could this please work?!?!?!?

Oct 18 through Christmas in Photos!

It is hard to pick up on blogging after not doing ANYTHING for so long! I have had so little time to do stuff becuase the kids need much more attention than when at home. They are desperate for playdates again and so is mommy! I am just NOT a substitute for Layla's preschool class (=

So I apologize in advance that this slideshow has 110 photos. I just didn't want to sort out how to section it up into smaller pieces. We arrived in MN Oct 18, came to CO for a few days to pick up the van we borrowed from my parents, then hit Kansas, Missouri, Tennesse, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and then headed home.

So sorry if we did not call or stop to see you if you were on the way. It was much busier on the road than we expected. I thought that because we had a DVD player in the van we'd be able to call folks from the road. Obviously I did not account for the fact that kids STILL want stuff every 5 minutes and cell coverage in the mid-west and the south is VERY spotty.

well, here are the photos, though there may be a problem with them....hmmmm

 

Vegas baby!

well tom and i are in Las Vegas! I'm typing on  a tablet so I'll keep this short. because of all the activity this summer and fall we did not celebrate our tenth anniversary or either of our birthdays! so tom in his ever thrifty ways wanted to plan a getaway for us. we ended on this free trip to Las Vegas! Totally crazy place that feels slightly familiar. we think it is like a theme park for adults :::
anyway, we'll post pictures later:

We're Back!!

well folks....after 4 weeks on the road we decided we needed to head home to Colorado. Our last day we drove for 12 hours and got home at midnight to a happy house with mom and dad and Jen and Mike.  A few short hours later we woke up and found SNOW on the ground! AND.....Jen started to go into labor! Great timing! She hasn't gone to the hospital yet, but all signs are pointing a delivery in the next day or so!

I'll update the blog soon - due to some snarky comments I realize I haven't done anything the blog. I was shocked by the many places we haven't had wireless or internet access or even cell phone access. media would have you believe that america is fully wired and city-fied.....but after 4 weeks of driving across country, I beg to differ.

 

Finally connected!

I finally got my blog connected to the clouds that contain our photos (= How FUN is this pile of kids?!?

 

Vandenbergs were so close to us we just had to make the drive out to see them. Karen and I lived together long before we were married (=

Layla is being a real trouper and just having so much fun with whomever we are visiting. She and Bekah were great together!

We are loving the super cool playgrounds in America! Even if we are FREEZING! Layla is way at the top there. Still insisting on wearing dresses.

Ryan insists on very little. He is super easy going and just a happy kid. So helpful! Every time he sees water he yells WAAATEEERRRRR! Happens a lot in MN.

 

Through good old FB realized some friends were staying in a hotel nearby as they were on their own road trip and we had a dip in their pool!

Ahhh, the mall of America. So much entertainment in one place.

 

We have been blessed with a plethora of little girls to play with. Violet was super fun and very conciencious about cleaning up her toys. So cute.

Our old small group from church (minus 2 families). It was very newlyweds at the time. Obviously, we've all moved on!

One of our old haunts....awesome pizza right near Lake Nokomis!

 

Minnesota

We are really enjoying our time here. We have some great photos but due to our tremenously cool new phone they are floating in cloud storage and need to be sent to earth to live on my computer so I can send them back up in the air to you. Is this a crazy world or what?

We had about 4 days of warmth and then it has been too cold to really enjoy being outside. Such a pity as we had about one week of good weather back home before coming here. It had just gotten cool enough to enjoy being outside. My kids are really mixed up right now.

Thankfully they are sleeping well! ryan still takes a nap and needs to be woken up after about an hour and a half but they both sleep about 11 or 12 hours no matter when they go to sleep which is GOLDEN given our lifestyle.

We are enjoying the free, clean indoor play areas, and when it is sunny we run to the nearest playground and enjoy running around on all the fancy highquality equipment. You may know that MN is the "land of 10000 lakes" and the kids shout WATER! everytime they see one which is all the time aroun here

little humor

Things Layla has said/asked:
what is jogging?
what is skiing?
What is a sweatshirt?
can I touch the ground? (it had just rained and was really wet)
What is a service? (talking about a church service (= )

The kids are real troupers. And lest you feel terribly sorry for us with all the transition, I have to let the cat out of the bag and say that our kids are super sleepers and will sleep just about 11-12 hours straight from the moment they go to sleep. So really, all this lugging them here and there isn't so bad (=

We are in a basement apartment of a friend's house here in MN so that is a great set-up. We have a rental car and lovely places to play so we are doing well. Layla did get up early this morning and say "mom, sometimes I just wake up and am scared because this isn't home". poor kid.

Tom finally bought a new phone (thanks dad for the I Phone but it was dropped one too many times and the screen cracked in the corner. figured we should FINALLY get him a new phone). He has been wanting the samsung SII for ages and ages but just couldn't bear the price tag. Finally after the SIII has come out he is willing to do it. So we bought it the day before we came to the US and he is IN LOVE WITH IT. Just a tad irritating at how much he keeps looking at it, but that is because it is so darn useful. I must say that I have never been enamored by the smart phone world and never felt a pull to jump in, but let me tell you, this little phone is amazing. I think it really is useful during this period of travel in our lives, but I'm not convinced it will really make a difference in my normal life back home (= We have two other samsung devices that were given to us and we just recently discoverd that they ALL have GPS all the time! even without a data plan! So useful for people going on a massive roadtrip.

anyway. It does mean that I am still hanging up on people a bit as I sort out the new phone, but WHEN i get a chance to use it, I am learning fast (=

Coming to the US

The kids travelled SO well. layla is really enjoying being a big sister and really helps Ryan stay happy. We were carrying two extra suitcases for friends back in the US so we had a lot to manage but it all went well.

 

Both kids pulled these suitcases all through at least one airport. Ryan was a maniac and pulled his all over JFK and Minneapolis. It was SUCH a help and a source of amusement.

3am jetlag is a lot better with hot chocolate with marshmallows! Throw in a little Dora and all is well...until about 11am that morning.....

Traveling and arriving

We left town about three hours later than planned but we were calm and happy. Very much worth the three hour delay (= we had problems at the border which were our fault so we had to sort through that and thought we'd get lunch at the same time.

We headed up to the  town where we were departing from and played in a mall. There is a british toy store that has a track in the back for you to play with their outside bikes, and other random riding toys. Needless to say we monopolized that for awhile (=

Then we went to the house where we were going to have dinner and sleep a few ours before our 4am departure. We just met this family and had a GREAT time laughing late into the night. Much needed after the stress of packing and long travel ahead.

Kids were GREAT on the plane. It was super helpful to have two rows of three seats to ourselves. Qatar airlines are fabulous. Ryan stared at the TV screen so long I thought there would be permanent damage! Layla slept a lot as usual and the airline people never said a word about her being on the floor.

We are in Minnesota now and trying to get used to the cold. We experienced this slightly just in August when we were in the mountains in Kenya. However, layla did ask me the other day "mom, what is a sweatshirt?" hahaha kid. you have lots to learn.

I have pictures to post but it is 5am and I don't want to dig for the camera. The kids have been waking up at 3am and they haven't stirred yet! Jet lag is getting much better. When they wake up at 3am I've been making them hotchocolate wth marshmallows and then trying to send them back to bed. Speaking of which, here is a little one now (= must go make hot chocolate!

Want to see inside my neighbor's house?

One of the things I tell people about our town is that it is really in transition, there is a HUGE spread of people who live here (some poor, some middle class and some really wealthy) and that there is no "norm" to align yourself with or against. So here is just a shot of my neighbor's house. I went the other day to tell her goodbye before leaving for the US.

This is the main sitting room. That white box is her oven. The red blanket is where her baby lays, the blue pillow in the bottom left is one of four to lean against for our backs.

 

This is looking through to her kitchen. She doesn't have an oven (see the white box above) but has a simple two-burner stove top thing. This is where I learned to make local coffee.

 

This is the other wall in her main room.

This is a shot into the bedroom where all the girls in the house sleep. Mats on the floor with some simple bedding. Totally the way to go. We had this for Layla for some years before finally getting a bed for both she and Ryan this Spring.