her little arms, up and down as fast as she could, squinted her little almond eyes, opened her mouth and wailed until Daddy got her another plate of fries.  Fry inserted and all was well.  She also will not let me hold her cup for her to take a drink anymore.  She swats it away until I put it in a place where she can reach for it herself and take a drink.  My baby is growing up, and I am thankful for these few extra months that I have had to snuggle her and baby her, because over night, it's gone.

Secondly, I love Tennessee, and my daughter loves Dolly Parton.  You'll see why when I get to that part of our trip.

And of course, that I love my family.  All 6 of them.  I love the dynamic that we have.  The fun that we have and the laughing.  The part I will miss the most about our trip is all of us just being together with no other worries or concerns.

So it's back to normal life, where a pile of mail/bills is waiting, trash bags of dirty laundry are waiting next to the washer, and duffel bags lay sprawled around the house as we unpack.  Since we are dreamers, we already started talking about our vacation next year.  As soon as we walked in the door, Madison went to her room and started packing her bags for vacation.  It took some convincing to get her to understand that we would not be going to the beach tomorrow.  What kid wouldn't love vacation, but I can't help thinking that there is something more to it than that.  You can make memories no matter where you are, but the memories that we are imparting on these trips is something that we hold dear.  Brad and I decided when we got married that this was something that we were going to do, because we want to set aside time where we put aside all the cares of everyday life and just have fun.  And that's what we do.  I won't say its always relaxing, because we have this way of packing in so much that it is exhausting, but we love it.  And I think that our kids will remember, and they will hold those memories as dear as we do.