There back!!!

Boy was last week longggggggg….
A few things I learned while the kids were gone to camp.
1) Who ever says that babies are expensive has never had an older kid.  They ARE expensive.  I think my gas budget went down by like…1000%.  I didn’t even use 1/4 of a tank of gas for the entire week last week.  The grocery bill was cut in half!  Yep…older kids are expensive but totally worth it

2) Lucas now thinks everyone is going to leave him.  Especially me.
“Clingy” isn’t even the adjective that would fit him right now.  The boy screams until I hold him and wants me no further away than a foot at all times.  I am pretty sure this has something to do with the big kids leaving him last week.
Hoping this phase passes fast.  A girl simply would like to go potty alone at least once in a while….

3) I HATE having my kids not around this joint.  Hate it.

4) Without having to entertain the older kids everyday all day….I was actually able to…relax?  No maybe not relax…. rest?  No maybe not rest.  Maybe it was just that the long list of “to do” each day was sooooo much less.  It was clear how much I normally do in a day.

5) It is boring around here with them gone.

Sautrday morning Daryl and I got up at 2:45am …hopped in the van and drove all the way to PA to grab the big kids back.
Now this would have been much easier if that big, apoctolypitic storm hadn’t hit Friday night and knocked out the power.
We were torn on what to do.
Do we take Jill and Lucas for a 12 hour car ride to get the big kids?  They would have A/C on what was supposed to be the hottest day on record but would Lucas be able to stand a 12 hour drive?
After all the kid screams his head off going to the post office.
In the end we opted to let him stay here with Jill and brave the heat vs. braving the car ride.

We worried the entire day…
Saw so much devastation up and down the roads we drove.
Worried about the big kids and how they faired the storm the night before without us….
Worried about the baby in the heat back home…
It was just a long long day.

Finally we got to the big kids and they were in perfectly happy “We love camp!!” modes.
It was hard leaving the cousins….

but it always is…so they ate one last snack from the hub and played checkers…

these boys were so not sick of each other…at all.
Pretty sure they will start up the next big multi million dollar corporation one day since they skpye all day long as it is…
running their Minecraft server and dreaming up their next big idea.

and the girls…well they are just sweet.

we said our goodbyes and “We will see you in August!!”

and hit the road…by the time we got home we thought maybe we would have power again.
But we didn’t…
I felt so bad for Adam.  He hadn’t touched a computer in a whole week!  GASP!
All he wanted in life was A/C, his bed and his beloved Minecraft Server.

I offered to take them on down to the beach house that had electric and was spared the storm…
But he just looked at me and said “I just want to be home…I have missed home!”
I totally understand that and offered a trip to B&N the next day with my laptop if we still didn’t have power.
BUT…we lucked out and our power came back on Sunday morning.
Thank God…
Now if all of our friends and family could get their power back.
If any of our friends and family need A/C or anything for that matter… Come over please!
No one should be going through this heat without power