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I am home sweet home, cuddled up in a fleece, youngest girlies playing happily by my feet with their plastic ponies and Little People.....Norah Jones, coffee and the scent of pumpkin candles wafting thru my messy yet ever so perfect HOME. Sigh. There is no place I'd rather be. Except, of course, at church, where an incredibly fascinating 3 hour meeting is about to begin. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be there, but alas, the kids mustn't miss their naps.

We finally pulled into the driveway last night around 6, concluding our vacation at a grand total of 8 days and 2 hours. All said, the vacation was a success. Now, let me clarify what I mean by "success."

• I won $60 dollars at the hotino (hotel/casino) where we stayed the first night, using only the free "teaser" money they gave us. And I walked away with it in my pocket! That, in itself, is a success of epic proportion. Perhaps now Steve will feel compelled to find me a nickname other than Shooter.
• We were able to visit Steve's grandpa in his new assisted living home in Troy, MI. As I mentioned in my update, the girls kicked some serious elderly booty in a heated balloon volleyball game. I was also quite proud of Addie who was exceptionally friendly with the residents and didn't miss a beat when one of the women from the Alzheimers unit asked her if "all those girls" were her sisters. For the 43rd time.
  
  

 As a side note, if you ever see Steve wearing this bright blue shirt shown in the above background, please do NOT compliment him! He is convinced this is a magic shirt that makes him absolutely irresistible to the opposite sex. Please don't fuel this insanity.

• While we were in the bustling city of Troy, we took advantage of all the photo opportunities and wrote a little tribute to our friend, Troy. Yes, people, we are total losers and can think of nothing better to do on our vacation than drive around taking pictures like this.
  
• I ate half of Nana's Texas sheet cake and managed to keep the week's weight gain below 12 pounds.
  
  
• I was able to store up some extra energy and patience for the weeks ahead by napping twice daily.
• Steve was preoccupied with various fantasy football drafts 4 of the 8 evenings we were gone, enabling me to start 4 different parodies for thethree22nd's contest. This time for self-discovery gave me invaluable insight into my total lack of parody writing prowess.
• The girls only got out of bed an average of 13 times per night during our stay at Nana's house. A mere increase of 94% compared to the at home average.
• We managed to pay for the trip's gas without losing our house. We only needed to take out a small home equity loan and promise Sunoco 84% of all future royalties generated by my yet to be finished parody of Gnarls Barkley's song "Crazy."......"They're driving me crazy".......(a song about a very long car ride)
• We found a cute lil restaurant in Mackinaw City that had a delish salad bar where the kids only had to pay 50 cents per year of their age. We I had a good laugh as Steve was convinced the kids could eat there for free the rest of the year after paying only 50 cents:) Tee hee!
• Nana sent us home with a jar of the world's best homemade strawberry jam. And when Steve tossed the food bag around like shake-n-bake it broke open and oozed all over the bottom of the food bag, I was able to remain blissfully unaware.....until after I had retrieved several boxes of crackers and cereal from the bag, set them on my seat, distributed the snacks to the girls in exactly fair numbers, stashed them near a pillow, and sat down. In a pile of the world's best strawberry jam. I consider this a success because luckily, I was able to reach the dirty smelly smoke-scented pants I had worn at the hotino the night before, saving me the embarrassment of exposing my slimy derriere to 74% of all attendants of gas stations containing a public toilet between Escanaba and Duluth. LOTS of potty breaks, people. LOTS of potty breaks.