We're Back!

Obviously, it’s been a while since our last post. Since I’ve recently been asked three separate times if I am ever going to post again, I figured I should catch-up on the last (almost) two months before it becomes hopeless…

Unbeknownst to us, when we woke up the morning of July 7^th we wouldn’t have more than two or three 2-hour naps for the next 56 hours (we didn’t get to bed until about noon on the 9^th—Almaty time). Our flight departed on Wednesday, July 8th at about 3 a.m. which meant we disturbed Addie at about midnight and although we tried to keep her asleep, she was as awake and alert as ever. She was fascinated by the headlights of the other cars on the road, loved walking around the airport, and went to sleep rather easily once our flight began to take off. We’re pretty sure she thought it was all a very realistic dream!

Blurry, dark, and out of focus, these pictures show two things:

1-Chris capturing Addie after one of many runs around the lobby, and

2-Michael Jackson tributes were everywhere--even the Almaty airport at 2 a.m. I snapped this picture of the ending credits for the Thriller music video (I’d never seen the full video before and it’s actually kind of… creepy…)

Although Addie went to sleep rather easily, she stirred at the slightest motion of being laid down, so we were stuck holding her the entire seven hour flight to Frankfurt where we managed to survive the six hours wait for our eight hour flight to Dulles (where we again held her the entire flight). When we finally arrived in Dulles we were anxious to get through customs and see family. As we collected our baggage and walked to the customs area I became profoundly grateful to be an American. While our citizenship comes with many wonderful blessings, the one that hit me instantly was that we wouldn’t have to wait three hours at the back of the non-citizen customs line! (When I first saw the line I thought we DID have to wait in it and nearly cried.)

After speedily making it through customs we found my dad waiting for us and learned that the rest of our family who had driven up had come earlier in the day to go to the temple too and although they made it to the airport in plenty of time… they went to the wrong airport! ;D Luckily the wrong airport wasn’t far from the right one, so we were soon joined by my Mom, brothers John and Josh, and Josh’s wife Caroline and children, Kelsy, JJ, and Petey. Petey was one of the two little ones born while we were in Kazakhstan so it was exciting to meet him! We went to Generous George’s Positive Pizza & Pasta Place for dinner and met up with my Uncle Greg and his wife Ann. Although they didn’t drive all the way from Louisiana to see us arrive from Kazakhstan, they knew they would be in DC the day we flew in, so we were able to have dinner with them and meet my “new” Aunt Ann. (They were married about a week before us) Next, we hit the road and drove down to Virginia Beach! We arrived home at about midnight, but it took me another two hours to settle down (and stop talking) enough to actually sleep!

We were able to enjoy being with most of my family Thursday evening at a little barbecue at Josh’s home. It was fun to be surrounded by family and to see nieces and nephews doing new things. We handed out some of the souvenirs we purchased too! (These are my brothers John and Eddie in their Kyrgyz-style hats.)

On Friday morning we flew to Utah for the first-ever family reunion for Chris’ immediate family. Soon after our arrival we were able to meet our two new nephews! We had a few days before the reunion started, so we were able to finally make it to the temple (it’d been TEN months!!!), do some more wardrobe-replenishment shopping, and see some of our much loved friends that Saturday and Sunday. Although we neglected to use the camera we brought, it was great to catch-up with our friends and we were grateful they were able to take the time out of their day to come and visit us!

Our family reunion began Monday at a cabin in Heber and man was it fun! We ate great food (including way too many desserts!), shopped at the Park City outlets, took at least one run too many (ok, so maybe most of us only went on one run…), laughed ourselves silly in the hot tub once the children were asleep, and so much more! It was great to be with everyone and get to know them all a little better.

The original nuclear family:

The silly face picture with all of us (Chris' family does this every time they take family pictures. Does yours?? My family has sometimes done it, but definitely not as regularly.)

Our family reunion came to an official end at the extended reunion for Chris’ grandparent's family (dad's side). Grandma P has ten living children, seventy-five grandchildren, and (as of July) 44 great-grandchildren. With those kind of numbers this was a reunion that would overwhelm any in-law—thankfully, the entire family is really nice! An interesting fact about Grandma P's posterity: at the beginning of 2008, there were just EIGHT great-grandchildren— within the last year and a half, that number has grown to 44, with more already on the horizon!

The following Monday morning we were to fly out at about 7 a.m. We planned to leave the house at 5:30 a.m. to give us plenty of travel and wait time. Imagine our horror when Chris’ mom flew into our room at 6:00 a.m. and said, “It’s 6:00 a.m.! Our alarms didn’t go off!!” Thus began our day! We managed to get out of the house in record time, but—try as we might—we were unable to make our flight. Fortunately, there was another flight leaving just 50 minutes later that would get us to our destination. We arrived in Virginia just an hour later than originally planned. We were again greeted by family: my mom, Josh, Caroline, and their kids. We headed to my mom’s house where we feasted on her famous enchiladas and then Chris packed up his things and headed up to his internship in DC.

I stayed in Virginia Beach and over the next two weeks was able to spend time with family and visit many friends. It was great to see so many and catch-up on much that was missed! My mom was amazing about finding ways to give me full use of her car and she also managed to find ways to keep Addie back with her so I could have “girl-time” with friends. Addie and I were really productive in our visits which meant I was able to leave town without a long list of friends I’d “neglected.” Hallelujah!

The last few weeks have been spent together as a family (at last!). We have enjoyed getting a little more settled into our apartment—but we are a long way from being completely “moved in.” We are living in a basement apartment that needed some finishing, so with the help of my brother Josh and the support of his lovely wife Caroline, Chris was able to get a lot done (tearing down walls, rebuilding walls, and a lot of work related to that effort). [To give credit where it is due, I should probably say Chris was able to assist Josh with getting the work done…] My mom, sister-in-law Barbara, and niece Kirsten came to visit and help the day Josh left and we were able to get some various bits of work done around the apartment. I think my mom was most glad to be able to use the double-stroller Caroline handed on to her!We recently received the okay to go ahead and finish the work in our apartment which means putting mud on the walls, sanding, more mud, more sanding, more mud, more sanding... and eventually painting. I am excited to have the work completed, but not as excited to do the work… Since Chris is busy with his internship and studying for the LSAT, I have, naturally, taken the mudding, sanding, and painting on as my project. I have been able to get two layers of mud up, one sanding session, but the rest has come slowly.

We have been able to attend our ward for a full month now and have already received callings (activities committee members). I received a visit from my new visiting teacher about a week ago and received my own visiting teaching route during the week after our first Sunday! And just in case you didn’t already know, play groups are a wonderful thing! I have been able to meet and become familiar with some of the other mothers in our ward who have young children and live rather close.

There is a lot of uncertainty accompanying this new phase of our life, but hopefully you won't think our blog is too mundane as we live the average American life!