Erin and I were gone to Tijuana/San Diego from last week Wednesday until late Sunday night as we took a team of 37 to build a house thru AMOR for a family of 7. I say house but it would be a glorifed garage here in the states at 22' by 22'. What a sweet trip with so many students and leaders, but way too quick too. About the time it felt like we were getting comfortable and hitting our stride, we were already done with the house 
and it was time to start working our way back.The hardest part of the trip had to be leaving the girls. We've left them before but never while we've actually left the country and not been able to touch base with grandma to get an update on how things were going. It hit hard on Tuesday when we swapped vehicles and the girls in Missouri Valley with my mom and sister. I figured the initial goodbye would cause a raucous with the girls, but it actually didn't happen until we were each 5 minutes headed back where we came from when we got a call from Auntie Heather and Gracie had realized that mom and dad weren't in the van and weren't going to be around. All ended up well with them at grandma's for the week, but it was hard for the two of us!
Of course it was great picking them up again around 11pm Sunday night and seeing their faces as they woke up and realized that mom and dad were driving the van again. They could have kicked themselves right out of their carseats they were so excited and it was a joy to hear their stories/adventures with grandma and auntie. It was also amazing to see how much they'd changed in just 5 short days.
