Home again

Mark and I had a great trip to Iowa. Tammy has a beautiful home. It is big and airy and has two of the things I covet .... a main floor laundry and family room. The guest suite is great. We kept our mess mostly contained in there and had our own bathroom. I would recommend you all try to go visit.
The best part of the stay, though, was the kids. Adam is so grown up that you forget he is only 6. He loved playing with Mark, Quin and Peter almost as much as they loved playing with him. (In case you didn't know Sue, Peter and Quin came with us). Anna and I were great friends. She would let me snuggle her and talk to her before bedtime. She sang a song for us that named all of the original twelve apostles. Lizzy is amazing. She is a chatterbox and can say and do things way beyond her 2 years. She is probably the one most glad to see us leave. She loved us for a couple of days, but then was ready to get back to her regular schedule. Anna and Lizzy let me hold them much of Sacrament meeting on Sunday and that was really fun. Ben is a very happy and content baby. He loves to vacuum the floor with his belly and eat anything that gets in his way. Note to Tammy: maybe that is the way to get him to eat more fruit and vegetables, just leave then on the floor! I sure wish Iowa were about a days drive closer to Utah.
Our driving was uneventful. All went well and the boys traveled well. We saw a great car on our way home. It was a little sports convertible driven by an "older" gentleman. His wife was the passenger. The license plate ... I BEGGED . We laughed for miles.
It is great being back home. Allie obviously missed Mark the most. She made him spin her around and play ring around the rosie. She went to the eye doctor this morning for her semi-annual check up. Her optic nerve is still small but her eyesight is still normal and the Dr. said he won't be surprised if her sight stayed perfectly normal or at least close to it.
Preston did the most changing while we were gone. He got his fourth tooth, so now he has two up and two down. He had just learned to push himself around with his feet when we left and now he also uses his arms to do the army crawl. He can also pull himself up to stand by a couch and can go from crawling to sitting. That is a lot to learn in just 8 days. He is the happiest baby. He has this huge grin and a deep belly giggle.
My sweet family (esp. Nan) had the house all cleaned for our return. That was nice to come home to.