August 11, 2011 on the road home

So, it's all out of sequence, blog wise, from our last post. Fast forward from 2007 to the present.
I got a job in Detroit for 10 weeks or so (late June -late August) on a little show, and this time, Alicia and the kiddos all came out to stay with me for almost 6 weeks.
It was a little cramped in the hotel the whole time, since I never could find a short term rental like I had planned. But we got into a routine, such as it was, and we had a nice summer together. It was the first time since fall of 2009 that I have been working AND with the family at the same time..
The job is on the wind down now, and the summer is waning, and even Rosa is saying, "can we go home?" so it's time, and I'll be there in 2 weeks or so. (Hopefully with some sort of job lined up)
It's been fun, I was able to spend alot of time with the children, fooling around, swimming mostly. T

They're all brown as nuts, and all have made great strides in overcoming their unfamiliarity with water and swimming. 6 weeks ago, nobody would venture into the water without a life jacket and some complicated array of floaties and water toys, now, Sal and Rita are diving for pennies and swimming in the deepend, Marc has let go of the wall and will wade out chin deep, Rosa will get in her inflatable ring and get in the pool on her own and swim/ float all over the pool, even little Johnny will happily float around and hang on to the ring by himself. A bunch of little waterbugs. It's just spending time in the water. No amount of swim lessons will take the place of experience.
So they're on the road home. It's a testament to the toughness of my lovely wife to take this big trip alone ( she has had a teenaged rider to help with the kids each way). I'm sure thankful that she feels all of the trouble and work is worth it for us to be together while the kids are out of school.