After checking the space A rotator that flies from Misawa back to Seattle every week, we finally found a flight that had a promising number of seats for the kids and myself to try to make it back for a little visit to America. We barely made the flight (out of 28 seats we were seats 21-24) and anxiously waited to board the flight back to America to see family. The flight was delayed several hours and my anxiety grew from excitement into fear. How was I going to do a 9 hour flight with three little kids by myself when they were already trying all my patience sitting and waiting in the terminal? At that point it was too late for me to change my mind, so we boarded the plane and I said a private prayer in my heart that we could make it.
They assigned us seats all over the plane. Since my kids are only 4 years, 2 years, and 9 months old I practically laughed at them. Did they honestly think a 4 year old could sit by herself 15 rows away from her mother for a 9 hours flight and be ok? Thankfully a flight attendant assisted me in asking for people to change seats so I could in fact sit next to all my children and attend them for the long flight. With the flight delay and the seating arrangement, I was starting to think maybe we shouldn't have attempted the flight, after all the odds seemed against us. We eventually took off and only two hours into the flight all three kids fell asleep. It was truly a miracle! Brayden slept the remainder of the flight, and Abby and Connor only woke up for meals and for bathroom breaks. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father answered my prayers and made our flight smooth and somewhat easy and relaxing.
Upon our arrival to Seattle, my dad was waiting there to greet us and assist us. He drove up from Vancouver to help me bring the kids back down to their place to spend the next week or so visiting them. It was so nice to see my dad, and it was even more special to see him meet Brayden for the first time. The three hour drive from Seattle to Ridgefield in Vancouver went by fast as I talked with my dad catching up, all a while my three kiddos slept, completely jet lagged.We made it to Nonna and Pappie's house, now our vacation could begin.
Just two days after our arrival, my sister, Katie, was due to return home from her mission in Chile. We all piled in the car and headed to the Portland Airport to greet her. It has been a long 18 months with my sister gone, so I was particularly excited to see her again. When she showed up I hardly recognized her. It felt like she grew an inch or two, her hair was practically blonde, and she struggled speaking english again since she has only been speaking spanish these past 18 months. Despite all that she was still the Katie that I love, and I was so glad we were there to surprise her and welcome her back.
All my kids loved all the Nonna and Pappie time, as well as Aunt Katie time. Brayden was spoiled beyond measure, and was practically held the entire week. He got snuggles and love from everyone, and now has a very high maintenance attitude. He is still as cute as ever, but he is going to learn real quick that when we head back to Misawa that this glam life of always being the center of attention and being held will come to an end. I can't believe he is already 9 months old now. He has some teeth, can crawl, sits up like a champ, and is starting to self ween himself. I am both sad and happy about that. He is my baby and I love that I have been able to nurse him and bond with him in that way, but knowing that I soon will be completely done nursing makes me so excited for the freedom it will grant me!
During our time in Washington I tried to run at least every other day. I realize that I am on vacation, so I didn't set high expectations, I am just trying to maintain. The nice part was that I went running with my dad who was a good pacer and motivator to push myself. We even dragged Katie on a couple of our runs, and for being on a mission the past year and half she did pretty well. I also tried my best to help Katie settle in. I knew she would be "strange" coming back and would need time to adjust to life outside the mission. So I took her out to lunch to a couple places (thank the Lord for Chipotle and Chick fil a... Oh how I have missed such delicious foods in my life), shopping, and even took her to get her hair done. She decided to enhance her now blond locks and added more blond highlights. It turned out great. Out of both of us, she is definitely the more gutsy sister when it comes to hair color and cut.
Above all we mostly enjoyed some down time and sunshine this trip provided us. We went to a park practically every day. There Brayden tried out the swing for the first time and absolutely loved it. All my kids are huge swings babies, so I hope wherever we move to next we can get a little swing set in the backyard.
Now when I said we went out to eat... we really went out to eat! Since Katie and I have been out of the country for over a year we decided that we needed to take advantage of being back and ate at almost every fast food retuaraunt you can think of, as well as sit down restuarants. Olive Garden never tasted so good, same with Red Robin. Lets just say it was a good thing that I was running to try to at least keep the gaining of pounds to a minimum.
Even though my parents both had to work while we were there, we took advantage of the time that we did have with them in the afternoon/evenings. The kids were hamming it up for all and definitely kept us entertained. They also loved the little toy room my dad had painted and is currently adding shelving for toys and carpet to make it the perfect grandkid retreat room. We also took full advantage of their hot tub, or little kid pool as Abby and Connor called it. They thought it was a little pool just for them and begged to go in every day.
Towards the end of our time with my parents, we made sure to go visit Grammie and Nana. By this point all our jet lag was gone and the kids were more on a schedule and less grumpy and irritable, I didn't want to take them if they were going to be cranky and loud. We first stopped by Grammie's place, where she is now living in an assisted living home with other elderly ladies. She looked like she always does, happy and well. It was so good to see her again and to see her interact with my kids. I love my Grammie dearly. Ever since her stroked over 10 years ago she mentally has never been the same, but I can still feel her sweet spirit as always. I do long for the day when we can embrace in the life after this and her mind and memory completely restored. What fun it will be for my kids to get to meet the witty Grammie I knew growing up.
Our second stop was to visit Nana. She turned 100 years old this year, I cannot believe it! Unfortunately in this case Nana did not look well. She couldn't carry on a conversation and didn't know who any of us were. She slurs her words and can barely move. It is obvious that her age is having affects on her body. She is scared because she can't remember anything or anyone and is very lonely. As much as I love my Nana, and will always remember her taking me to ballet classes, or going to the movies together, or even just playing at her house while she made us root beer floats, I do want this mortal trial to pass for her so she can be happy once again with an able body and mind. She truly is having to endure to the end.
I had no idea that during our visit to the states we would also be there during a complete solar eclipse, and that the eclipse's totality location would be just three hours from my parent's house. So basically we got a really neat viewing of the eclipse and we didn't even plan on it! I didn't know what to do with the kids since they were too little to hold the special sunglasses that are required to use to look at it without damaging your eyes. So I decided it was best to not tell them about it at all in case they try to look at the sun out of curiosity. Come 10:15 when the eclipse was starting to occur, I put Brayden down for a nap and basically locked my kiddos down in the basement where the grandkid toy room is located. They didn't object cause they were happy to go play with their toys. Meanwhile Katie and I stayed outside on the deck observing the moon pass in front of the sun casting strange sharp shadows, and creating a weird hazy feeling. The temperature dipped about 10-15 degrees, and it got fairly dark outside, but only for a couple minute till the sun passed again and more light warmed everything up again. It was a really neat once in a lifetime thing. So glad I was able to experience it.
The time came for us to say good bye and head to St. George to spend time with the Benhams to end our visit back to the states. It was a teary goodbye, but also a happy one knowing that the next time I will get to see my parents again will not be that far off as we are getting ready to PCS at the end of this year. I am grateful my parents let us raid their house for the past week and were willing to give us all their time and energy. Thanks for all the memories Nonna and Pappie, and see you soon.
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