On the road again...

On Sunday August 12th, we went to the first hour of church with my parents.  Then we headed to Oklahoma.  We stopped and had dinner with Monica and her family in Dallas.  

It was late when we got to OK, but that didn't stop the excitement for seeing Kai again.  She wasn't sure of us at first, but quickly got a whiff of our smelly boys...and Weston and Owen weren't sure at first either, standing up on the stools... but soon everyone was comfortable again.    

We had a nice welcome back party, complete with cake and gifts.  We're spoiled! 

Savannah got her time with the goats, and the kids enjoyed looking at a walking stick bug.  

Going for a ride!  And playing (or maybe fighting over...) a game of Risk.

A trip to Braum's for ice cream was a necessity... yummy!

Tried to get a picture of Kai and Doggie together - they weren't cooperating very well.  I'm sure Kai misses her buddy.  But she was happy to get in the car with us. 

It was good to see Jane and Alex's parents for a few days.  We watched movies, ate lots of food, played games, hung out, and went to the movie theater.  Some of us watched Mission Impossible and some watched Christopher Robin.  We didn't have long to stay before we had to drive back to CA.  We had 2 long driving days on Friday and Saturday (Aug 17-18).  

The kids did pretty well in the car, especially when they were plugged in... Savannah enjoyed watching and singing along to a video over and over... 

We're not in England anymore... it was 112° when we hit the AZ/CA border.  Glad we were just passing through (although it was hot when we got home too, especially with no A/C in our house). 

We arrived home about 9:00pm on Saturday evening.  It was exciting to turn on the road to our house and step inside.  Finally home!  But the kids didn't have any beds, so we had to dig some mattresses and bedding out of the garage.  That took a little bit to get in there and find things.  We had to get the car out first, but the battery was dead.  We had to squeeze in and try to roll the car out onto the driveway.  We got a few mattresses out and then realized we got rid of two of them before we left.  So we tried to find an air mattress.  Owen and Weston slept on that for about a week before we got some new mattresses and got their bunk beds set up again.

We also had to run and get some groceries so we had something to eat the next day.  And we had to locate some dishes and utensils.  We were exhausted by the time we went to bed, but showed up at church in the morning.  We dug out the church clothes we had been wearing on our travels.  It was a pretty crazy time!  I did breathe a sigh of relief for a moment, knowing it was the end of a long journey that started the previous summer.  I hadn't been sure I would survive, with the process of visas, clearing out our house for renters, finding a place to live in England and establishing a home there, getting the kids in school, and all of our travels for the year.  Everyone asked us how our year was - it was great!  Full of travels and new experiences, but very tiring as well!  Stepping in our door signaled the completion of that journey, but I knew that the work was just beginning again...