Traveling Home

When Jeremy and I re-met in Phoenix on the 30th, we didn't have time for much but heading back to Pima. This is the site that greeted us on the way in. The sunset was beautiful. How I love that mountain!
We had dinner that night with Jeremy's family, then meant to get a decent start on our way to Iowa the next day, but it wasn't meant to be. Rounding up all our stuff, packing it, getting our oil changed, and LOADING it all (including two chiropractic tables - Jeremy is amazing!) took a good part of the day. We didn't end up taking off until like 3 or 4 PM...
It is always hard to leave - I absolutely hate taking our kids away from their grandparents after they've re-bonded and are all in love with each other. :( Here is my dad entertaining Reilly and Jaina while Jeremy loaded the last of our stuff. They thought this nerf gun was the coolest thing!

Actually, this is how Jaina looked whenever it WASN'T her turn to shoot it...

They are definitely going to miss all of their grandparents, aunts, and uncles!

We made it to Albuquerque rather late that night, and since I was stressed about us all getting sleep in the same room when I would likely be coughing my head off, my wonderful husband got us -2- rooms for the night ($25 a piece on Priceline, yay!) and even spent the night with Jaina on the bed (an adventure, he says) so I could have a room to myself...

The next morning we stopped by the Albuquerque temple on our way out. It was beautiful! The kids and I didn't get out - it was just too cold!

We traveled all day and spent the next night (another $30 Priceline deal - really nice room) in Wichita, KS. We all slept well and made it out of there and through Kansas City before a snowstorm closed a lot of freeways around there for several hours. We actually got really lucky with weather - we weren't ever delayed because of it, and it hardly rained a drop or snowed at all on us!

Saturday we made the long haul from Wichita to the Quad Cities, adding another hour or more onto our trip by stopping to see Liberty Jail. It was worth it, though. I don't know when we'll be in that part of the country again.

I wish the weather had been nicer, because it would have been neat to go by Adam-Ondi-Ahman, but it was super-freezing that day. I think it was something ridiculous like 4º or 8º in the afternoon when we stopped at Liberty.

We made it home, but not until about 10 PM that night. We were so exhausted, and so amazingly glad to be home. We didn't make it to church the next day, even though church is at 1 PM now for us. I think it was the first day we "ditched" as a family that I can remember, but I, at least, was NOT up to it. So nice to be in our own beds and our own house, though I wasn't sure about the below-freezing temperatures and all the snow... I think it's been above-freezing maybe 3 days since then. Last year was worse around this time, though, so I'm guessing we'll all survive!