I'm back!

Company has come and gone. We are now trying to get back to "normal" life around here. Not sure what that really looks like, but I am sure it has a little to do with kids getting back into daily routines, bedtime routines, and sleeping once again all night in their own beds. The first day of no company is never an easy one. Poor Jaycee was in full bloom of emotions. She fell apart at every little thing that didn't go exactly her way. Lord help us for when the teenage years hit! When there are more people in the house you don't have as much of the sibling conflicts, but they were back in full force on Wednesday. We pushed through that day and yesterday was much better. Jaycee is back into her bed and loving it. Jackson starts out in his bed, but in the wee hours of the night, he ventures into our room and finds a nice cozy spot between mommy and daddy. I hope with the next week of really nice weather and no rain we can totally drain that boy playing outside that he will be so tired he won't be able to find our room and stay in his bed all night.

We had a fabulous time with family! 2 weeks passed by way too fast. I need to give myself a huge slap on the hand for not taking pictures. I really don't know where my mind was at in that department. Next time we are all together I will have lots of pictures to document our time together. The first week of Nana and Papa's visit we had great weather. The kids played outside everyday. We had fun at the Mariners vs Rangers game. The only bummer is that on our drive down a rock flew up and hit our windshield. It left a pretty good mark right in the center of the windshield. It was great having Papa here b/c he did all of the calling and appointment scheduling to get the window replaced. So thankful I didn't have to do any of that! Phil arrived on Thursday April 15th. The guys went fishing the next day with my dad and his buddy at Lake Texhoma. They all had a great time! Saturday was full of rain making it not such a great day since that was race day for NASCAR and the Nationwide race. We still made the trip down to Ft. Worth in fear that we wouldn't go and they would have the race. We still had a great time checking at Texas Motor Speedway and all the semis full of NASCAR merchandise. Sunday it rained as well so not only did the Nationwide race get postponed again but the Sprint Cup series was too. Both races were re-scheduled for Monday. The bonus was that Texas Motor Speedway allowed you to attend both races regardless of what race tickets you had purchased. The down side was that Phil had to fly back to Washington on Monday. We did consider changing Phil's ticket, but the lack of control we had over races starting on time, traffic, and weather we decided it was too much of a risk to take. Byron and Andy dropped Phil off Monday morning in Oklahoma City and then we headed off to Ft. Worth to catch the end of the Sprint Cup Series race and then see the entire Nationwide race. It was a wonderful day of racing! We arrived at just the right time to watch an amazing end to the Sprint Cup race. There was a huge crash that happened right in front of us causing 10 cars to exit the race. The red flag was issued to stop the race for about a 20 minute race delay so the clean up crew could get the track back up to par. The green flag was given around 12 laps to go I believe. It was a great race to the finish. Denny Hamlin which is one of our favorite drivers if not our favorite won the race. If Jimmie Johnson would have had one more lap he would have been victorious! That wasn't the case, Hamlin won! This guy is so tough. He had reconstructive knee surgery 3 weeks ago on his torn ACL in his left knee, but he is still racing and winning!!! The Nationwide race was fun, but no major crashes. Just being there is so incredible. Its so loud! Because of re-scheduling it wasn't packed making it easy to roam around and check the race out from different areas. It was a wonderful day at Texas Motor Speedway!

We totally loved having Nana, Papa, and Phil here. We had a great time playing, laughing, visiting, and being together. We look forward to doing it again and with the rest of the family!!! We plan to visit Washington sometime this summer, but haven't nailed down a date yet. It will most likely be July or August. June is a busy month for us. My parents are usually gone at least a week in June and my sis is getting married June 26th. That doesn't give us a lot of days free in June to travel to Washington. We will keep everyone posted!!!!