We have had such a great summer this year.
Three whole weeks visiting the homeland. The vacation met all of our expectations. We did so many fun things, met up with so many people, ate so much food...could not have asked for more..well, maybe even more days but when do we ever have enough vacation days. The kids had an amazing time. I actually did not see them much this trip? They were always surrounded by cousins and friends, having a blast. It was a sure shock back to reality when we got back, resuming their routine activities and playing with 1 cousin :-) School does not start until next week for them, so they had a fun time still going to dance camp for a week and this week they are at horseback riding camp which they love. Like I said, this summer has been amazing for them, not one minute of dead time.
We know that there are many people we did not get a chance to see on this trip, and we really missed you guys. Hopefully next time we will meet up. It is hard to see everybody, which is why we usually have a party so everybody can come to us, so next time we come you can be sure we will have a party again, so save the date next summer. Three weeks seems like a long time, but it goes by fast because we try to combine extended family time, immediate family lounge time, friends’ time, taking care of business stuff time, shopping time, kid’s entertainment time, and just Will and I time all in one vacation!
Well, we had a blast, and the kids did great traveling! We always have airline personnel tell us how wonderful they are and so well behaved. I just do not see the need to mention that it is not always like that at home. Lets keep them thinking we have the perfect family and they messed up somewhere at their home :-)
I think I have told you guys before that Will and I can never go on vacation without the not so usual travel drama, so I will just let you know our travel adventure from Belgium to Tracy, and we will leave it at that:
7AM all our bags are packed by the door (plus an empty suitcase we always take to store all our overseas purchases:-), we are ready to leave to the train station which is about a few blocks away from our house, so we all walked. I am standing in line for tickets and the train leaves in about 13 minutes. Suddenly we realize the empty suitcase did not make it. I will omit whose fault this was in this story since this is a matter of opinion:-)
Will decided to make a run for it to get the bag at home while I purchase the tickets. He looks to see which platform to go to and it is platform 8. Chloe is standing outside so she can she Will run and while I buy the tickets the ticket person tells me the platform has changed from platform 8 to platform 1. I yell out at Chloe to flag Willie down when he comes so I can tell him about the platform change. Now, we have about 5 minutes left until the train leaves (and let me inform you, this is NOT Amtrak, when they say in Europe that the train leaves at 3 minutes after the hour it leaves at 3 minutes after the hour).
I ask Chloe if she sees him and she says Yes, he is coming. Chloe comes walking in and tells me Will did not see her and ran down to the platforms!!! To give you a visual of my position: Crowded train station, two kids, three huge suitcases, three back packs. I have to run down to platform 8 but can not leave all the stuff behind and the kids can not stay by themselves in this busy place.
PANIC in my head. Luckily I see a person I know (barely, we had not seen each other since high school). I asked her to please watch the stuff and the kids for me and I bolted to platform 8...just to see the doors close and Willie riding off into the sunset!!!!
NOW WHAT?? I have the entire luggage, the kids, and all the tickets. Will has no ticket, no phone, does not speak the language and had an EMPTY suitcase! If this is not a red flag for terrorism then what is.
I decided to get on my train which was leaving in 1 minute because I did not want to miss our flight, and I would figure out what to do later. My "friend" helped me get all me stuff on the train and I went looking for the conductor. After explaining the whole story he called the train station to get the cell number of the conductor on Will's train. They had already found him and luckily this train was going in the same direction and we reconnected at one of the stops!
Think it's over..haha, we got to the airport and some guy almost runs over Chloe, as I pull her back two cops jump him and make a violent arrest, two more cops come with machine guns..chaos. We got on our flight, ready to go....NOT, a passenger decides to verbally assault a flight attendant and needs to be removed from the plane.
Finally we get to Washington, just to find out we did not make our connecting flight. The customer service agent was so rude to us, I really had to try to keep my cool (Will had lost it in about 35 seconds into the conversation). She finally found some MISTAKE in our booking and if we wanted to continue our journey we had to pay 600 dollars!! We refused and she said we could wait at the airport for months if we wanted to, it would not change a thing. We felt held hostage, so unfair. We finally paid it and of course, no more available flight until the next morning.
We laid out some airline blankets, and slept in the airport!!!
Next day we get on the flight and arrive safely. But because the family did not know exactly when we finally got on the flight, we still had to wait 3 hours until we were picked up!
39 hour trip complete!!
The kids did great though, they just saw this as an adventure. When we woke up in the airport Lainey said: "Wow, this is the biggest hotel we have ever stayed at!!". Always great to have the kids put things in perspective.
I will write a new blog soon, I just wanted to thank everybody for making our trip everything we could have hoped for! The kids still talk about camping with the family, the family trip to Santa Cruz, swimming with the cousins, going to friend’s houses, tea party with grama and of course they LOOOVE their American Girl dolls they got for their birthdays! They really play with them almost every day! Will and I also had a wonderful and productive time at our marriage retreat, which could not have happened without the lovely babysitting services :-) I truly recommend everybody to go to one of the marriage encounters. You can find them at www.wwme.org or if you need more serious work :-) www.retrouvaille.org.
Can not end a blog without...
Little child of mine say what???
Chloe was not eating her veggies and I told her how she was wasting food and there are children in Africa who are dying of hunger! She replied: "I don't want to be selfish, let’s give it to them!
Lainey was praying before bedtime and said, please God let Chloe have more respect, papa be more patient, and mama....nothing, she is already perfect!!!!!!!!!!!
Until the next adventure,
Love, Lesley
