It’s hard to believe we have only six more days in Colorado. These weeks have gone too quickly. We’ve done a lot, yet I am mentally scanning the list of fun things and noting the ones we haven’t gotten to. Not for a lack of time, but for an overabundance of heat. We have gotten into a rhythm of normal life in our rented place with our borrowed furniture and housewares. Soon we will pack up everything and hit the road again for the long drive home. 

I have been running through a checklist, a side-by-side comparison of temporary life here versus our regular life at home. Here are some thoughts: 

• it’s beyond great to be with family. The kids LOVE their grandparents. When I drop Jules and Mae at my folks in the morning to take the boys to swim lessons, they shout in glee, run to the door and never look back. I love holding my baby neice. 
• it’s awesome to be able to take the boys swimming, to have time with just them. We leave the pool feeling relaxed and happy, no matter how hectic the morning hours leading up to lesson time. 
• I love being in a real town and being able to get places quickly and easily. A trip to Target for diapers? No prob – it’s seven minutes down the road. Rec centers? Parks? Playgrounds? Farmer’s market? Bakery that makes fresh gluten-free bread? Yep, all here. Take your pick. 
• the air feels ~~clean~~. 
• the mountains are gorgeous. 
• the streets are in a grid. 
• I can see the horizon in all directions and the sky is huge. 
• sun, sun, sun. 
• in weeks of being here, I have gotten at most 4 mosquito bites. Not because I am not out after dusk, either. And those who know me know that I am a human mosquito magnet. Sitting next to me renders you invisible to all manner of biting insects. The kids get eaten alive too, normally. 

• I miss Dex, the kids miss their daddy 
• I miss my bed, my kitty, my internet access, my Tivo and satellite dish. 
• I miss my yard. Having a yard is key to kid happiness.

• it has been intense and at times very stressful. Yet I know there are two major reasons: (a) summer vacation, with four kids at home, and (b) a lack of routine (i.e. naps at odd times, lots of running around every day). 
• bedtime has been a challenge. The kids are going to bed too late most nights and now that Jules has learned to climb out of her pack n play, getting her to sleep is 100x harder. Davey is also not in his bed-rail enclosed sleeping fortress. This means I spend a lot of time sitting in the dark on the floor next to Jules’ bed and then lying next to Davey in his bed-away-from-home. 

• Edward has played with the kids down the street from my folks every day for two weeks. He just rides his borrowed bike down the cul-de-sac and knocks on their door. They play all day, in the dirt, on their bikes, in and out and all around. 
• it’s nice having someone (Mom) to do some of the ordinary things of life with. We’ve been together every day during the visit, but even to be able to get together every couple of days, to have some help, to have someone to talk to, would be very nice. 

It will be interesting to see how life feels when we return home to face the last four weeks of summer vacation. Davey will have two weeks of school, which will help (break for me, routine and one-on-one learning for him). One thing I do know? That I have not, for one single second, missed the seemingly continuous rush and roar of 18-wheelers flying by my house, less than 30 feet from where my children, innocent of the extreme danger, play. I have not missed lying awake in bed listening to the trucks, feeling sick from worry even though my kids are tucked safely in their beds down the hall. Living without that… well.