Home!

CreeperPuppy bounced out of bed this morning ready to jump in the van. A surprise after three long days of driving but he was excited to get home! We all were but the kids are most of all.

We have been truly amazed at how resilient the kids have been for the last 13 months. New places, new languages, new cuisines, a different kind of school, very little stuff in terms of toys, only each other for friends – you name it and they’ve dealt with it.

But now, they were ready to say goodbye to our last lodging of the trip – a small suite in Kingman, AZ. We spent a lot of nights all sharing the same room – this was the last for awhile (we think).

We had 5 hours driving through 100 degree inland California temperatures until we got close to the coast. At our stop for lunch we shared memories of some of our destinations and looked at the map of how long we had to go.

Our last stop of the trip was the same as our first stop of the trip over a year ago. It was at Ed and Loesje’s house in Irvine. It was great to see them and also great to collect the boxes they were so kind to store and receive for us over the course of the year. It was too much to fit in the van so Brian’s Dad kindly drove down to deliver it. In all we shipped 9 boxes back full of treasures and toys and of course legos.

It was strange to be back in the house yet it felt very familiar very quickly. Shockingly quickly.

Our tenants took great care of the house so it’s pretty much as we had left it last June. Well, mostly the same. We’re basically camping here until our belongings get delivered on the 25th. Oh, and the gas hasn’t been turned back on from the fumigation we had done this week so no stove or hot water. But that’s ok, it’s still home.

We introduced Jeremy Picklepants to the neighborhood and our big hill. He seems to like his parking place of honor out front. We think he’s looking forward to trading in his Ohio license plate for a California one soon.

That’s all we’ve got for today but we promise one last post tomorrow to try to wrap up this amazing, challenging, fun experience.