Taking the Scenic Route

Ah, my family is back together again.  Zach is finally home and I am starting to catch up on sleep. 

Zach really enjoyed his experience at NASA this summer.  He felt like he learned a lot, both about the subject and about himself.  It was worth the sacrifices for him to go and for that I am grateful.  It had to be one of the toughest experiences I have gone through though.  We all missed him so horribly.  Due to safety issues (and the lack of free hands or free time) I wasn’t able to post as much this summer as I wanted to. 

I was very glad to have him home over 4th of July weekend, but that second half of the summer was even more difficult than the first half because the excitement of the newness of it had worn off.  Plus, Zane had day camp the first half which helped keep him busy.  When Zach left to go back for the second half, Zane got really depressed, Zora seemed very out of sorts, and I felt like it was everything I could do to keep things together. 

Before Zach returned he arranged to take me out for an overnight ‘date night’ with my folks watching the kids.  It was the first time I left Zane overnight, and was naturally, the first time I left Zora.  It was a wonderful night.  We went out to eat, then saw “Pirates of the Caribbean”, then spent the night in a hotel suite with a hot tub (at a hotel I used to work in).  It was relaxing and fun.  The next morning, however, I was so engorged that I thought I would just explode.  Apparently, Zora was not impressed with the bottle and mom ended up having to syringe feed her.  We had started her on solids earlier in the day and she got a little more of that into her,  It was sort of a rough night for Grandma and Zora.  Luckily Zane had fun with Grandpa and Grandma, so at least somebody was happy.