Without my squad for 15 days

Greetings family,

Kendra and the twins have been away in Sacramento for 15 days!  This is the longest I've been away from Kendra in 13 years.  The aloneness has been awesome and awful.  I only have a couple of pics of their time there so I only have my own screen captures during facetime. At least I was able to see their smiling faces every other day or so.

Kendra has been about three times as busy as I expected her to be.  There were entire days where she was out and about seeing friends, having play dates with other moms and spending time with relatives.  It's probably hard to see in this picture, but I am still in bed and Kendra is up and around.  I gladly slept in several days.  The house was quiet and I took full advantage of being lazy knowing Easton wouldn't be up at 7 o'crack in the morning foraging through the kitchen for breakfast.  Even so, I miss the kids and Kendra terribly.

I went for a mountain bike ride with my neighbor and had a blast.  The whole time there I was thinking about how much fun the twins will have when the three of us go together some time.  The oddest part of being without the fam was the crazy situation where I had a thought such as, "I want to go to Home Depot".  I would stand up, grab my keys, and walk out the front door.  that was bizarre.  No conversations, no lists of other stuff to buy or get, no explanations or confirming the kids are ok...  nothing.  I just walked out the door and drove away.  I was glad to take the joys and pains of being without my love and my offspring.

They had a great time with cousins on several occasions including the 4th of July for fireworks and swimming at Aunt Susie's.  We've done that the last few years so it was good for them to have some annual events to anchor their experiences of life.

Alaysha was off of work a few days, which is rare, so we made the most of it by cleaning the house and spending time on the beach.  Alaysha was a huge help as I went room to room cleaning the entire house.  On Saturday we took almost the whole day off from work and house cleaning because the weather was too perfect to be inside.  There was plenty of sun rays to soak in and plenty of people to watch and wonder about.

I'd rather not be away from Kendra and the twins even for a day, but if I have to, then this is the way to do it.  Being home where I can relax and have a change of pace in work and play time.  The freedom to come and go as I please and stay late at work is a small benefit when it comes at the cost of being away from my family.   The real benefit was for Kendra and the twins to have all the fun they can manage with relatives and friends.

Now it's time for Ouma and Oupa to join us in Seattle for our local adventures.

See you soon!