Finally Home

We are finally home after way too many hours of sitting in the car. On the way home we stopped at South Pass City, Wyoming, where there is an old gold mining community, and Bandelier National Park in New Mexico, where there are age-old Pueblo Indian cave dwellings.

Bandelier National Park. Bryce would have been overcome with joy if we would have left him there to live in the caves. He loved it.

South Pass City

 Both places were really neat and very educational but I couldn't help the nagging desire to get home fast. I will miss many things about Wyoming, including cooler weather, but I won't miss anything there more than I missed the familiar luxuries of our home town. Nothing can replace frequent visits from neighbors or the hot Texas sun that makes 50 degree water feel refreshing, not unbearable. Bryce says he is ready for "a proper swim." What I've missed more than anything is the company of my neighbors (on both sides ;)). Robert Frost once said, "Good fences make good neighbors" but in our case I think the phrase would go, "No fences make better neighbors." There are next to no boundaries between our house and the neighboring houses. We have known each other for ages and I am extremely blessed to have my neighbors (and cousins) also be my best friends in the whole wide world. So, naturally, after being gone for ten days I was ready to come home to these wonderful people. 

You know what they say: Cousins are as close as brothers. Actually, they don't say that...I made it up. But it's true. These four boys are my brothers, no matter what anyone else says.

I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to making one's life pleasant, but, basically, if you do not have very good friends and relatives who matter to you, life will be really empty and sad and material things cease to be important. David Rockefeller