We are home...

...safe and sound. What a trip. We took the five youngest and while I would parade them through the restrooms, we would draw amused glances and often drew the comment; "My, you have your hands full!" I would just smile and agree; "Yes I do!" and I would think about the calories I was burning off with Elsa grasped under one arm and my free hand tightly clasping Emma the energizer bunny who was constantly hopping and straining against my iron grip.
"But I wanna buy DAT for Lala! Oh! I dust need to buy a dolly mummy Puhleeeease!" Nathaniel, while more quiet, needed an eyeball continuously attached to him as at any moment a car model might draw his attention and he would be gone in a flash to "Heck dem out."

This trip has caused me to come to the conclusion that the reason I lost weight so readily after each birth until I reached my thirties is not because that due to middle age my metabolism has changed; but because I had so many extra hands to help by then. Someone else was able to dash after an escapee and someone else could hold a baby as I helped a little one off the toilet. I did not have to haul the baby back to the van where my husband was filling the gas tank and checking the oil, and then have to traipse back so I could then use the pottie.

Yes - this trip has caused me to be very grateful of the help I have through my older children but it has also inspired me to begin to add this help up in the terms of calories lost or gained! My older children just might find me taking little ones to the pottie a little more often in hopes that the energy spent in doing this will equal pounds lost!

Highlights of the trip to follow tomorrow hopefully, as right now I need to go start burning some calories - catching up with laundry, and other duties left undone while I was gone.