Finally back from our second vacation in three weeks... we packed in quite a bit. Observations:
#1. It is SO nice to sleep in one's own bed again.
#2. I don't want to take 5 kids on any flight longer than two hours any time soon.
#3. Since Mike's only been into work about a week and a half this month so far, I doubt that I'll see him for the next week at all.
#4. My kids miss their cousins in Michigan.
#5. My kids miss the non-stop entertainment of vacation life.
#6. We packed too few pairs of pants for the California trip and far too many for the Michigan trip.
#7. Charge the iPod BEFORE getting on the airplane.
#8. Don't try feeding the kids dinner in the airport 30 minutes before your flight takes off.
#9. Pack tools in the car when you go on a road trip. (Or keep your brother in law within radio range.)
#10. Blowing a tire at Donner Pass isn't so bad - as long as it's not winter.
#11. BIG RV's don't mix with narrow, windy, terrifying roads out of Yosemite.
#12. Put my kids in pull-ups diapers before putting them in the RV to ride with Grandma and Grandpa (you'd think with a bathroom on board they could make it in time).#13. Screen Tillman's responses when a living history museum volunteer asks for any questions. (Instead of "How does a pit saw work?" the guy got "Do you play flag football?" - Come on man, the bright red bandanna hanging out of your pants like that? What did you expect?)
#14. Sully likes the wind.
#15. Babies LIKE to eat sand.
#16. With a cool name like Battle Mountain - why would a town shame themselves by painting BM on the hillside for everyone to see?
#17. Snobby historic hotels charge A LOT to take tea ...don't make promises to a 7 year old girl unless you plan to improvise.
#18. My Grandma Gertie and her sister Patsy are cute.
#19. Tami is the best family vacation coordinator I know. (Thanks Tami for everything!)
#20. I'm happy to be at home for a while.
...had lunch with Mike's parents...
...after which we traveled to the arena to watch Jessie for an hour or so (just enough time for Tillman to swell up from exposure to horses and dust)
...then I rushed off with the boys to make it to Tillman's soccer game at 2PM (trying to dilute the allergens with bottled water along the way- he drank almost a whole liter)...the "Black Widows" came away with a tie and Tillman with wet shorts (we didn't make it to the potty in time after all that water) 
...sent Tillman home with our friends rather than have to drug him up with Benadryl, and returned to the 4H show in time to see Jessie compete in her last speed event, which she handled well ...helped clean her horse's stall... 
...gathered everyone up and made the trip home ... the realtor called during dinner to ask if people could come look at the house this morning (Sunday) while we'd be at church. (Do you know how hard it is to keep the house perpetually perfect with 5 kids, animals and all the stuff we have going?) I had unfinished laundry (we're leaving on a road trip through No. California on Tuesday for a week) & a messy house. So I stayed up folding laundry...but I should have checked on the cat because she was "queening" (giving birth) to 4 kittens out in garage sometime during the night. Noble found them this morning and ran into the house to announce that Pluto had her kittens (later he told us that at first when he saw them he thought that she had mice). 
