K&J's Crew: Home Sweet Home

And for my last and final post about our trip I wanted to talk about how much we loved coming back home to good ol' Spanish Fark. On our way over there we managed to get a direct flight from Salt Lake to Paris so it only took 10 hours total to get over there. The home trip was not quite that easy....we flew from Rome to New York. Stopped over for a couple of hours and then flew to DC where we stayed the night and then came the rest of the way to Salt Lake early the next morning. I've flown with my kids too many times to feel like I can ever really complain about a flight if I'm by myself, but it was a loooong trip home. And as my Dr. Pepper exploded all over my clothes in the middle of the JFK terminal I definitely had the sense that the vacation was over.

Luckily we have amazing family in DC who picked us up at the airport late at night, fed us yummy food, talked and laughed with us for hours, gave us a place to sleep and then had us back at the airport bright and early the next morning. It made what would have otherwise felt like a long layover on an exhausting trip home feel more like a party. We really loved our mini family reunion.

We arrived in Salt Lake to our first big surprise.....all of our kids and our parents waiting for us at baggage claim with balloons and signs and hugs and kisses. I wish I would have thought to take a picture! It was really cute. We missed our sweet kids a ton and we loved not having to wait any longer to see them. Pretty soon it felt like we had never left as we drove home with all four of them talking as fast and as loud as they could (to be heard over everyone else) telling us about everything they had done while we were gone. It was really fun answering all of their questions about our trip and giving them all the little nick nacks we picked up for them.

Hallie in her Venitian mask. And her new smile!! She had her braces off while we were gone.

We bought Jake & Mase Muskateer soldiers from Versaille and gladiators from the Colloseum.

Jake & Grandma Woody making a special salad for dinner. The kids loved all of the quality time they got to spend with their granparents while we were gone. I'm pretty sure they barely missed us :)