Gentle readers, we have returned.

I'm still trying to decide if the trip's high points make up for its many low points.

The children were as poorly behaved as I feared they would be. Ethan, while having a rollicking good time, would not sleep through the night. About halfway through he'd stand up in his bed and start calling for us. The first 3 nights, we fought him and fought him (read: screaming, crying, swats on the butt and major fit throwing). It was not that he was scared, but that he was overtired. I would tell him to lay down and he would start giggling hysterically. Or, he would actually yell at me and throw everything out of his playpen. It was appalling actually :) He eventually would end up in our bed. By the 4 and 5th nights, Jason and I were sleeping in separate areas, Gwen with me, Ethan with J. Those were the only two nights when either of us got decent sleep. Gwen was a doll at night (sleeping through the night all nights), but her bad time was during the day when she fussed continually, even when I was holding her. A few times she fell into all out screaming fits and was inconsolable. We nearly left the second day out of frustration.

Now, all that said, we did have some high points. We went swimming, played lots of Yatzee Texas Hold 'Em (pretty fun) and just enjoyed the scenery. Both Ethan and Gwen seemed to grow up a bit. Gwen is now holding onto her toes, nearly turning over and can drink out of a sippy! Ethan learned how to open screen doors and walk up and down steps. The independence he gained on this trip was amazing. He'd come in and out of the house at will, and ventured all over the property, throwing rocks, sticks, playing in sprinklers, etc. He showed some of his temper too when we had to restrain him. His favorite trick when punished, would be to scream, grab a fistful of dirt and pine needles and throw it in his face. This was pretty darn funny, but we tried our hardest to look stern, or just ignore it completely. He threw enough of these fits to be walking around most the day with a dirty face!

My family was amazing and helped out tremendously with the kids. Without them we would have certainly left immediately. They were dolls, even though our children's fits bothered them quite a bit (though they hesitated to admit that!).

We had some excitement on Sunday when my Aunt Daralyn, Uncle Greg, Lindy and Tim showed up. We were able to find out lots of information about my cousin Josh, his wife Amber and their small son Kadin, who were in Biloxi at the time of the hurricane. Their car survived, but their apartment fared badly. They were able to move out to Alabama though and are currently staying there until the Airforce decides what to do with them. What a frightening and horrible experience they've been through! There is a fund set up through USBank for them, as their financial outlook is uncertain. You can donate at any USBank, and the fund name is "Josh & Amber Hollenbeck Hurricane Acct."

unfortunately, they could only stay for the day since my aunts dog was due to give birth any time. The lake had been choppy when they arrived, but it was downright rough when it was time for them to leave. For about an hour, we were uncertain that they'd even be able to leave. My grandparents were also slated to leave that day. Finally, my Dad decided to give it a shot and my aunt, uncle, cousin and her husband got in. My grandparents were going to be in a second trip, depending on how the lake was.

It was a very wet and bumpy ride on the way out and my Dad had to go slow on the way in and on the way back. He radioed in that he needed help to dock and we all ran out to see how he fared on the trip. He came into the dock fast and Becki and Aaron leaned over to ease the boat in. We could see immediately that he was not well. He was hunched over and tense. I had this sudden panic that he might be having a heart attack or something. He leaned over the side of the boat and threw up... He was very seasick. I can't say I've ever seen my Dad seasick, but he really was. My Mom ran out with some water and paper towels and I took Jenni inside as she was really upset about seeing Dad not well. He was so sick that he laid on the dock for a long time before he felt well enough to stand up and walk inside.

Turns out that when he had dropped off everyone, he had crawled into the bow of the boat to try and fix the running lights. The waves were very rough even at the dock and he'd gotten badly sick from being jostled about. He then came home over the rough water and that just made it worse. Needless to say, my Grandparents didn't go home that night :) In fact, my Dad was still under the weather enough that the next day Michael ran the trips to take people back.

The trip seemed so short and I was sorry that it was over, but also glad because it was really hard with the kids. We got home at about 3:30 on Tuesday. I took measurements of some of the windows at Chelan and want to bring over some new curtain rods and curtains. Mom and I also have a few other improvements that we want to make (after we get permission of course!) on our next trip. We're hoping for maybe a spring trip next year. The kids would be old enough to leave with my Mom, and maybe we could take Dad and the kids and whoever else and try to rebuild the dock and do some other projects. I do not know if we will go next year with the kids. Having two little ones over there would be double the work of this time. I do not know if I'm strong enough to handle that.

I forgot that Jason is home all this week. Tomorrow I have my long awaited trip to the neurologist to have my consultation. It should be interesting.

I've given Jason the task of putting up all our pics this week so you can see Chelan pics, as well as all the others we've taken of late.

Last night, after getting home, unpacking, starting laundry and dealing with an inconsolable Gwen (who eventually fell asleep), I didn't want to go to sleep because I dreaded waking up the next morning and dealing again with kids. Just feeling really burned out right now. I need a vacation I guess :)