We're back...

After being gone for 18 days, Hallie and I have returned home. Steve was with us for the first 10 days which was great, and then Hallie I finished the trip off on our own with my family. We started the trip out visiting Steve's family in Utah, made our way up to Rexburg to see his parents, over to Payette to see my family and then up to Montana to visit my grandma and attend a family reunion...wow. Planning a vacation like that always sounds good in theory- but when it comes down to it, it was a whole lot of traveling, especially being so pregnant. It's so hard when we live so far away, anytime we travel west, we feel like we need to see everyone which is a little difficult. We usually manage to get all the family in, but that doesn't leave time for friends- definitely a hard balance. One day we'll be rich and be able to fly where ever and whenever we want...hopefully! These pictures are from day 1. We bribed her with a sucker (which is the bribe of choice these days, she falls for it every time) to be good in the airport and it worked like a charm. She was putting on a show for all those around us, and they just thought she was so fun, she can turn it on when she wants to!Hallie enjoying a banana, while holding Banana the Monkey and watching the DVD player. We tend to use the DVD player as a last resort of entertainment on trips and I'm happy to report on this whole trip including countless hours in the car we only used it a couple of times!! In moments of weakness when the book, food, and monkey just didn't cut it! (It's not that we don't believe in TV as entertainment, because we do! It's just Hallie has such a short attention span when it comes to watching TV, when we have the DVD player, she's asking to change the DVD every 10 minutes. We get so frustrated changing the movies, we refuse...Hallie has a melt down worse than the one she experienced 10 minutes prior to this, the whole reason we pulled out the player in the first place! Not worth it)

Hallie really was a trooper throughout the trip. She didn't get too difficult until the 8 hour drive home from Montana. She had had it. She was tired of being in her carseat. She was tired of the toys and books we had. She was tired of the snacks being offered. She was done. Fortunately that was just one day of the trip so it was at least manageable.