Its been a while!

Hi everyone, I haven't forgotten about this blog, its just taken much longer than I figured to get us back on track from our 2 weeks in Canada.

We travelled to see friends and family for two weeks, changing houses on average, every two nights. Yes, I'm a little tired. I made sure we didn't leave much in the fridge or freezer in case we lost power so now I've had to spent many trips to the store restocking everything.

The kids did quite well on the flights all things considered. Our flights to Canada started at 6:30am...never again. The airport was a zoo, I've never seen it so swamped. It was the first full week of kids being out of school (Kansas schools let out in early/mid May) and it was also the start of the Memorial Day weekend (major travel holiday) when we left. That's a very busy combo.

Unfortunately, we couldn't do the night before precheck in as the computer systems can't handle lap children (kids under 2 years are allowed to sit in their parents laps for a nominal fee). Next time we have to all travel, we are doing precheck in at home because everyone will have to have a seat and especially if we ever have to be at the airport for 4:30am.

During the flights, T thought it would fun to "read" the "In Case of Emergency" instructions. In reality, she just went through the visual instructions, which she has gotten very good at and informed her dad (who she sat with) as to what they should do in case of an emergency.

At one point on our first flight of the trip home, she had quite the discussion with S about what you do if you see the engine on fire...I think he told her if you look out the window and you see the engine on fire, you tell someone and not panic. T proceed to yell that "Its on fire!"

Nope, not such a good thing to do while waiting for the plane to take off and the engines are firing up. I think she freaked the people behind her a little bit. S had to tell her that the engine wasn't on fire and we don't yell on the plane. I thought for sure we were going to get kicked off the plane.

The second flight back to Kansas got delayed and had its gate switched. At that point, I didn't care how many gates we had to switch, I just wanted to get home.

R had decided during the trip that he needed to get up at 5:30am every.freaking.morning. Ah yes, nothing like going to bed late every night because you are trying to pack as much time as you can with family/friends and then getting up 5 hours later and have it start all over again. Add to that the fact you also have to get back in the car after tracking down all the kids' clothes/accessories and repacking because you have to drive 3 hours to go stay with someone else. It just becomes a little too much after a few days of it.

I think next time we will rent a cottage with lots of bedrooms and whomever wants to see us, can come to us. Its just too hard to pack up everything and move every few days. Its a lot to ask of everyone but this time the kids came through for us despite a few hiccups...maybe because R can't talk to complain and T enjoys being kept busy.

It was great to see everyone but man, it was good to sleep in my own bed. I think I could stand to lose the 100F + temperatures we've had lately. I'm embarassed to say it, I enjoyed the blast furnace heat when we finally found our car in the airport parking lot and was beyond thrilled to have more consistent (albeit hot) temperatures when we finally made it home.

We missed a big storm here in town while we were gone by about a week. Despite some having substantial damage done by hail, we surprisingly escaped major damage to our car (that was left at the airport) and our home.

Did I mention there was a tornado north of my parents house when we visited during the second portion of our trip? Apparently, we brought a little bit of Kansas to Canada...ha ha. It was barely a tornado but to the residents it hit, the world might as well have been coming to an end.

To those of us who live in Tornado Alley, it was a storm. Unfortunately, they don't have tornado sirens so those affected didn't know what was coming. Several areas were without power for about 4 days. I don't miss those days...

I will try to post some photos next time. I've been away from my camera too much lately but its been too hot and I've been too busy.

We've got T in a day camp twice a week and next week I will try to add another midday activity, just to keep her occupied. We should be good until the first part of August as most activities cease as the kids start school in mid August.