On the road again...

I did it. I successfully completed a 10+ hour drive, ALONE, with a(n) (almost) two year old. And then today I completed another much shorter drive. (This is huge for me - it's a little scary just driving around town with me.)

Yep, I'm here in the G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S Northwest. I love, love, love, love, love it. (Except for the missing Eric so-much-it-hurts part.) Everytime I come back to the Northwest, I fall in love all over again. There is simply no place like Western Washington and Oregon. I started trying to wax poetic in my head on the drive through the Gorge. :) The mountains and endless evergreen trees and rocks and gorgeous water make you feel like that.

We made it to stop #1 last night, which was to drop Elena off at Grandma and Grandpa's house where she will be staying for the week. (Yikes! A whole week! My mom keeps trying to tell me that I will miss her WAY more than she will miss me... but I still worry about her. Like she'll feel like I just abandoned her and am never coming back. Any other experienced Parents/Grandparents want to chime in with more reassurance? I think I need to hear it from a ton of people.) :)

Today as a parting gift for me/welcoming gift for my dad, Elena had an insanely nasty dirty diaper leak down her legs and all over the house after she went swimming. As we were cleaning it up, I kept telling myself that it was a good thing because it would probably help me want to leave her :) or at least feel a little excited for a kid-free week. I figured that between the dirty diaper and the last hour of our trip that she spent screaming at full force (to do her justice - other than that last hour, she did extremely well on such a long trip) that I would be more than ready to leave. But, as much as I kept telling myself that, I still had a really hard time leaving her when the time came. For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to talk her through the schedule ("Mommy will drop you off and you will get to play with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Dallin and Aunt Channie and the kitties and you're going to do lots of fun things.... blah, blah, blah... and then Mommy will come back and get you in a week", etc.) And I told her that again two or three times today. Each time, she would say, "k" and smile and run back to whatever she was doing before. Then when I said goodbye to her today, she gave me an extra long hug and a kiss, which made me wonder if she really did know what was going on. I'm already missing her and wondering about how she's doing. Times like this still surprise me with how much I love her. How strong the love of a mother can be. That was something I really worried about before I had Elena - if I would love her enough, like everyone said I would. But, just like magic, from the first moment that I saw her, I loved her fiercely. A mother's love really is an amazing thing. It's truly a gift from Heavenly Father. I'm so glad for the little ones I have to love - for the things I get to learn from being a mom.

Now, here are the two real reasons why I sat down to write this post:

1. To let everyone know why the blog will be dry for the next week and a half or so.

2. To ask nearby family members to take mercy on Eric. :) hehe... just kidding, but if you think of him... you could call him and remind him to eat or make sure his heart is still beating or something. He's not really good at the whole eating thing when I'm gone. Silly husbands... what did they do before they had wives? ;) And be his friend... because he is lonesome. Take care of him for me while I'm gone. :)

See you all in a couple weeks!