Home Sweet Home

When I think about going home I think of California. It will always be my home even if I never live there again. It was so fun to be home for a whole week. We had down time, busy time, and, for sure, fun time. California loves me and gave us 80+ degree weather almost our entire trip. We celebrated birthdays, ate good food, went to Knott's Berry Farm, the beach, and LA. I got to spend a few days with all of my sisters. I got my hair done. We got to visit with Ian's parents, grandma, aunt and uncle and cousins in Palmdale. I got to visit with my friend, Lynne, who died of liver cancer while we were there and then attend her beautiful memorial service before we left. I got to see both of my grandmas. I read an entire book. I got tan. I went on a date with my hubby. I hugged and played with my nieces. I slept in (cause amazingly my kids did too). We went to the park. And we loved every second of our trip.

I will probably do a few separate posts about some of our bigger outings, but we'll start with last weekend when all my my sisters were home and the cousins got to play.

My boys waiting to board our plane. I can't stop laughing at Davin's face.
Saturday morning Mom made Swedish pancakes for breakfast then Mel and I spent the morning at the salon getting beautified by Ashlee. It was fun.
When we got home the Henshaw's were there, so after our visit with Lynne all the cousins went in the "pool." Ian and Grandma B volunteered to be the chaperones. :)
After the pool all the kids had baths. It took 3 baths to rotate them all through. Auntie Mel was a trooper and bathed all 5 kiddos. After baths Davin and Rachel watched a movie.
Lizzie brought her Fancy Nancy ABC book to read to us. She has excellent French pronunciation. :)
Just before dinner we did Davin's birthday party. It was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed. We started by all wearing our Mickey ears. We played Don't Wake the Giant. Ian pretended to be Willey the Giant and the kids had to try to steal the stuffed Mickey from him without waking him up. Then we played Mickey Says (like Simon Says). Finally we did a treasure hunt where Toodles gave the clues. I think the big kids got it more than the little ones, but Davin had fun too.

Davin got lots of fun presents. Thanks everyone! His favorite was the new ball popper though. He was shaking because he was so excited. Saturday night we all visited, played Bunco, and stayed up too late. Sunday we made it to church on time, except Ian who wasn't feeling well, and stayed all 3 hours! Aren't you impressed? Sunday was a pretty low key day of family. We enjoyed our corned beef and cabbage dinner. After dinner Lizzie read her book to the entire family. Davin kept sticking his big head in my shot of Lizzie, but she was so cute reading like a big girl! You can see her in the background. I wasn't kidding about her French being awesome. Her daddy spoke French on his mission.
Joy and her family headed home after we had dessert and I had opened my birthday presents. It was such a great weekend all together. The boys had fun playing with their cousins and will miss them again until our next visit. Hooray for family weekends! Back to the title of this post. It is also nice to be home in our own space and beds again. We got home late last night. Weston is kind of sick, so we are taking a slow Sunday with Ian and I tag teaming so Weston doesn't give his germs to the entire primary.