We made it back home safely. The holiday traffic was horrendous, though. There were almost two bad accidents right in front of us. Yikes! I am all unpacked and have begun sorting through the huge mound of mail that was waiting for me. I'll go through my pictures from the trip soon and send you all some of the fun ones.

I had such a wonderful time visiting everyone! It was a very healing trip for me. I feel more closure on my past life and see that it has now been redefined. It is hard to explain. You feel a certain attachment to the way things used to be and long for them 'unrealistically'. I will always long for the way things used to be, but I seem to have a better handle on the fact that they can't be. Things will be different and I can deal with it.

Thank you ALL for coming to visit us while we were there! I had fun catching up with Laurie on a couple of evenings. She was great with Allex. She would make a naturally wonderful mother! It was great seeing Omi & Papa Saturday night before cosmic bowling. Papa was so nice to get us all dinner. He got us Chinese food even though he doesn't like it and made the best of it :) It was so nice seeing Kenny and Jenn on Sunday. It is always a pleasure visiting with them. They got a rude awakening of what it is like to be around the hectic pace of boisterous teenagers! :) They got some fun pictures of the baby and the kids. They brought us fun Google T-shirts, and an adorable Journalscape Baby T-shirt for Allex. Too Cute! Later in the week, we met Kian and Rebekah for dinner. It was so fun seeing how the kids have grown. Kian and Rebekah both looked fantastic too! I talked constantly about the baby. Come to think about it, I did that with everyone! :-)

Tami got home on Friday. We got to hear a lot of her stories from France and Italy. She brought me some cute things from Saint Tropez (San Tropay). We’ll get to see pictures from their trip when Tom gets back. On Saturday, I stopped by to see Kian & Rebekah one more time. I got a chance to see their house under construction. They are about half way done. It is exciting to see the progress. They are going to have a much bigger house after this. After that, I went to see my Dad in Long Beach. We had a very nice time. I got to see his new place. And he got to see Allex (his first grandson) for the first time.

Then on Sunday, we went to Stu & Gigi’s for Fourth of July. We had a wonderful time. Gigi did such a lovely job! She had the house decorated festively; she served lots of yummy food, and had very fun party games! We all dressed in Red, White, and Blue. We took lots of fun pictures. The kids got to swim in the pool, while we visited outside, near them, under a cabana. The dogs ran around us playfully. The weather was nice. The baby was in a good mood, smiling a lot for everyone. After dark, we went out to the front yard and watched the fireworks across the city. We had a great view! It was one of the best 4th of July’s I’ve had. At one point, I realized it was like old times, but with one huge difference. Stuart wasn’t in another room somewhere. He wasn’t there at all and never would be again. It was hard. But, I shook it off. It was such a nice day and there were other such wonderful people to appreciate that were there. We have to be thankful for what we do have.

It was a successful trip. One I will never forget. Good times with good people! I am very thankful for that!