Friday, March 26, 2010

toll roads, walking on water, and welcome home (or, the end of the canadian vacation)

For some reason, I wasn't able to sleep well there. The bed was comfy and all, but I just couldn't unwind at night. So I woke up pretty tired. Uncle Frank even mentioned it and wondered if I was OK. I think a week of living out of a suitcase (and other incidents) were starting to wear me down.

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Wednesday was another lovely day back east. We had a quick breakfast, took some pics with my Aunt and Uncle, said goodbye, and headed a bit west to find Lake Erie.

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After crossing a couple of toll roads (NY is so weird. . . you have to pay to drive on certain roads?!) and driving around what seemed forever in the backwater town of Erie, we finally found the lake. For how huge it is, it sure was hard to find!

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Can you see Dan waaaaaay out there on the frozen lake?

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It was frozen over, so it was really interesting to see, take pictures of, and walk on. We collected some shells, played with the ice and snow a bit, and were on our way.

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Saying goodbye to our rental car and home for 6 days!

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The flights back were much better, and in broad daylight of course. We watched a bit of "The Office" and saw "The Blind Side" (so good!) and enjoyed our flight back. I discovered I'm definitely more of an aisle-seat-sitter rather than window-seat-sitter.

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We made it back to Phoenix almost an hour early and had fun reuniting with our families. We made sure to have Connie hang back a few minutes so the reunion could be about her and not us, and thus ends our week-long excursion to the great northwest!

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Blurry, but it's the best we got.

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The kids were so excited to share the St. Patty's Day cookies they'd made with Sharon while we were gone, and the sign she helped them make welcoming her home.

And on that note, we want to say an extra special thank you to Sharon, Dan's step-mom, who watched the kids the whole time we were gone! Not only that, but she cleaned my house top to bottom; things I haven't cleaned EVER. My oven was sparkling just like new. Every where I turn I find more things that she cleaned (like the inside of my dishwasher, my medicine cabinet shelves, and my silverware drawer just to name a few!) She was so selfless with her time and did a lot of work while here! Thank you so much Sharon, you rock!

4 comments:

Mark and Jessica said...

What a great memorable trip! Hooray for family and especially grandma's watching the kiddos. Aren't frozen lakes fun? Thanks for sharing your great trip.

Lorie said...

I am glad you had such a fun trip!! Welcome home!

jinxi~ aka angi said...

Good times.. and man.. what a great step-mom to do all of that for you.. that really rocks!

Dahlene said...

How fun! You totally looked tired Amie! I hope you are sleeping well again. Your kids looked like they really missed you. We need to leave my mom here with the kids for a week and come back to a sparkling clean house. Lucky you!