I have been a mom for 14 1/2 years and I have certainly been away from my children before. But after watching my friend’s children lose their mother, I became rather crazy about leaving them for five days to go to Las Vegas. To add insult to injury, when we arrived at the airport to leave and Lydia realized we were going to leave on an airplane, the crocodile tears started to flow and I walked away from the van to the sound of her pathetic sobs “Momma, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, noooo!”. Wow, talk about tugging at my heartstrings! Everyone did survive, though, and they even had some fun while we were away. But the look on Lydia’s face when she first saw us was simply priceless. We had such a fun afternoon, playing, ‘nuggling, dancing and sitting down to dinner together. Lydia and I had a great time trying to photograph her while I spun her in a circle. It is NOT easy to focus a camera pressed to your shoulder in one hand, while swinging a two-year-old with the other! After our crazy spins we were both so dizzy we crashed to the ground together in laughter. So here is my little “self-portrait” and a nice shot that Angela, my sister-in-law took for me, too. I am happy to be home and I am diving in to catch up on all the work that has been waiting for me. 
These are the greatest…her face is so joyful – obviously glad to have mommy home again (isn't mommy guilt great?!)
The last one is just divine.