Vacation Redux

Finally, I'm sitting down to write about our midwestern vacation. Sorry folks - it's not that I didn't want to write about it. Just been nutty.
First of all, the boys were total angels on the plane. I got to do sudoku puzzles the whole way and they slept through most of it. Once on the ground, grandma presented each of them with a shrek buddy and with that, the boys were smitten. Mom brought me a beautiful red rose, a really sweet gesture that I'm not sure I fully appreciated at the time. Thanks mom - that was very thoughtful.
The next several days followed with a flurry of activity from visiting my grandparents to swimming at the Cove to having a water fight at Indiana Beach, aka the Redneck Riviera. Then the boys and I drove to Chicago to visit with Eddie and Elizabeth. The boys had their first subway ride and first trolley ride - our transportation to Navy Pier and the Children's Museum. Following the museum, we took a cab back to the apartment to meet up with Elizabeth and then on to Greek town for dinner. The boys fell asleep 5 minutes after leaving the restaurant and stayed asleep even through a car seat transfer. I said my goodbyes and headed to Chad and Jenny's.
We spent several days with Chad and Jenny, Miles and Charlie. Despite a bad headache on day 3, we had a good time with lots of euchre, beer, and play time - not necessarily in that order. The boys and I took off again and headed south to Papi's house. It didn't take long for the boys to explore the tree house that dad built oh, 14 years ago. There were missing ladder rungs and a precarious suspension bridge which the boys didn't mind at all. I, on the other hand, had to remind myself to breathe with my heart lodged firmly in my throat! Dad pushed them on the tire swing high enough so they could touch the tree branches with their feet. Me with the heart in the throat! Finally, I determined it would be better if I just went in the house where I couldn't see them flying through the air. They also loved bouncing on the trampoline which, surprisingly, didn't bother me at all. After a few days and lots of ice cream, we headed back to grandma's house. Again, we went to the cove and the petting zoo, rode the rides and the train at the park. All too soon it was time to come home. We missed Tom and were ready to be back in our own beds but we were sad to leave.
And now, we've been home for over a month. In that time we've taken another mini-vacation when our niece Meghan visited from Pennsylvania. We traveled up to Santa Cruz and spent 2 days driving back down the coast - stopping in Monterey to go to the aquarium, Cambria to sleep and see the sea lions (or are they seals? we can't tell the difference), Carpenteria to eat and frolic in the surf.
We're back to our routine, boys are happy to be back to daycare and every now and then I wake up in the middle of the night trying to work through some space problem at work. This time however, I haven't given up the sudoku puzzles. I have my book sitting next to the couch and once in a while I pull it out to do a few. I've even managed to successfully complete some 3-star ones.
It's nice sitting here reliving our vacation.
Think I'll go have a beer.