It's so nice to be home again!

 We finally made it back to the east coast and are home at last.  My poor husband had to drive from Colorado back to Red River, New Mexico on Saturday.  Then Sunday he drove back to Dallas, Texas.  Then early Monday morning we left to head home.  We stopped in Tennessee overnight to visit one more time with cousin Sophie.  Tuesday we drove to Roanoke, Virginia to have lunch with Brian's aunt and uncle.  We finished that day, finally, arriving at home in Maryland at 7pm.  The neighborhood welcomed us as we stretched our legs and unpacked only the necessities for the night.  One neighbor brought over a giant box of our mail for Brian and I to go through when the kids were in bed.  We survived the trip, and now we have hit the ground running with unpacking and household projects that need to be accomplished before the official school year gets started.  Here are some pictures from the last week.

The girls made Drew this "cage" with cushions and pillows at my parent's house.  He liked it and played in it until he didn't, at which point he scaled the walls and escaped.

Here is the promised picture of Drewy in his football onesie I made him.  He's so cute I could throw him!

The girls were thrilled to see their cousin again, and even more excited to have a sleepover on the living room floor.

 On Wednesday, we had to unpack the 12 passenger rental van, vacuum it out, reinstall the car seats and boosters in our van, return the rental van, go to the grocery store twice because brain-dead mommy forgot the milk the first time!), and then complete project number one on my summer list...

This was my first project to tackle...painting and organizing the kitchen pantry.  I painted the kitchen right when I found out I was pregnant with Drew, 1 1/2 years ago, and left the pantry for later.  Well, later came and went and I still hadn't found the time to do it.  So since it was nearly empty (due to our long absence) and it was on my summer project list, I decided this was a good day to do it despite the task of unpacking looming over my head and under our feet. 

I should have taken a "before" picture.  The shelves had plaid contact paper plastered on it from the previous owners.  It looks so nice and crisp now.  I keep opening it for no other reason than to peek at the orderliness of it all.