R&R -

Wow, what a trip!
The kids and I left Kansas on November 8th, and drove for Tucson to meet John there for 2 weeks of R&R!!

Tuesday in Tucson -- John arrives unexpectedly 3 hours early - American airlines got him on an earlier flight - He had to run between terminals at DFW in only 20 minutes so no time to call and let anyone know! But he was upgraded to 1st class on the flight and they treated him so well! :o) When he arrived in Tucson at 11:30 instead of 3:15 - John called his dad to find out what he was doing for lunch (hint, hint!) - now Dad usually is at work at the hangar at the airport - but on this day he was at home waiting for the kids and I to arrive and also for the FedEx guy. We all showed up at 11:30 too just as he hung up from John! We all raced to the airport - (John didn't know that the kids and I had made it yet) and as he walked out the doors, well, it was happy chaos, with a lot of disorder and entropy too!

Ahhhh! Relaxing in Tucson - warm sun, sleeping through some jet lag, and good Mexican food! Playing with Fritz and the kids, sitting on the porch swing in the warm sun, looking over Dad's collection, going to the zoo with John's dad, the botanical garden with Mom & Dad, church together, the warm sun.... It was just sooooo great to be in Tucson. We packed a lot into a few days :o)

But onto California and even more warm sun! And also Rubio's fish tacos, more great Mexican food, Carls Jr!! We were visiting my family now! So many fun things to do -- visiting the beach, Downtown Disney, Cheesecake Factory for lunch, CSUF, Caitlyn's birthday party, the tidepools at Newport, Roger's Gardens, Fashion Island, and a whole day and night at Disneyland. We started at 9:00 am and stayed until 11:45 pm, starting out the day with my parents and sister, and also spending time with my cousin Becky and Charlie and her two girls - oh my gosh what fun we had!!! We rode rides, and rides, and more rides - Grace and Joseph went on Big Thunder Mountain with John and Indy Jones with me, we rode the train, the monorail, Pirates, Jungle, just about everything in Fantasyland, Small World, Buzz Lightyear, and so many more!! We never even got to Tom Sawyer's island or to Toontown. It was a total blast - thanks Debi!!!

Last day together - we spent all afternoon at Huntington Beach - soaking in the warm sun, building sand castles, and splashing in the ocean. Later, a romantic dinner for just two (thanks Mom and Dad and Debi!!!)

John's flight out was at 6:10 am on Thanksgiving morning. Bummer all the way around that he missed Thanksgiving with us! The kids and I dropped him off at the curb at LAX and left. It was a hard thing for John and I. The kids seemed to accept it pretty well that it's Daddy's job - and it was 3 a.m. at a strange airport.

Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Cindy's house was great - the kids love the backyard play equipment so much! It was so great to see my Uncle Tom and Aunt Rhonda, and Cousin Michelle there too :o) The whole time I kept expecting to see John pop in somewhere, but by then he was at the USO in Dallas, and getting on his flight back to Iraq.

Friday morning - Black Friday shopping at 4:30 a.m. with my mom and the kids! Wow it was fun - we went to Brea Mall - Penney's and the Disney store, Target, even stopped for sit down breakfast, Main Place Mall, and were all done by 11:30 am. Whew! Ok - it was awesome!! I love doing that :o)

The last weekend went by so fast! I stayed an extra day in California to wait out the tail end of a storm and get a clear shot back to Kansas. Started driving on Tuesday, but got stuck in New Mexico on Thursday because another storm unexpectedly came through. Finally got home Saturday morning, December 5th!

Grace wrote 5 essays about our vacation (so far) and I'll post them tomorrow.
It was a great trip!! Thanks to everybody who put up with us :o)