I packed them backpacks with lots of their favorite coloring characters, playdoh, dvd players, snacks, mini games like connect 4, and perfection, Thomas the tank engines, Elmo, and they loved their little backpacks and carrying them around! Although, Phoebe almost tipped over and turtled, the bag was so heavy, I regret to say I didn't get pics with them on their backs!
We are glad to be home, although we had a little blizzard here today on the 7th, and we had a major delay on our trip home. Seems like there was some intelligence that led the 747 we were flying home on from Japan to be run through major security checks. They scanned us, patted us down, looked through our wallets, and all our carryons, the kids even got scanned-Michael thought the scanner was so cool and followed directions implicitly! It was so cute but of course I was not allowed to photograph it. It caused us to be 45 minutes late to our first port of entry in Detroit, then customs took forever because the 747 had tons of luggage, so we missed our flight home by an hour. They rebooked us, but we had an unplanned 7 hour layover in Detroit. So we took short snoozes, including the kids and finally got home close to midnight on the 5th!
Anyway, to back track, we had a busy Christmas season trying to fit in celebrations here and battling with illness. After Thanksgiving, we got hit with a croup like virus that wiped us out for weeks and almost caused Michael to be hospitalized. We made a trip to the Urgent Care and the next morning at 5 am John said his son had to go the ER. He was breathing at a rate at 60 breaths per minute. Way, way too fast! Phoebe had the same virus, but didn't get hit as hard, I had the virus, and felt miserable and coughed up parts of my lung during the illness. Anyway, after the treatments of steroids, nebulizers, and an antibiotic for good measure, if Michael hadn't returned to normal breathing he would have been hospitalized. Thank the Lord he did! It took us 2 weeks to get through it and then it was almost Christmas! Yikes.
So we muddled through the Christmas season here, thankful that my kids were young enough not to remember my lame celebration of Christ's birth, missing Christmas Eve service because of a blizzard on top of it! We did have a feast of prime rib and king crab legs for our family celebration on the 22nd!
So we are home now and feeling happy and blessed despite all that is going on in the world. It is a very humbling feeling.
Anyway, I'd love to post more but I think I'll wait and just share photos, I know that's the part people love anyway!
Dad's house
Makiling Volcano from Dad's frontyard
My Mom's Parents
Grandparents house
World War II History
Island of Corrigedor
5 comments:
Glad you had a nice trip and are back safe and sound. LOVE the new photos. Michael and Phoebe are growing so much! Can't wait to see you all again. Hopefully soon!
Love the pics.! Sounds like you were quite busy over the past month or so. We have been very fortunate not to have had to much sickness in our house. We all have had a cold that took a couple of weeks to get rid of but nothing more than that.
What a wonderful trip! Glad the kids handled it well. You're right...I hate long plane rides and I can't imagine having my kiddos on a ride that long. You are brave ;)
So happy everyone is feeling better. I am thinking you are relieved a bit that the holidays are behind you.
The pictures are great - you all look wonderful and I know you had a nice time (for the most part ;).
So happy you're home...I missed you!
Oh my gosh, your pics are AWESOME! Was that a resort you were at with the tables in the waterfall? So cool! I am loving the view from your Dad's house.
Miss you guys! Can't wait to see you when you come to FL!
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