Transitioning Home

"Home" is such a transient word at this point. We basically have 2 homes now; living between two continents. In all honesty, it's a pretty strange feeling. Yet somewhat exciting to think we might just be able to pull off a cross-continental life.

After an incredibly long travel day we arrived back in California 3 weeks ago. With the hope of being able to fly back to California every year we started researching some of the cheaper flights. Buyer beware though. Cheaper flights definitely come with some negatives. Like multiple stops or long layovers or crazy departure times. We were lucky enough to find one with only one stop-over in Germany and then a non-stop flight to San Francisco. After experimenting with different flight options over the years let me just say that you do NOT want an extra stop in the US. No matter the price savings. Especially with young children. It is absolutely worth the money to make sure you have a non-stop flight between the US and Europe. The reason? International flights feed you, entertain you with free movies, and are just plain more comfortable. That's a non-negotiable for us.

The departure time wasn't too bad, 7:30am, and the lay-over in Germany not too bad either, 2 hours. And we saved about $1000 total (for 4 tickets) compared to other available flights. BUT there's always a catch. Our catch happened to come a couple weeks before our intended departure. Without any explanation our flight from Germany to San Francisco had been changed and we were now going to have an 8-hour layover in Germany!! The only explanation I can come up with is that they had 2 flights leaving Germany to San Francisco that day and my guess is both flights were not full enough so they combined them into one. Unfortunately the flight they chose was not the one we had originally signed on for. So.......we got to be creative and figure out how to kill 8 hours in the Dusseldorf airport....with 2 kids!

Waiting to board the plane for our 1st leg.

A cool propeller plane took us from Geneva to Dusseldorf, Germany.

Then 8 hours to kill....1st stop was breakfast, followed by coloring for the kids and computer time for me and Marc.

Next up a tour through the airport, checking out every single store, and finally finding a hang-out space where we made some origami.

Finally we headed over to the terminal we would be leaving from, walked around, grabbed some smoothies, and killed some more time with journaling (Lola) and playing.

Finally, we get to board the plane. Teah's showing off the goods she received after sitting down.

Marc is showing off the extra leg room we get. Yahoo! Air Berlin lets you upgrade for $85 to the roomier section. Totally worth it!!

After an amazing 8 hours in the airport without any electronics, they finally get to plug in and zone out!

After a mere 26 hours from when we first woke up in the morning, we finally landed in San Francisco. My parents met us at the airport with my car and we grabbed some dinner. After dinner we had another hour drive to my sister's house. Theoretically this shouldn't be a big deal but after being awake for such a long stretch......ugh!! It was brutal finishing our lest leg. I was also totally out of practice of how fast Californians drive; not to mention having to navigate a 4-lane freeway. It was a bit overwhelming. We made it though and was so happy to see my sister and brother-in-law again! I've never gone 10 months without seeing my sister. It was such an anticipated reunion for me.

The next morning we got to see my adorable 27 month old neice. As kids do, they change so much so quickly. She's such a big girl now. Thankfully we had done some Skype calls over the year so we weren't total strangers and after a short amount of time she had completely warmed up to us. We had a blast of a week together. And boy did Olivia love spending time with her big girl cousins.

Picnic in the park in downtown San Jose before heading to the Tech Museum with Auntie Becki (my sister).

At the Tech Museum. Marc was game to wear a Body Metrics wearable device that measured his mood, emotions, and focus while touring the museum. Notice he's smiling for the camera but his mood measure says "tension". Ha!

The museum was awesome but I think by far Marc had the best time.

Next up was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I always love a trip to this aquarium. It's totally magical!

Lots of cool interactive features mixed in with the aquarium displays.

We rounded out the week with a trip to Gilroy Gardens. Super Fun! There's Uncle Kenny and Cousin Olivia driving the mallard.

And Auntie Becki and Lola.

I think the car ride was our favorite! Thank God Teah can't actually drive yet. We were all over the place.

Me and my uber adorable neice on the ferris wheel. Let me just point out here that I hate heights, even little kid ferris wheels. Not sure how I got stuck taking the kids on this one?!

These two!

Little Olivia was between me and Kenny but too little to be captured in the shot.

So fun to be with Auntie Becki and Uncle Kenny again!!

While Marc had to head off to Marin to start working on our house the girls and I got to continue our vacationing at my mom and dad's house. Of course Grandma had something fun planned every day for the girls.

We went swimming at one of my mom's friend's houses and there were frogs in the pool!! I've never seen such a thing. We had fun fishing out all the frogs before jumping in.

Then to the Science Museum.

My hometown!

Had lots of fun girl time in Murphy's with Grandma; lunch, shopping, and treats!

Play time at the trampoline park, Sky Zone.

And as if we weren't spoiled enough, Grandma treated us to some pamper time.

The time eventually arrived where we too needed to head back over to the Bay Area to start helping Marc with the house. Besides visiting with all our family and friends and enjoying everyone's company again, our biggest project for the summer is selling our home. Before we can do that though there is some work to be done. And as Marc soon discovered some unexpected work thanks to the super wet winter California endured. We live in the forest, which is totally lovely and peaceful and wonderful. But as anyone knows who has lived in the forest, you are constantly trying to prevent the forest from reclaiming your home. It's true! So our work was cut out for us.

I packed up a U-Haul with some furniture pieces my parents had been storing for us, packed the girls into the cab, and headed over to Marin. As soon as we crossed over the Richmond bridge the anticipation took over the girls. They grabbed my phone and started taking pictures.

For the next 20 minutes until we got to our house, they were eagerly pointing out everything they recognized. They were giggling and talking over each other. They were down-right giddy. Of course their enthusiasm was contagious.

We parked in our driveway and stepped out into the forest. Aaaaaaah! The smell overtook me. I knew I had missed it but until I was under the canopy and smelling the fresh pine did I fully realize in my body how much I had missed it. There's something incredibly grounding and balancing being amongst the redwoods. My two favorite places in the world are the redwoods and the ocean. The smell of both of these places are in my bones, in my cells. I realize even just 10 months away from both was too long.

We arrived around noon and at 12:30 my good friend and neighbor was whisking us away to her house for lunch. Since I complained pretty much every chance I had about the lack of Mexican food in France she thoughtfully prepared us delicious tostadas with all the fixings plus amazing margaritas to boot. Welcome home! The first of many more gatherings to come.