Alive and Well

We've made it back home! We left Pennsylvania at about 10:30 on Wednesday morning and made our way to Dulles Int'l (Washington DC) where wer got to SIT for 4 hours waiting for our plane. Our first flight got moved up an hour (what? why EARLY?) and our second flight was an hour late, making that stop much longer than anticipated. Oceana was already in "rocky territory" behaviorally-speaking, but she found some friends to color and play with while we waited.

Our flight from DC to LA went pretty, except that Naomi had a hard time settling. We missed three days in a row of Gentian Violet (for her/my thrush) and I think her poor little mouth was hurting. I'm definitely hurting, so I can imagine she does too! I fought tears on that flight because she wouldn't stop crying. I didn't want to admit I was sobbing, but those pesky tears still dribbled down my face - even though I didn't want anyone to know I'd reached breaking point. It was a breaking point that came way too early in the day(s) of travel for my taste.

But I kept my cool. Most of the time. I had to keep reminding myself that I don't like that breaking-point-version-of-me. Our stop over in LA was nearly 7 hours long, but between new friends (ironically, they were one of the families we played with in DC too!), Burger King, and some coloring books, we survived. After we got on our flight to NZ we realized Oceana had been awake (besides a short nap) since 7:30am and it was now 3:30am. That poor girl was SHOT!

Both girls kept their cool most of the time on our flight and Nay-Nay did very well sleeping about 7 hours straight at one point (unfortunately I wasn't able to sleep that same 7 - but I can survive on three hours that weren't consecutive). She did her share of being unsettled on that flight, but our semi-celebrity fellow passengers didn't seem to mind [as a side note, I told Matt they had to be from WWF - WWE was close enough, and they are all the size of TREES].

We arrived in New Zealand at 8am on Friday morning and got home to Tauranga around noon. (8am Fri was 4pm Thurs EST). It was a long trip, but nothing went missing. I found my black long sleeve, that apparently I'd left in our van in New Zealand never taken with me. And upon arriving home I trashed our house by opening all six suitcases and five carry on bags in the middle of our dining room/living room. But the coolest part? My dad made us dinner (my Mom's in Fiji for three weeks). Following dinner a very tuckered-out girl crawled under the table to play with her Baboo's toes. A few minutes later we looked under the table and discovered her sound asleep on her tummy with her hand stretched out toward Baboo's feet. :) She lasted till 7pm, that's pretty good considering all the travelling and her normal bedtime is 8.

Naomi slept 6-1, ate, and slept again till 5:30. Oceana slept 7 to 1 and needed a sandwich (we're reliving this night-time-snack-routine), and slept again till 5:30. We're doing pretty good. Matt and I collapsed at 9pm, we were so exhausted!

And now? Now I'm gonna put away all the STUFF and start with laundry (Naomi was in a pukey mood on the plane and since), but not before I post PICTURES!