Dear Rachel,
I am so glad to have you home again.  This week was spring break and you went to Idaho for a few days.  The week went by quickly but, also, it somehow felt like you were gone way longer than a few days.  Even when you are supposed to be on vacation, you somehow find a way to bring love peace and happiness to our home.
First, you planned so many things for us to do at home to ensure we would not have a boring time.  You researched out movies that were playing, activities that others were doing so we could coordinate, and stocked us full on food.   You set the stage for a great spring break, then let others take all the credit and have the memories.  That is truly selfless and we love you for that.
All week, I also noticed things that were missing from our home.  The loving bedtimes is not something I can ever replace.  Every night as the kids got in bed there was the lacking of your calming presence.  even when things went great and everyone was cooperating, it was still a time that your absence was noticed.  We all just felt like something was missing from bedtime.
We also were well aware of the glaring hole in my creativity.  You have this wonderful ability to take the activity we are doing and turn it into the most exciting event of the year.  We had a great time camping in the backyard, but I couldn't help but think that if you were there, you would have actually created a forest in the backyard, or somehow bused in a herd of deer to graze on our lawn so we could experience nature.  You have unparalleled creativity that makes bad events good, and good events unforgettable.  I honestly tried to take enough pictures to capture the day we had at Palo Duro canyon.  I felt like I was taking pictures every chance I got and I was excited to look back though them to relive our exciting adventures.  What I discovered is that my relentless photography turned out to be half a dozen snap shots and the rest, ( probably no more that 20) were repeats, bloopers, or unrecognizable shadows.  I have tried to talk about it as much as I can to ensure that the kids remember it, since there is not the beautiful masterful mosaic of art that usually sums up our outings.  We are so excited to have you home and so blessed to have you as a loving, peaceful, happy part of our family.
I love you,
Brandon