I'd have to say, though, that while meeting Sweetness was the highlight of the trip, the next best part was our accommodations there in the Springs. We got to stay with my dear Susan, and the time with her and her family was just truly wonderful. They welcomed us even though half of their family was recovering from illness. They made us feel completely at home. Our children played so well together that I did not hear ONE FIGHT the whole WEEK we were there. I mean, every now and then a child got overwhelmed or tired and was not at his/her best, and there was the occassional misunderstanding easily cleared up--but no squabbling over toys, no temper tantrums, no exclusionary games, etc. Just sweet friendship and fun, which seriously meant so much to me. It is not every family that would take in a family of six for a week without batting an eye, and little things like kids continually squabbling would have easily turned us into the proverbial three-day-old fish. (I made sure to tell the girls on the way home how proud I was of them, and when we got home they each got to put one straw in the manger for every day of the trip, since they did so great!)
I loved having so much time with Susan, one of my oldest and dearest friends. Someone asked me later if we had good conversation, and I had to think. No, actually, I don't think we did! That is, not the deep soul-sharing stuff I love. But we just hung out together, which is a true girlfriend luxury. (And Luke indulged me with a friendly, borderline-intellectual--on my part--political discussion, which I confess made me feel refreshingly adult.) And Susan totally encouraged me in the whole bread-making thing, showing me her method and effortlessly baking up fresh loaves of gorgeous, delicious bread almost daily. We even got to join Susan and Luke in their weekly dinner with two other families, with whom we were close when we lived in CS and who are delightful people. It was such a great week.
The only downside at all to the visit was that my family did, eventually, come down with whatever stomach bug was circling the Springs, but even that worked out well, because while DH got a fever for a day or two, he fought it off without other symptoms, and managed to time it well between our visits with his sister and brother-in-law. Then Merry and Smiley were next, but they graciously waited until the day before we were going to leave anyway, and so we just left one day early (which turned out to be perfect for the turn-around here at home before heading up to spend Christmas with DH's grandma and family up in Chico). And nobody threw up in the car or had diarrhea, and Susan gave Smiley a couple of toy cars for the road (his current favorite) and the girls some Disney princess coloring pages and so all the kids were happily occupied for the two days home.
(Really, my kids are fantastic road-trippers, but to spend two whole days contentedly coloring? Priceless.)
If there was one disappointment in our trip for me it would be that we did not get to spend much quality time with DH's sister and her husband. Because of their daily hospital "cares" schedule, and because we were trying to be careful about when and how we saw them, so we did not pass along any illness to them (illness which might make them unable to tend to their precious baby in the NICU!), it was surprisingly hard to get together with them and our kids, but we managed quite a few meals together, and one lovely time hanging out and chatting in Susan's living room, with all the kids nicely occupied elsewhere. That was really the only time we got to really talk with them as adults--when you are eating with four young kids, it is sometimes hard to get a word (or a bite!) in edgewise. But I'll be thankful for what time we had, and just look forward to the next time, whenever it is.
I can't believe I did not get a good pic of the kids with their Auntie N. : ( But we were trying to keep the kids away from close physical contact with N and S, to keep them from catching sick germs, and we planned on getting pics when we celebrated our early Christmas together that last day, which we then had to cancel because of sick kids. In this pic, Uncle S is, against my chiding, allowing the little germ-breeders to climb all over him while we were out to dinner.
It snowed just enough to get to bundle up the kids and send them out for the rare experience of real winter.
Just enough to have fun in
Thank you, dear friends, for the lovely time.
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