6 months away, got attacked by my girl :-(

[CloudtheBoa]

It's possible your family also didn't feed her quite as much as they should, that's a common problem I see in these sorts of situations, and the only times my bp strikes at me is when he comes out of a fast and starts eating normally until he gets used to eating again. This has only happened the last two times he's fasted.

When I was young, I might have held my bp 2 or 3 times in several years because children get bored easily (seriously don't buy a 12 year old an animal don't do it, Bud was lucky), and that didn't make him grumpy, generally a docile animal stays docile unless something else bothers them. Generally, not handling a snake doesn't cause it to become defensive if the snake is already docile, in my experience.

I would wait and see how she does when you next handle her, and see what she does after eating a few meals, and see if her mood changes any. If you just got back and she hasn't really been handled, and is being defensive, giving her some time to cool off probably isn't a bad idea. If she continues to be bitey, just be sure to handle her consistently, but not too often, and with some work she could calm down. Make sure her husbandry is still on point as well, as I'm not sure how experienced with reptiles your family is and 6 months is a long time to be away.

It's promising that she was calmer the second time you took her out, too, could have just been startled.