Utah

We made it safely to UT and I took some neat photos from the plane... the landscape of our beautiful country is phenomenal... truly awe-inspiring! We went from the green, warm area of Florida, over dry barren landscapes, to these gorgeous valleys and fissures in our land! Patchwork fields, winding snake-like rivers and streams, to BOOM! these jagged mountains capped in white!!

I heard "Are we in Utah yet?", "Momma look at the mountains - THERE'S SNOW! We have to be in Utah now", "MOMMA there's big hillllllllllls!" I loved it! It was so exciting to see the change in the countryside and see the changes and excitement in the girls faces.

Ahhhhhhhhhh... it's nice to relax and just "be" here. It's funny - I didn't grow up here, I have never lived here but somehow - and maybe it's seeing a lot of my childhood memories in things around my parents home - I feel like I am "home" for the holidays. It is a rather neat, heart-warming feeling.

When the girls first arrived I could see the anticipation, their feelings were palpable as they raced around searching and exploring all the nooks and crannies of the house. They talked steadily about a secret room and even divised a "code word" for it so only those they entrusted with the code word would know which room they were talking about. The girls had fun re-visiting some of their favorite things in the house...tea sets, trains, and a special doll that Boo re-named "Annabelle". They played in the tiny amount of snow that was left in the backyard of Maia and Poppa's house. They also jumped in to leaves and had a grand time flopping around and throwing the leaves at eachother!

Little Ms Boo has followed Poppa around like a little puppy. She has been Poppa's helper and it is so neat to watch. They already been busy raking the front yard together, setting up with Ky the train village for the z-scale train model, and after a short nap they will set up a train that ms Boo and ms Kyky will be able to do on their own.

Even though the plane trip was difficult as far as pain goes... it was worth the trip in more ways than one!