First morning back

Today is our first morning back from the USA. The boys are still asleep - going on 12 hours now. They are wiped out from the trip home. It is about 27° and is snowing. The ground currently has an opaque covering of snow. I don't know how much snow we'll get, but up in the mountains it is probably snowing pretty good. Maybe we'll go sledging this weekend.

We enjoyed our time back in the USA. We had planned only 3 weeks, but ended up staying a little over 4. We delayed our return twice due to dental problems for me. I was scheduled to get a crown, but then had to get a root canal first. It wasn't healing properly. Ahh the wonders of modern medicine. Drugs fixed me right up and on the morning we flew back I was finally able to get my crown put on.

We remodeled our basement while there. During week one I put down a nice 'wood' Pergo laminate floor. It is a huge improvement over the carpet. We had one bedroom carpeted, but otherwise the entire basement has the laminate floor. Week two was Thanksgiving and we spent that with the Dolan clan on Hilton Head Island. This is always a good retreat. We had planned to paint the basement in week 3, but realized the job was to big for us to complete on time. We did the smart thing and hired it out. Had we left as originally scheduled the basement remodel would have stopped here. The extra week allowed me to install the IKEA kitchen cabinets. Not all the parts necessary were in stock. I'd say the remodel is about 95% done. Four cabinet doors, dishwasher, sink, fasten down the countertops, and install the shoe molding around the floor perimeter and it is all done.
Parker loves pushing buttons now. He has become very adept at spotting buttons and instinctively reaches out to press them. The Prez better not leave the football lying around in Parker's presence.

At Hilton Head we had a gathering of 21 at Grandpa and Grandma Dolan's. The icing on the cake would have been Kathleen letting me drive home a '68 Firebird we looked at down there.

This year we may have started a new tradition for ourselves. The drive to Hilton Head is a long one. This year we stopped in Charlotte and stayed overnight at the Great Wolf Lodge. Since it is winter time it is great fun to play in their indoor water park. And best of all, cousins live in the Charlotte area and can come to the park with us! Payton likes this best of all.

The whole time back in the USA I had only one hamburger - from Red Robin. Can you believe it? We had Dewey's pizza three times, the ribs are still great at Texas Roadhouse and we ate way too many Oreo cookies! Gosh those cookies are good.

This morning I am already missing two things from back home; our garbage disposal and our trash compactor. Oh well, time to head off to the store to restock the shelves here.