As I'm still working on getting us back up and running in the laundry, groceries and general household organization categories after our trip, I'm not going to write much about these photos, but still wanted to share them. We really did have such a good time, and got to see a lot of people we miss in our life way out here in the desert.

First, here are Chi and Kate enjoying the slides at a park near the home of my in-laws. We tried to do a cute photo opp where they would go down the slide together, but they weren't having it.

One of the silver-lining type results of our flight delays was that when we arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, a day later than planned, it turned out that the flight of my friend, Leigh of Marvelous Kiddo, had also been delayed. Under our previous flight plans, we were going to miss one another by just a couple of hours. Instead, we got to swoop by her parents' home in Jackson and have a too-brief, but totally worth it visit, in which we got to actually behold one another's children for the first time. The Kiddo is even cuter in person, if you can imagine that.

One of the difficult parts of our trip was that Kate busted through four molars and came down with a terrible cold, which she then passed on to a handful of innocent bystanders, including my mom, my dad, my friend Liz who came to visit us, and, we think, Dan. So she wasn't in the best frame of mind for some of the trip, and thus, this photo sums up a lot of what we did for the first few days of our time in Mississippi: nose-wiping and crying. I could devote an entire blog to the topic of how much this kid hates to have her nose wiped, but I will spare you.

On Saturday, my college roomates Lindsay (left of me) and Robin (right of me) came to the house for dinner, and afterwards we took the same photo we always take, which is the one where I am in the middle, with my shoulders resting on these two, who are so cute and petite that I look large and gawky and weird in comparison. Next time I am sitting down for the photo.

And these last two photos are of Kate with Aaron. Aaron and Kelly gave Kate this thing called My First Purse, that comes equipped with a play cell phone, keys, compact, mirror, lipstick and, I kid you not, a pink and purple plastic debit card. Kate, needless to say, was thrilled, and walked around for the rest of the day in such a growny manner than you would swear she was just about to take her new purse, jump into her very own car, and whiz off to college. Here is Aaron helping her get her purse settled on her shoulder so they can go on a walk. I think he's going to make a great dad one day.