Day 10: Back Home/Monday

After the San Diego Zoo, we drove home from San Diego, through Yuma, AZ, and back to Gilbert. The ride was nice. We passed sand dunes near Yuma. They were the same ones used to shoot special scenes for Star Wars IV and VI. They were used in addition to filming in Tunisia. On a side note, there were some popular movies that filmed scenes in parts of Arizona - like Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, Casablanca, Psycho, Wayne's World, and others. Back to the drive...one of the sights Tim pointed out was that along one part of the drive, you can actually see the border fence with Mexico. It wasn't that far away. From our distance, it looked to me like a rust-colored metal fence with vertical strips in between the vertical bars and one long horizontal bar on top. There was no way to judge how tall or short the fence really is from where we were. It was kind of cool in one place because our road went up a slight hill and you could see over the fence into Mexico. It didn't look any different on either side in that particular place, just like a rancher's fence breaks off sections, but it was still cool.



When we got home, the house was spotless! The trash had been taken out, the carpets were recently vacuumed, there were no dishes in the sink, no towels or laundry lying around, the dining room and living room were picked up, and it smelled clean. What a great Mother's Day gift from Jordan. She did a great job taking care of the house while I was gone. Even though she's the youngest, I had told the boys that she was in charge of the house. If she told them to pick up their mess somewhere, or take the trash out (it's their job), then they had to do it. On my bed was a card from Adam with a Red Robin gift card for me. The card was funny - just the way I like them from my kids. Another perfect ending to another great day.

Now, finally, on to Day 10 - The last day of our official vacation. We woke up Monday when we were done sleeping. We started our day by having breakfast, and just relaxing around the house, enjoying our time with the kids as they each got up (or home from work, in Logan's case). We decided to go out to eat since we were starting "clean eating" and a cleanse for a week the following day. We went to Hibachi Grill. That place is great! It's a Chinese buffet, but they also have pizza, Mexican food, french fries, etc. (although I don't think I ever tried any of those there). I always start at the grill. I chose my veggies and then a little bit of steak. I handed it to the chef who grilled it right there in front of me. I figured if I always start with fresh veggies and lean looking meat, I'll be that much more full before hitting the junk food type of choices on the rest of the buffet. Tim started with the grill, then the sushi bar. Nothing spectacular, not much fish, but he still enjoyed it. After that, I chose carefully. I didn't want to gain 5 pounds the day before trying to lose weight. I had been pretty good, since I never gained any weight on the whole vacation, even though I ate what I felt like eating. Anyway...I chose 2 or 3 small pieces of sweet & sour chicken, a skewer of chicken meatballs, some orange chicken, a spoonful of the beef and broccoli, and I think that's about it. I was pretty full. I went over to the dessert bar, which is pretty big. I didn't want jello, or the cakes - they're usually dry anyway, or anything with chocolate, or puff pastries (no flavor anyway), in fact the only dessert I chose was a scoop of their ice cream and one serving spoon of banana pudding with vanilla wafers and whipped cream. I felt more full than I had felt in a long time. I felt satisfied and knew I could now start a strict 2 weeks without sugar, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors/flavors, soy, grains, dairy, or caffeine. I wouldn't feel deprived. By the time I start missing some of those things - especially healthy dairy - I'll be able to have it anyway.

After dinner Tim and I went to the movies to see Captain America 2: Winter Soldier. We thought about Spiderman 2, but figured we'd see whatever was released first in case we missed it by the time Tim came back from his next trip. The movie was very good. Better than the first one, better than I hoped it would be. It was great.

After that, we went home, wrapped up the night, and got ready to return to our regular routine in the morning getting him ready to head out Wednesday - but now we could do that more rested, more at peace, more relaxed. It was the best ten days in a row of my life!