Return Home, Finally!!

Friday, August 21 was mostly spent preparing for our trip home--packing, cleaning our rented house the best we could and looking forward to being on our own beds again! We finally managed to go to the Audubon Center at Debs Parks before dropping Dave off at work. The kids had fun climbing trees and playing in the house. We borrowed binoculars and butterfly wings that the kids enjoyed using. Benjamin and I only saw a few lizards (which was still exciting) quickly escape into the bushes, but when Laura and I went with Grandma, we saw lots in plain view.

The rest of the morning was taken up with errands, including mailing books home (I hope we get them soon) and choosing a special snack for the flight home. Joshua discovered some sea animal cheese crackers that the kids couldn't wait to gobble down. We picked up Daddy in time to have dinner at El Polo Loco and then went home and settled down for our last night in California.

Saturday morning everything went smoothly on our drive to the airport and getting on our flight. I think Laura used the bathroom on the first flight 5 times. When we got to Dallas, we had to sit on the runway for over half an hour before we got into a gate, so we had to rush to our connecting flight. The kids were excited to take a train between terminals, and we got onto our second flight, but, as we were to find out later, our luggage didn't. Laura napped for a while on the second flight after screaming for a while that she wanted to be served apple juice. After she woke up, she was too grumpy and tired of traveling to be interested in the bathroom more than twice. The kids were excited to see two Grandmas and one Grandpa and drive back to East Brunswick in our very own van. Dave picked up our luggage at the Binghamton Airport on Monday. It is good to finally be back home!