the bee's knees

After putting up with my three ruffians and helping me while my husband was gone, my wonderful mother packed up her own car and traveled the 11 hours East to Salt Lake, switching children with me as we went along.

We arrived at Diana's late Saturday night and, being magnificent as she is, she gave us free reign of her entire downstairs. A heaven-send to weary travelers who had already been away from home for a month.

She was beyond gracious. And we all loved it.

The day we arrived, I had a child vomiting everywhere, which was, of course, awesome.

Luckily, he recovered quickly and just in time for my birthday, known as the Most Important Day of the Year.

We visited the dinosaur museum for my birthday activity.

Dinosaur museum was totally my choice.

That night, Diana and Dan made me the most scrumptious steak dinner, followed by an insane cake -- flavors which I concocted in my head and set my fabulous sister to create.

Diana didn't disappoint. It was amazing. I still dream of the cake at night.

And Jane and Elliot gave me a most excellent birthday present: A dance party.
The next day we headed out to visit the place of my solace: Strawberry.

We made the mandatory stop at Grannie's on the way to the cabin and I introduced my children to the best shakes on the planet:

Loved it.

Loved it.

Loved it.

They proved, successfully, that they are all my children.

And they made themselves right at home at the cabin.

That hair had been washed 20 hours earlier ... but in cabin time, that's like 3 days.

At the site of the Old Sheepherder's Cabin.

It had been such a long time since I got to visit the cabin, but going back was the best with my little babies. Strawberry is in their blood and now their hearts, which makes this mommy glad.

The rest of our time at Diana's was spent playing at the park directly across from her house (heaven), eating out (Cafe Rio), and visiting friends, family and more dinosaurs.

Jane informed me that we need one of these in our backyard. Yes, I'll get right on that, Sweetie.

Joy.

The hand of Kallee. She like to keep an aurora of mystery.

Jane completed her transformation into Ladybug Girl. Which, by the way, is not a costume. This is an everyday outfit around these parts.

With Grandpa.

With Grandma.

As an epic fail on my part, I did not get photos with our Grandma and Grandpa Packard. But, Jane has the rock Grandpa gave her and it is part of her treasures. She is certainly a Packard!

At Dr. Scott's old museum.

With our new friends at Dr. Scott's museum.

Celebrating the beautiful Miss C's 2nd birthday.

Eating. The most common scene of the 6 weeks.

Finally, after 4 weeks apart, Daddy arrived to drive us home.

He had the grand idea of leaving at 3 a.m. -- convinced the kids would all pass right back out and we could have some peace driving. (Spoiler Alert: No one fell back asleep. Finally, after 20 hours of driving, at 10 p.m., the kids started to doze off fitfully.)

The drive was misery for everyone. And the kids weren't the only ones throwing fits.

12 hours in. It only got worse from here.

We arrived home about 25 hours after we set out.

And real life began again.

One week after we arrived at Lane's house, we packed it all back up and drove 6 hours north.

This time: Grammie and Papa's house.

There are no words that describe the peace of soul I find when I arrive at my childhood home.

I think the kids sense it ...

Elliot's best friend.

We went on many more adventures while we stayed at Grammie and Papa's house, including the Railroad Museum.

No shoes, no service ... luckily, he still wasn't walking at this point.

We went to Leatherby's:

I realize Elliot was featured in the last ice cream photo, I realized upon coming home he is in EVERY ice cream photo.

Owen found a new favorite perch at Grammie and Papa's -- the 36-year-old mini rocker.
We had a pie-eating contest with all our cousins:

She may not have finished first, but I think she won in the adorable category.

We drove down to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium:

Elliot was trying to free "Seven" back into the wild.

Underneath a tidal wave.

We spent the night in Monterey and woke the next morning to visit Ano Nuevo and the Elephant Sea Lions ... what we didn't realize is that it was a 4-mile hike (round trip) to see the beach where the animals perch.

They walked almost the whole way.

Those blobs are Sea Lions. They are LOUD.

They were happy to walk with Papa.

Afterward, we were going to walk around San Francisco, but the kids (and parents) were a little pooped. So off to Fenton's we went:

Mmmm.

The following days were filled with cousin play time, swimming, eating, parks and photos.

One night around bedtime, I was searching frantically for Jane. I finally found her. She told me she needed to go outside for some "fresh air and time to think" before bed.
Our time was also filled with one little one continually getting sick:

Of course, by this time, Daddy had had to come home for work.

And we spent a lot of our time cuddling up next to Papa for storytime.

Owen took a turn being sick:

This is as grumpy looking as he got.

We went to the Sacramento Zoo with Papa:

It was H.O.T.

Elliot got sick again:

Nothing made him feel better like a snuggle with Papa.

One week after our Ano Nuevo visit, I found this lump behind Jane's ear and a large bug attached to her scalp. Yes, a tick. Good thing my mom was around.
She recovered quickly, with Papa's help, of course.
Jane fully became invested in being a Cowgirl.
Owen found a new best friend.
Jane found her great-great Grandma's furs and, because she has Grammie wrapped around her finger, got to model them for us all.

She told me she was a raccoon.

And Elliot discovered the freedom of going pantless ... something that took months to correct.

Hey, at least he's wearing underwear in this photo ...

Soon our time came to a close and once again, we packed up the car (filled with many more treasures than what we started with) and headed East to Aunt Diana's house.