In the USA

We have safely reached the good old US of A.  Thank you for your prayers for us in preparing for departure and then as we made the long journey across the pond.  All went super smoothly; the kids ages for sure make traveling such a breeze now, which allowed us parents to get some rest in along the way.  That is as much as one can when sleeping upright.  The kids were wildly impressed and excited that not only did they get individual monitors on the airplane, but now they are equipped with a video game console.  Was it bad of me to let them play the whole 9 hour trip?!  I was exhausted and needed some rest, so don't judge me too hard on that one. 

We are currently enjoying our time of reentry and jet lag recovery in the comfort of Jonathan's parent's house in Michigan.  The kids have already been put to work helping in the yard.  Yesterday they unloaded two yards of stone gravel to lay under the deck.  Two kids fell off the truck in the process, but thankfully only suffered minor scrapes.  Luca was a work horse heaving stones and pushing the wheel barrow around.  

While the rest of us headed out for an afternoon doctor visit and shopping he stayed back with Munga and completed the project.  Later a neighborhood boy and former school mate came by to play with Luca and then invited Luca over to his house to swim in their pool.  He was super stoked about that and looks forward, along with the other two kids, to playing and swimming more with their friends on the block.

I just have to post this picture of a drawing that Luca and Emma made on their final day here one and a half years ago.  Impressively, Munga and Gramma have kept in on the dry erase board the entire time we have been away.  I love it!

After day 3, jet lag is finally taking it's obvious toll on some...just as I was getting jealous of the kids seemingly ease of transition.  Luca crashed at 5:00 today after a full day of eye and orthodontist appointments, shopping etc. and could not be awoken to eat dinner for anything.  We finally got him to wake up to get a scoop of ice cream but immediately he returned the couch completely knocked out.  Jet lag is tough!