Part 3-The journey home

Whose kids actually smile for those family photos?
Must be good cake!
Happy birthday boys! Dig in!
Ben, Gage, Katie Thomas and Mikey Aug 19th!
Thomas and his "school" of cousins!
Down the slide for the first time, he'll get the hang of it soon!
Ben ready to take on the water at Heise!
The Chase and Bingham kids tracking down grasshoppers!
Thomas rides for the first time without training wheels with Uncle Russ's help!
Making smores at the Bond house!
Aunt Zoe and KC at the pizza place in La Grande!
All the men in my life at the lake!
Thomas and Ben enjoying the cool water!
Beautiful Wallowa Lake in Joseph, Oregon!
Benjamin eating all of Great Grandma Chase's raspberries!
After leaving Brandi and Russ's place we sped over back to IF to enjoy a few days with my family. And also so Thomas could once again go to blast off-a kids place of play area! So we got home and planned a birthday party for Thomas. Since his baby cousin Gage had a birthday just two days later, we made it a dual party! So it was awesome. We also managed to squeak in a quick trip to Heise Hot Springs where Ben went down the slide with Dad and cried and screamed the whole time but seemed to be ok after it was over! (I think I am great at traumatizing my children). We also had a chance to visit Lis and Rich and our beautiful God daughters Mikayla and Brianne who only seem to get more beautiful every time we see them! Thomas and Mikayla hit it off right away after they both realized they had a fascination for grasshoppers. Ben was a little bit more stand offish but Brianne cured him off that after a while and managed to get him to get on the swing close to her so they could swing together.
And while we were in town I was able to grab two movies at the theater! TWO! Mamma Mia and The Dark Knight! So all in all it was great. But as we knew it would, came the morning of our leaving. I had caught some sort of stomach bug a day or so before but it seemed to stay away long enough that I only felt terrible while traveling and not having to pull over suddenly. (OK that did happen ONCE but only the one time). We stopped in Laramie again and got up early the next day and made it all the way to Amarillo, TX. After that we decided to stop in San Antonio TX for a few days and make a day of it at Sea World. I was so bummed and so was KC when we found out that all the major theme parks had been closed because it was the first day back at school. So we ended up going to the Alamo so KC could see it and river walk, but the day had been ruined. I know that is a terrible thing. I love that city and so wanted KC to enjoy it, but even the great Alamo was shut off! The courtyard was open and things, but all the insides of the building were closed. So we ended up having lunch at Hooters, (no I could care less if I went into a Hooters, trust me those girls aren't exploited in anyway) and enjoyed some lunch and got a few Toy Story Toys for Ben in the Disney Store at the mall. So that was it. After that we drove the entire 900 mile trip back home the next day. Not easy, but we did it. We are sure glad to be back and now we are just preparing ourselves for the worst with the hurricanes quickly approching!