The Perfectly Imperfect Kingdom : We're Home!!!!

It seemed as though we were gone for years when we finally arrived in our driveway Friday night. I sat Joli down in the driveway with a box of animal crackers while I took everything out of the car and put it in the garage. Then I scooped up my baby and we headed upstairs. Imagine my surprise when I reached the top of the stairs to discover that the reason our house was so hot was because my wonderful husband left the oven on for two weeks. After I called his voicemail and left a scathing message, I began hauling all of our junk upstairs, setting up the animals, and trying to entertain Joli. Yay for home.

Overall it was a good trip. The fairy festival was amazing. We're all still talking about our costumes for next year. It was just an awesome experience. It was almost like a Renaissance festival but faeries. We could just relax and listen to the music or check out the booths. We could dress as crazy as we wanted to and it didn't matter. In fact the people who were looked at strangely were the once who weren't dressed up. It was a great time. Joli got her picture taken constantly for being the cutest little fairy. She's even on the web site. I hope she doesn't think it's normal to have people constantly taking her picture.

This would be the goat boy who bit my. It was quite a shock, but hey when in Rome, I guess.

Elena, Joli and me.

Isn't she the cutest fairy baby!

Faeries can Fly!

The rest of the trip was good too. I've mostly blocked out the fascinating task of dealing with diaper cream, nursing, sibling rivalry, puberty, and tantrums for everyone (even me). I think we all a good time. There was a brief moment when I lost it and started yelling at everyone, and threatening to leave them there, but I regained my composure eventually. I was actually in the middle of the seventh Harry Potter, so once I started yelling things about my wand and different spells, we all realized that I'd gone off the deep end.

Joli got to see a lot of people who I rarely even see. She even had a very sad moment when she thought my cousin Shane was her daddy. She got all excited when she saw him from across the room and then almost cried when she got close enough to see it wasn't him. She did get to spend a lot of time with my family and seemed to like most everyone this time. She especially had a good time playing with my cousins babies. They are both two months older than her but she kept up just fine.

Hanging out at her Grandpa Paul's house.

Joli and Grandpa Paul

Exhausted!

Cousin Joseph

Brianna had the wonderful new experience of being out in the country. I took her up to my grandma's house who has a ton of blackberry bushes, fields of cows, and a new puppy. After she enjoyed all three we went over to my great-grandma's where she got the hang out with my cousins and their two dogs and three kittens. They also picked a bag of apples which I made into pies. On the last day of our trip I took her swimming in the river. Hopefully she'll remember all those good parts.

Picking Blackberries

Elena had a great time. I actually ended up leaving her there. Her and my cousin Paige are about the same age and Paige has her license. So they ran around all over the place with Paige's friends. I barely saw her the whole week.

Elena Fairy

I had fun too. When I wasn't stressed over one of the kids, I enjoyed seeing my family. There were a lot of people in town that aren't always there so it was nice to get to see everyone at once. My cousin Cassaundra and I are about five months apart and grew up together. Now we have babies that are two months apart. She's never there when I come but this time it worked out that she was, so we spent most of the time together. We all stayed at my Aunt Karen and Uncle Albert's house. They have four girls. Three of them have grown up and moved out, but Aunt Karen and Uncle Albert are used to all the craziness, so staying with them is always wonderful.

Aunt Karen's Swing

Cassaundra's Baby

We finally headed home after about two weeks. We stopped at several parks so we could play and stretch. Joli loved to swing! The saddest part was seeing the lodge that Joe and I got married at. It burned down last summer and when you pull into the parking lot all you can see is the chimney amongst the dirt. Once you get closer it's obvious they are beginning to rebuild but it still brought tears to my eyes to see it.

The Swings

Swimming in Ashland

The Chimney

We stopped in my hometown and stayed with my best friend Jessica. She was so excited to have us. She's trying to get her husband the have a baby, so she spent the whole time telling Joli to be sweet to him and convince him. It went okay except for bedtime. Joli has this new thing about screaming around that time.