Well, we are back in the very warm state of Texas. I am loving the weather we are having the most. It makes me feel a little bit better about leaving my family, the fact that I don't have to freeze anymore!
We're right back into the swing of things, work is going well for Forest and of course, I am glad to get back to Gracie. When Jennie picked us up from the airport last week Grace was squealing so loud, it was much better than any hug! It felt like we were gone a lot longer than we had been, although now that we are back into everything it doesn't feel like we were there for very long at all! I guess that is the way it always goes though.
Now, I mentioned in my last post that I was waiting until I got back to my keyboard to tell some stories. The reason for that is because I have an ergonomic keyboard, the flat as a pancake keyboards start hurting my hands if I use them for too long. So, here is the gist of my trip:
We *finally* landed on Sunday and neither of us had coats on, they were packed in our suitcases. When we got on the flight deck we ran into the airport. I forgot what real cold felt like! Our baggage claim carousel was right in front of two sets of double doors, so we were shivering until our bags came. Thankfully they were the first ones! We went through one set of the double doors to wait for my parents and walked right back in. It was the coldest temperature I have had the pleasure (or displeasure?) to feel in a very long time. My newly Texified heart cannot take that cold! My Mom finally arrives and Forest and I (quickly!) put our bags in the car and ditch the hugs until later. We climbed into the back seat with my sister and realized how crushed we were all going to be on our trip to Frankenmuth. But, it's alright, we're family, right?
Monday morning comes and we all pile in the car to head to Frankenmuth. We had a nice afternoon shopping around while the guys were pretty bored. It's full of little craft places where my Mom, sister and I spend hours oohing and ahhing over knick knacks that we don't need. My Dad told Forest that next time he needs to remember to bring earplugs.
As you all may remember, my Dad had back surgery in August. Growing up whenever we would do heavy walking with my Dad, we had to take frequent sit breaks, which was fine but we always felt bad dragging him all over creation while he was in pain. That's not the case anymore, in fact, I think he has more stamina than the rest of us. It took a little bit of getting used to. I kept wondering if we needed to take a break and we never did. It was really great to go have fun with him and not worry at all whether or not he was in pain.
After our shopping trip in the cold, we sat down for dinner at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. They have excellent chicken dinners, served family style by waitresses dressed in traditional German clothing. We decided to go all out and choose the 5-meat plate, just to try some new things. We had chicken, Kasseler Rippchen, Sauerbraten, Bratwurst and Jaeger Schnitzel. I'll let your imagine run wild as to what they actually are. They were all very very good though. I haven't eaten that much food in one sitting in years. The rest of the week was spent eating very strictly!
After we ate we checked into our hotel room next door at the Bavarian Inn. We were driving by the front sign when my sister noticed what the sign said.
We thought it was kind of funny that my Mom's name was on the sign and the first one too! It didn't take us long to get settled into our room and the first thing we did is go down to the game room. We ended up winning almost 3,000 tickets between all of us and got some great prizes for the girls and for Crystal's nephew. Then we hit the pool! Somehow, we got the entire thing to ourselves, which was fantastic. Forest swam around like a little kid (he never learned how to swim properly), which made me smile. We had fun shopping around the next day, got some fudge, went to the Käse Haus (cheese house) and the Bavarian Inn bakery.
On the way home it started to snow and we got back to Dearborn just in time before it got really bad. We talked about building a snowman but I don't think either of us felt like getting that cold! Later in the week the snow melted and flooded my parent's backyard. That night it got very cold, which froze over the backyard. We had so much fun skating around and trying not to fall on our bums.
We had a very good trip, but it is good to be back home too. I miss my family quite a bit but I'm glad I have another family to come home to. Things are pretty much back to normal for us, I'll post about the things going on the last week another time.
