In the immortal words of Dorothy; "there's no place like home". It was exciting to finally get home. The trip was grueling. We actually outsmarted ourselves this time. The original plan was to have Rachel, Macy and Rozalyn drive us down to SLC on Tuesday, where we had rented a hotel room. Our flight was to leave at 10 to 1 in the morning, so we planned to arrive in SLC around 4:00PM, relax, play in the pool with the girls and then have the hotel shuttle take us to the airport. Rachel and the girls were to spend the night and drive back to Idaho in the morning.

Well... the weather report was for a monster storm heading into Idaho and Utah late Tuesday and early Wednesday they were calling for up to a foot of snow. We couldn't bear to think of Rachel having to drive back in any storm, let alone one like this, with the two little girls, so we opted to take the Salt Lake Express (the bus) down to the airport. it was a last minute decision and probably one of the better ones we made, although the good byes were tearful it happened so fast nobody had too much time to think about how much we would miss each other.

We got to our hotel about 3:30pm had a nice relaxing evening and then headed out to the airport. The check-out clerk at the hotel looked a little sideways at our "6 hour nap", but, Oh well... Plane left on time, made all of our connections and all in all the trip went real smooth but we did not land on St. Croix until almost 7:00PM the next day, so from the time we left Idaho Falls it was almost 28 hours. We both slept on the ride from SLC to Atlanta, and then even a little on the flight from Atlanta to San Juan but we were still exhausted. We had long layovers in both Atlanta and San Juan. In Atlanta we found a plane leaving two hours earlier and asked if we could get on it, we were told that because it was an International Flight and we had checked baggage we could not, it's a rule that you must fly with your bags (that is unless the airline screws up). Since I'm not a terrorist, it was a bummer but all in all probably a pretty good rule, because I really don't want to fly with the terrorists bags (not that it seems to matter to them).

We had such a nice time with the kids. Christmas was wonderful. I was having a hard time adjusting at first (I must admit, I was pretty cold most of the time) but once I gave up the complaining and settled into enjoying all the time with the girls it was great. Once Rick got there on the 18Th of December the time seemed to fly by. He was disappointed that he had to spend so much time at the storage locker trying to organize, find and get things ready to ship. We decided that he should have done more of that on the front end and left the last few days to play with all of Macy's new toys, but then there is never enough time to play with the grandchildren.

Macy is growing up so fast and when I think of how much bigger and stronger Rozalyn will be the next time we see her I get kind of teary. Time marches on and waits for no one. Our next plans to get together are for a trip to Florida in April (Disney World for Macy's 5th birthday) trying hard to get it together, it will be less expensive for each of us to only come half way and we have a free two bedroom condo in Orlando. We gonna try real hard to make this work out.

We truly had so many wonderful experiences in Idaho during this trip. I was able to attend the Stake Conference of our old Stake and it was wonderful. It was incredible to be in that conference with about one thousand Idaho Saints, the Spirit was so strong, I felt as though I was wrapped in a warm blanket. Also, got to attend both the Rexburg and Idaho Falls Temples. Visited our old Ward in Palisades for two Sundays and on our last Sunday we had Rozalyn's Blessing in Rachel's Ward. Rick blessed baby Rozalyn and it was beautiful.

the best thing about the trip back to Idaho was the complete confirmation that we are right where we are supposed to be here on St. Croix. I was a little worried that either Rick or I would become all nostalgic and feel like we wanted to be back in Idaho, but except for missing our children and grandchildren we know for sure that we were done there and it really was time to move on. We have so many wonderful friends and it was great to visit with some of them, but we are really hoping that they will visit us here so we can give them our undivided attention, in Idaho the priority is our family.

In the States the Holiday Season is on the downside with Christmas over and tomorrow being New Year's Eve, here on St. Croix the Holidays last until Three Kings Day, January 6th, so things are still in "Full Swing", it's exciting to be able to be a part of that. Looking forward to the festivities this weekend and next week. Came home to enjoy the wonderful Christmas cards and letters of our friends and family, trying to decorate a little and keep the festivities alive in our home. Rachel had such a beautiful tree and did such a wonderful job of decorating her home, I didn't miss not having any of it in ours.

It's late and I'm tired but tomorrow I'll download my pictures and post some here. Goodnight Moon and also my dear daughter and sweet granddaughters!