South Dakota, camping style: part 6 Homeward Bound

Thursday we headed home.  We took an hour detour to drive through the Badlands.  It was awesome

We seriously considered extending our trip a day so we could camp and explore the Badlands, but I was feeling exceedingly unwell that morning and the camping facilities are very primitive.  I had to admit I didn't think I could handle another day of possibly even less available plumbing. 

We continued on home, stopping only to see this:

Little Rascals

Vacation is fun and so is Going Home.

South Dakota camping style: Part 5, Harney Peak

Wednesday we started out early for Harney Peak.  We wanted to be well on our way to the top before the day got too hot.  We knew that hiking with all the kids would make us slower.  Harney Peak is the high point of South Dakota and the highest peek between the Rocky Mountains and the Pyrenees.  It is 3.5 miles to the top, but the elevation gain is only about 1000 feet, so most of the trail is not too steep.

Ben started out carrying Isla in the baby pack; the rest of us had to hike on our own 2 feet.  Right from the get go, Julia did not want to hike.  "My legs are broken," she told me.  Luckily, my trekking pole collapses down to just the right length for Julia.  I told her she could be the leader and she cheered up.

She got frustrated when the other kids refused to hike slowly behind her.  I used Aunt Katie's trick of super powers next.

"Julia, how will we get to the next rock?  Lets use our Super Dinosaur Power/Super Running Power/Super Star Power/Super Butt Wiggle Power/Super Pooh Bear Jumping Power"  That got us a good deal further along the trail.

The views were spectacular along the way.  My photography skills don't do it justice.

Benji offered to carry Julia and she let him for 100-200 yards. Then I produced apples from my pack.

I promised her that if she would walk all the way up, I would carry her all the way down.

She would go for a bit and then say, "Momma I just want you to carry me."

We pretended to be baby ponies. I distracted her by having her tell me what ponies eat.  I told her I knew a story about a pony named Rocket and I told her Grandpa's story of Whitey & Mimi for the first time.  She loved it.  In this way, we got to the marker for 1 1/2 miles.  We had fallen pretty far behind the others, but they were waiting for us there.  She was excited to be caught up and went a bit further on her own.  Then she just stopped in the middle of the trail.

"You just go, Mommy," she said, motioning me on with her hand.  This was different from the whining and fussing of before.

"I won't leave you here all alone," I said encouragingly. "Come on with me."

She sighed and took 2 more steps and then stopped again.  "You just go, Mommy."  That squeezed my heart, so I picked her up and tied her on my back with my baby carrier and carried her the rest of the 2 miles up the Mountain.  She fell asleep almost instantly, so I think she really had walked as far as she could go.

Just before the peak, there is a huge flight of stairs.  We had planned to eat lunch on the summit, but stopped at the base of the stairs instead.  I broke out a package of chips to go with our sandwiches.  Nacho Cheese flavored tortilla chips are good for troop morale.

Lucky for me, Julia was willing to climb up the stairs on her own because I'm not sure I could have carried her up.

She was pretty excited to get to the princess castle at the top. 

When we got to the top, 5 children were miraculously recovered and went scampering about like mountain goats, climbing all over the granite boulders.

 

 I alternately prayed for their deliverance from death by falling off a mountain and begged them to come down.  (I'm not exaggerating.)  I think that maybe on some of the higher peaks, I'll stop just short of the summit.

 I'm not sure the view is enough to compensate for the sharp pain of fear that goes crushing through me when I am up so high. 

I know I look all calm here, but it is only a facade.

Even from the complete safety of the stone walled fire tower, I was only barely able to keep myself from dropping to my hands and knees when I looked out over the Black Hills from 7,242 feet above sea level.

I didn't know this, but chipmunks live at the top of mountains, and there were about 100 running around and climbing the boulders with my kids.

I started to feel better about the whole being higher than anything else I could see feeling and then Ana started balance beam walking along the cliff side edges of the boulders again.   I finally sat down with Isla and leaned against a boulder and covered my eyes and told myself that if they all died, there was nothing I could do about it.

Picture Ben took while I was cowering on the ground

.

I stayed there until Ben was done exploring and ready to take us all down again.

Us at the top of Harney Peak

We switched things up on the way down.  Ben put Julia in the baby pack, and I tied Isla onto me and down we went.  My trekking poles were great.  Besides helping me keep my balance down the mountain, I loaned them to various kids several times to motivate them to keep going.

By the end, all our feet hurt and we were all tired, but it was worth it.   The kids who were sure they couldn't take another step were soon running about again as if they had done nothing all day.  Ben and I took IB Profin and sat in our camp chairs like lumps.

For dinner I warmed up 2 cans of chili and we had Frito Pie.  Gotta love that propane stove. 

South Dakota, Camping Style, Part 4: Crazy Horse

Tuesday was the day we had planned our big hike up to the top of Harney Peak, but Renata came down with flu Monday afternoon, so we postponed the hike for Wednesday and instead we went to see Crazy Horse.  It was very hot, so I was glad we weren't hiking.


The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain carving like Mt. Rushmore and was begun about the time Rushmore was being finished up.  (Actually, the artist who planned the sculpture for Rushmore --Gutzon Borglum--planned for the presidents to be carved down to their waists, but the government cut off funding and stopped the project in 1941.


Crazy Horse began because several Lakota Chiefs went to Korczak Ziolkowski and asked him to create a monument in their Sacred Black Hills.  After he began the project, the government offered several times to fund it, but Ziolkowski refused because he believed first that it should be a endeavor by people and second that the government would not finish the project.

"My lands are where my dead lie buried."

Ben took this photo 2 years ago when he was in South Dakota for AT

 It is a much bigger carving than Mt. Rushmore, in fact, all of the Rushmore carving would fit in Crazy Horse's head.


I was so inspired by the history behind the monument, and the video we watch of Korczak speaking about his work moved me to tears.  He said, " "When the legends die, the dreams end; when the dreams end, there is no more greatness."


Here is a good article about the mountain.




Beneath the mountain is also a museum of Native American artifacts.  We spent a good long time seeing everything.  Maybe too long, because when we finally returned to the car, we were all tired and hungry and cranky.  We had lunch (PB&J) and moved to our new campground.  This one was right by the highway, so we were disappointed at first, but then we discovered the beautiful shower house across the street.  Ah to be clean is so good!  

Also, despite being right next to the highway, we saw more wildlife here than anywhere else.  Squirrels kept scolding us from the trees and there were minnows in the little stream running by.  Yellow Jackets kept flying around our table and I became convinced that their nest was in the metal tubing.  Ben and a nice old park worker stuffed paper towels in the ends of the tubing and we had much fewer yellow jackets after that, although Ana did get stung. 

This guy quietly passed by our picnic table as we were eating lunch Wednesday.

After lunch, we took the kids swimming at Sylvan Lake which was much cleaner and prettier than Sheridan Lake.  It was also very much crowded and the water was cold! 

For dinner I warmed roast beef and browned bell peppers & onions and we had hot roast beef sandwiches and watermellon.  When the roast beef ran out, I toasted the remaining bread & cheese.  Another fast and tasty meal that everyone loved. 

South Dakota, camping style, Part 3: In which I will not mention toilets.

Monday morning, we drove the scenic Needles Loop Highway and looked at the beautiful granite outcroppings and pine trees.  On a whim, we stopped at a lookout and saw this:

The Needle's Eye

 The kids had a great time scrambling and climbing on the rocks.

Ana is a fearless climber.

Even Isla got excited about climbing.

Gwenny

Renata

Benji used to be so cautious when he was 2.  What happened?

Rock Monkeys

We had to go through 3 tunnels like this one.  I held my breath for extra skinniness the whole time.  Didn't you know holding your breath makes you skinnier? 

I felt like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter.

We had planned on touring Wind Cave, but we should have checked before driving all the way there, because it was closed due to prairie fires.  Instead we went swimming all afternoon in Sheridan Lake.  The water was pretty green smelling, but the sandy beach was nice and green water is better than no water when you haven't showered in 2 days.

For lunch we had PB&J and pretzels with nutella.  Everybody liked that.  For dinner I made a rice & hamburger & tomatoes & cheese thing all in the frying pan.  It tasted fine, I thought, but the kids hated it.  Can't win em all, I guess.

South Dakota, Camping Style, part 2: Sunday Sunday

We had to overcome some wardrobe malfunctions Sunday morning.  Benji's slacks were missing the main button, and root beer got spilled on my shirt when Ben was ironing it.  (that's right, ladies.  The Man of this House does the ironing.) I don't wear makeup when I'm camping so I didn't bring any, but I wished I had some for church.  We looked a little rag-tag, but the important thing was to go.

 Sunday morning we found a meeting house.  --One nice thing about our church is that all the chapels look about the same and it is a good bet that Sunday meetings will start at 9 a.m. But if you don't like uncertainty, you can find the address and meeting time online.  After Sacrament meeting, where we were treated to an excellent talk about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, we reassured each other that appreciating God's creations with your family was OK for a Sunday activity and we headed for Custer State park to find our campsite.

Dinosaur Park in Rapids City

We set up camp near Sheridan Lake, in the midst of hundreds of Ponderosa Pine Trees.  I've always loved how they seem to be reaching towards Heaven--so straight and tall.

Normally when we camp, I do most of the cooking in a dutch oven.  I like this because I can basically throw all the ingredients in and leave it for 45 minutes-1 hour and viola! Dinner.  However, South Dakota was under a burn ban so we couldn't cook with firewood or charcoal; only gas stoves on a hard surface were allowed.  For lunch we ate Taco Salad.  I precooked the hamburger at home and vacuum sealed it.  So when we got to camp, I broke out the propane stove and we had taco salad in the time it takes to heat a can of refried beans.  There are pros to gas cooking and speed is #1.

After lunch we drove through the beautiful Black Hills to see Mount Rushmore. 

Benji wants his face carved on a mountain someday.

It was fun to go through the little museum and learn how rock was removed from the mountain.  There was also a slide show of pictures of the mountain taken at different times of day and in different seasons.  George Washington looks especially distinguished with snow in his hair.

As you can see, we had plenty of cheese.

Also, plenty of energy.  (And don't miss Benji's shuffle-step in the background.)

For dinner we had parmesan pasta (with chicken I had precooked and vacuum packed) and fresh fried zucchini.  The kids loved it!

All the kiddie pies begged to go swimming, but that's definitely not on my Sunday appropriate activities list, so  we went for a family walk along the lake shore instead.  It was beautiful and peaceful. 

I tried out the new trekking poles that the Man of the House had insisted on buying for me.  I was skeptical about carrying something extra around to trip myself with, but when I tried them, I could quickly tell that they were improving my balance.  It was a lovely walk.  After it got too dark to see, we went to bed-- with no showers because there was no plumbing at this campground.  Only pit toilets for bathrooms and a spigot down the path for getting water.  The girls made the mistake of being curious about what is in a pit toilet and looking down there.  I think they learned the valuable lesson that ignorance is bliss.  Holy Cow! I just realized I'm talking about toilets on my blog again. 

South Dakota, camping style, part 1 cause if I don't post what I've written, it might never get posted!

**I've been trying to decide whether to give you a highlights version or the every single detail version.  Couldn't decide so I'm going to do both.  I'll put the main things in bolder font so you can skim through fast. I'll put in all the other details too, which will make me happy and you can read them if you want/have time.

Our trip began with a 14 hour drive.    

We got started by 7:00--only 1/2 hour later than our planned time!  That was the best start ever for a family trip. For food in the car, we had granola & strawberry yogurt parfaits for breakfast & chicken salad with Ritz crackers for lunch--so tasty.  For snacks we had, carrot sticks, grapes, and animal crackers. There were also so sour gummy worms and gummy bears for when car sickness threatened.

I was so busy planning food and clothing for 6 days, our longest camping trip ever, that I planned nothing to entertain the kids in the car.  That could have been disasterous, but lucky for me, it wasn't. 

Benji and Ana both brought a book to read.  Somehow they kept busy and happy with not too much fighting.  I think it is because of how much space we have in the Death Star.  

We did play the license plate game and kept a list to see if we could see all 50 states.  By the end of the trip, we had seen 42, including Alaska & Hawaii! We found every state west of the Mississippi River, except Louisiana.  I guess Louisiana-ians weren't visiting South Dakota this year.

On our way to Rapids City, We drove through Sioux Falls.  For 20 minutes as we approached the city and then drove through it, we got to see some pretty neat aerial stunts that turned out to be none other than the Blue Angels in their F-18's.  That is the definition of serendipity, readers!

I also found out that South Dakota natives pronounce their capital city "Peer" not "Pierre." That seems a little weird to me, but I guess it's their state capital so they can say it how they want.

 

The drive was shorter than it could have been because the Man of the House rigged a  ...lou....  for the van. We are pretty sure we saved about 4 hours of stopping to take kids to the bathroom.

 I'm sure he is planning on telling all the details on his blog, so I'll leave that for him.  Besides I don't know if I want to talk about a toilet on my blog.  I'll just say that my initial reaction to his idea was, "You've got to be kidding."  But it turned out to be genius because we didn't have to stop every time a little kid needed to pee.  Also we used kitty litter instead of RV chemicals in the lou. They were cheaper and smelled better.  In fact we only had to open the windows once, the first time it was used, because we didn't have the foresight to put some of the kitty litter in to start with.  Perhaps you cat owners are shaking your heads at our ignorance right now.  Go on, laugh it up. 

For dinner we bought hamburgers at Burger King and I added homemade chocolate chip cookies and Mug root beer.  Everyone got their very own can of soda.  How exciting! 

We got to Rapids City at about 8:30 p.m. and stayed in a motel overnight  so we could clean up and go to church in the morning.

Saturday night I realized that Isla was dehydrated--no wet diapers all day and none I could remember from yesterday.  That worried me.  I realized I'd probably been giving her too many crackers and not enough milk the last few days while I tried to get everything ready for the trip.  I pretty much stayed up most of the night feeding her and she seemed better in the morning.  By Monday, she was much better.  Phew! 

Belated Trip Report**Now with Pictures!!

Question: Why have I not blogged for over a month??

Answer: I can't find the cord to link my computer and my camera. waaaahhhh :(

The DH says it's around somewhere. I'm pretty sure he's the last one to have seen it, and thus is GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY. He will receive no mercy when he stands before the tribunal. **after reading my post, the wounded DH went and found my camera cord for me--supposedly sitting on top of our broken printer in plain sight. Wasn't that sweet of him? I *heart* DH. In addition to that, I got copies of lots of pictures taken by other family members and due to some pregnancy insomnia and my new super high speed internet, figured out how to make collages with PICASA. I *heart* PICASA.

We had a wonderful, wonderful vacation and truthfully I was having too much fun at the family reunion to use my camera much, so I don't have very many pictures anyway (hanging head in shame)

The treats and games I planned worked well on the 22 hour drive out to Idaho. Best last minute bring along was a library book of quickie who-dun-it mysteries. The older kids enjoyed solving them for as long as my voice held out reading aloud. They even read some to each other after I quit.

On the way home, I decided that we ate as many snacks as we had and didn't really need so many. So I bought less and everyone was mostly OK. We never felt sick from car food, so I think the choices were good.

The toys/coloring didn't work very well on the way home. Although Bubba made some improvements to the pictures in Cutie Pie's "Dora the Explorer" coloring book.

Everyone was so tired of being in the car. The kids just wanted to watch movies and everyone was tired of the movies we had. I considered Redbox, but didn't want to drive around unknown towns searching for one.

I chose the DVDs we did bring along based on 2 criteria:
#1 what I thought I could stand to listen to while not being able to see it
#2 The kids would like to watch over and over

( the kids would have loved Mr. Bean. But the sound track to Bean is just canned studio laughter and a little background music. Not fun to listen to when you can't see what is so funny. Also no good is any of the Lord Of the Rings Movies. That entire sound track can be summed up as follows: "da-nuh- nuh, du du dunt...I'm glad you're here Sam...da-nuh- nuh, du du dunt...I'll always stay with you Mr. Frodo...da-nuh- nuh, du du dunt...*beastial howlings and growlings*...15...16...17...My Precious...da-nuh- nuh, du du dunt." repeat.

NO!

I only chose 4 DVD's because I didn't want movies kicking all over around the car. Four is how many fit in the glove box. Next time I will bring more than 4 movies--the DH and I got to hear "Tangled" and "MegaMind" about 14 times each. StarDust was less popular and only got watched about 4 times.

DH has a lower tolerance for repetition of kid stuff than I do, so when he couldn't take any more, I put in "Fiddler on the Roof." The kids watched it at least twice, and now if Bubba sings, "Do you love me?" to Cutie Pie (who is 2 1/2), she will say back very vehemently, "I wash your clothes and milk them!"

LOVE IT :)

So we broke up our drive out west by stopping at the highest peak in Kansas, Mount Sunflower. I can't say we climbed it, because we drove up and parked on the top. It was about 9 hours into our drive and made a lovely rest stop.

Cutie Pie is hardly in any pictures because she didn't stop running from the time I let her out of the car until the time I caught her and forced her back into her car seat.

A few hours later we stopped in Denver at our Priceline-won hotel. We ordered pizza for dinner and swam in the pool for over an hour. Tamale Pie said to me, "Momma, I dreamed of staying in a hotel and this is just like I dreamed it would be."

Lucky us, we got a room with 2 queen beds instead of the usual 2 double beds. DH, Cutie Pie and I took one queen bed and we lined 4 kiddos up on the other queen bed, with their heads from side to side, so they would have more room. It was quite the pile of humanity. (I never tell hotels how many kids we have because they invariably insist that I can't put that many people in one room and must buy two rooms. But they also refuse to guarantee me adjoining rooms and I will not have half the family down the hall, let alone on a different floor. The DH and I would have to split up so as to have a parent in each room and that would be no fun. So we crowd in one room and make do.)

The next morning, refreshed and rested, we finished the drive to the family reunion (my dad's family) where we spent 4 days and 3 nights camping at a place near Rexburg, ID.

We ate good food,

ran lots of relay races,

the little kids tunneled in the giant sand box,

and we talked and laughed ourselves hoarse.

(speaking of the giant sand box--my favorite part of the reunion place--My family was assigned to clean the bathrooms at the ranch on the last day. My dad commented, somewhat perplexed, that the women sure tracked a lot more sand into the showers than the men did. I pointed out that the women were the ones who supervised the showering of most of the 38+ little kids each day, and the mystery was solved.

I, myself, showered 4 very sandy little girls each day, hoping to reduce the amount of sand that was carried into the tent and sleeping bags. I'm sure that my efforts made a dent, but the tent was very sandy, nonetheless.)

The DH ran off with my sister's DH for 24 hours to climb the highest peak in Idaho: Mt. Borah. --if you think you are seeing a pattern here, you would be correct. It is his goal to summit the highest peak in all 50 states. We have to fit a couple in on every family vacation. The kids and I are happily doing the little ones with him. He is on his own for Rainier and Denali.

One of the events at the reunion was Family History Skit Night. Each Family Group was asked to come up with a skit about one of our ancestors. All the skits were amazing and fun. The other family groups all did fun, spiritual skits. Of course, my family group (comprising my parents, all my siblings and their spouses and kids) chose the irreverent route. We picked my dad's grandfather, James Edward and a particular event in his life. We set it to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbillies" theme song. I wrote up verses and then Dad helped me refine it until it was 100% historically accurate and balanced as far as length. No artistic license was allowed, even for the sake of a good rhyme or meter. (you know how at the end of each stanza the Beverly Hillbillies tune has sort of parenthetical expressions--well the rhythm of some of ours is WAY off--but it was really funny anyway.) We sang it and acted it out. My brother James (Jimmy) played James Edward.

You have to imagine it complete with a full stop after the first line and an argument--not even staged--about how I had supposedly started the singing at too high of a pitch. I swear, I was just trying to match Dad so we were singing the same note. It still ended up being a bit too high and got screechy on the last line of most of the verses. I blame nerves and the fact that we were trying to sing loud--the microphone had quit working.

Here it is for posterity, our family history skit:

Come and listen to my story 'bout a Mormon pioneer
Raisin' horses and a family in the wild frontier
James Edward was his name and he married Bertha Lamb
And they moved to Canada to live and work the land
(soil that is, planting crops, growin' wheat)

Well he had to dig a well, to meet the family's needs
So he and Uncle Nels got one dug down 60 feet
The hired boy was careless and the windlass flipped it's lid,
James dropped right down the well, the windlass landed on his head.
(knocked him flat, caved his skull, scalped him clean)

So Nels and the hired boy ran and grabbed a rope,
They pulled the windlass up, though they didn't have much hope
Down they sent the rope again and pulled with growing dread
And up from the ground came a bubblin' red
(blood that is, straight from his arteries, spurtin' left, squirtin' right)

**at this point, Jimmy smeared ketchup all over his face and continued squirting watered down ketchup from a bottle every so often. We had quite a mess to clean up when the skit was over.)


They carried him inside and they laid him on the floor
Then to fetch a doctor quick, they both ran out the door
The boy ran to Mountain View, the doctor wasn't there
Nels took a team to Cardston and waited in despair.
(All he could do, just wait until the Doc came back)

Bertha put down dish pans to catch all the blood
No matter what she did, she couldn't stop the flood
James wasn't even moving--blood was spurting everywhere
She finally browned some flour and put it on his hair.
(or rather, where his hair should have been)

The kids were all a wailin' and a cryin' heaps o' tears
But Bertha calmed them down and she quieted their fears
She said, "the Lord will care for us, have faith, do not despair."
At 2 am the doctor came and sewed back James' hair
(tried to, but his mangled scalp could hardly cover the gaping hole in his skull)

**my kids and my brother's kids provided the wailing.

Well, true to Bertha's faith, James recovered real soon
And survived many more accidents that couldn't fit in this tune
The family grew in numbers, in strength, in faith, in love
And we can all be thankful for these blessings from above.

So there you go. Now you have a good glimpse into my family's humor. If you need more, you can check out the birthday posts on my sister's blog. She even has pictures from the family reunion!

When the family reunion was sadly at an end, we drove down to Salt Lake, mercifully only a 3 hour drive, to visit the DH's sister, Linda. We spent about 2 and 1/3 lovely days with her and her 3 girls. It was not nearly enough time! "Anne of Green Gables" was watched. Amazingly, the girls also watched "Tangled." Ben got to see some of the movie he had, up to this point, only heard. Dress-ups were donned. Chickens were fed. The tortoise was petted. The sunbird bit everyone's fingers. Linda cooked us delicious foods. We went and tramped around the huge (for a city) lot they just purchased and will be building on soon. I can't wait to see it when it's done. Linda's DH is quite a green thumb and the landscaping will be breathtaking. They have over 40 houseplants--all of which made the move across country 2 years ago when they left their home in New York City. I am still amazed by this, as I have a total of 3 houseplants that I have managed not to kill, and they were large and sturdy when I got them.

Our last evening with Linda, we went to the park for our first attempt at pulling together a family reunion for DH's family. I got to meet Sarah and Rena for the first time. (I've stalked their blogs for at least a year now.) and re-meet his cousin, David, whose wedding reception we went to about 11 years ago. Also their cute, fun kids and spouses. We are so glad they came. I loved getting to know them all.

Then we headed North again and spent 3 days of heaven at my mom's family cabin on the Weber River. Again, my sister Katie has pictures. I'm not sure how she manages to take pictures and keep track of her boys, but she is amazing like that.

The DH, Bubbah & Katie's DH, Nate, plus Orville snuck off to go camping again.

I don't think Orville had a great time, but it turned out that he was sick :( DH was, as always, super impressed with Nate's fitness because he (Nate) was a faster hiker, even though he carried a pack and Orville most of the time.

After those 3 idyllic days in Weber Canyon, we headed back home to the Midwest. It was 37 degrees fahrenheit the morning when we left the Weber. Then next day as we crossed Kansas, it was 105 degrees fahrenheit. We were definitely going in the wrong direction is all I can say. We stopped at Panorama Point, Nebraska on our way home and bagged another highest peak.

We saw a dust devil. The mosquitoes were murderous. We stopped in North Platte for dinner. All I have to say is Perkins may be a Family Restaurant, but it isn't easy on a family's budget. $4.99 for a kid's plate of mac-n-cheese with a few grapes on the side, ouch. We stayed at a hotel with free hot breakfast, but the DH was so anxious to get on the road again that he wouldn't let us stay to eat it. :( Sad day. We ate cheerios in the car instead and Cutie Pie spilled hers in her car seat. That was nasty to clean out later, let me tell you.

I thought that last day in the car would never end. As we watched Nebraska and Kansas go by, I was so tired of the car that I thought pulling a handcart would be great fun and a nice change. The DH pointed out that we can go faster in 1 hour in the minivan than the pioneers could go in a week with their handcarts. I still sort of wanted to be out of the car and walking.

Now we are home and have to do stuff like clean house and weed the garden again. Truthfully, I'm happy to be home. But I sure do love all my family. They are the most awesome people on earth--the cool ones that I'm sure I'd never get to be friends with otherwise, but they are stuck with me because I was born in their family. :)