Friends and Grand Views

One perk of being in Cortez for the summer is that we were only an hour away from one of my old college roomies who I haven't seen in ten years. It's funny, aside from Facebook and instagram we haven't talked much since then, but there is something about being college roommates that bond you for life.  It was kind of a crazy year that we lived together, but it helped make us the people we are today. And let me tell you, this woman is amazing. After catching up on the last ten years I don't think I know a stronger more courageous person and I am blessed to be able to call her my friend.
This is an awful picture of a picture of Sarah and I, circa 2002.

And last week, 12 years and 6 children later.

And I'm so glad we got to visit when we did, because our summer plans changed last week and we decided that the kids and I were going home. Thad had meetings in Bakersfield, and I just felt like we needed to get back for lot's of reasons. So we are home now. But on the way home we had one last adventure and took a small detour on the drive to the grand canyon. It was beautiful, and I'm glad we took the kids, but I'm also glad that I've seen it before so I could chase peter and keep him from falling into it while Thad took pictures and enjoyed the view. Peter is insane and I was mildly panicked the entire time we were there because he just kept darting off and trying to get away from me.
This picture is as good as it gets with Peter. I don't know if he hates the camera, or just being restrained, but most of our pictures of him from this trip look like this.

We also had Flat Stanley along for the ride thanks to cousin Walter, and Thad and the kids had fun getting some adventure shots of Stanley. It's going to be a good story.

It's been a crazy week of packing, cleaning, driving, unpacking, more cleaning, and restocking. But I'm glad we came back, I can't imagine doing this two days before school starts and being remotely ready.  Plus I've already been able to hang out with friends I've missed and the kids are happy to have their own rooms back.
Oh, but Peter decided to begin a new rite of passage as I unpacked.

Ya, that happened. He was so proud of himself and was bouncing around with the marker, until momma went crazy, then he wasn't so proud as you can see. And this piece of art happened after he had found Andi's markers and colored all over his legs earlier in the morning.
We plan to spend the next few weeks hanging out by the pool with friends and maybe decorating the office. I've been staring at blank walls since Thad built the desk 5 months ago. I need to fix that.