And we're back!

I'm back from a week away!!!  Away from home, away from my blog, away from my running, away from my animals... and now i am back!
But, i'll tell you- my head feels like a very full helium balloon.  Imagine that each particle of helium in that balloon is a thought.  Imagine that I am reaching up there to grab any one of those thousands of thoughts and instead, i am getting nothing but air.  
i am exhausted.  we have just spent twelve hours driving a route that once took me eight hours (in my younger and much faster years.)  In the last few years, we have mastered the drive at about ten hours with children and stops.  But today it took twelve, with a baby and a preschooler and a husband and me.  
Besides the hunger strike that the baby went on (no nursing, no bottles, no anything because rest stops are full of so much more fun things to see and do!), and the last almost two hours of nearly bumper to bumper traffic, we really did great.
We had a wonderful week of family time, which both of my children soaked up more than an iguana in the dead of summer.  I saw friends that i haven't seen in way too long.  We enjoyed Easter festivities with everyone and got to experience some of the fun of the day-to-day lives of a 4, 10, almost 12, and just turned 13 year old.
We got home with that bittersweet taste of happiness (i cannot wait to sleep in my own bed!) and sourness (saying good-bye to my entire family, friends, and state of birth-and-being for over 27 years is never going to be easy, no matter how many years we have been practicing doing it.)
I hope to have both girls sleeping in until a somewhat reasonable hour tomorrow.  I hope to unpack and do laundry and hopefully relax at some point tomorrow, since we have to get right back into reality sooner than later.  I hope to be able to keep making this trip as often as we've been able to, and i hope to entertain my family this summer down here in our own little home.  I hope to always have this wonderful family to visit and to always have this beautiful home to return to.  
and on a much more immediate level, i hope that my brain returns to the normal level of thoughts and that my ability to grab them returns- soon.  because i have missed my blogging buddies, and i am excited to get back to you all in full force as soon as possible!