Posting means admitting I'm home.

We had an excellent vacation. I can't believe it has been a week since my last post. I haven't taken a week off blogging since...well...ever. My blogging buddies may have seen me lurking around their blogs for a couple of days. I would have commented, but then I would have to post, and well, you know how it goes. Although I have been home since Sunday night, I have yet to unpack our suitcases. I couldn't make it a priority, I had a Christmas tree to decorate! (Pictures and decorating tips to come!)

While in Las Vegas the children met their maternal grandfather's idol. They took to him pretty well. They loved it when he called them little hound dogs!
I had a nice visit with No Cool Story and her Daily Hero in the lobby of our hotel. She was so nice to sit there and listen to me talk about myself for an hour. I love her so much!






(NCS and Annie not pictured.) :(

Also during our vacation I died and went to heaven. In case you didn't know, heaven is called Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. I went to Anthropologie and bought this...

Then we went to kid heaven, a place called John's Amazing Pizza Emporium and Puke Fest. Even though we shamelessly gorged ourselves, luckily, there was no puke to be had. Not even after the spicy peanut butter pizza and a few turns on the bumper cars. The steel-lined Payne stomachs prevailed again!

Despite newly sparked fires in the hills Malibu, as one reporter put it, "Where kids gather and build small campfires," (What? You can say b!?ch on TV but you can't say kegger?) our last day in la-la land looked like this...

So, now my California dreaming has come to an end and it's back to life as normal. Admitting your vacation is over can be a real kegger.