summer vacation

It's good to be home! The kids did amazingly well on the flight home, especially since we flew from Orlando to San Francisco Thursday, and then back to Tokyo on Friday. Two really nice stewardesses helped me get off the plane, go through immigration and customs, get my luggage and helped push my three luggage carts out to where Ryan would be waiting. It was quite the sight--me with three kids, a stroller, car seat, and the maximum amount of luggage and carry ons. The plane was an hour early, making Ryan an hour late picking us up. But we just parked all our stuff by the gate and played games while we waited.

We had an amazing five weeks in the US. Here are some of our highlights:

• Taking the kids to see temple square with Ryan's parents.

• Celebrating Pioneer Day in Utah. The fireworks and neighborhood party definitely made up for missing July 4th. The kids dressed like pioneers, decorated their bikes and rode around the cult-de-sac for the parade.
  

• Visiting my Grandma Crandall--This was the first time she saw her great-grandson Jacob.

• We spent a week at Deer Lake outside Spokane, Washington at a family reunion. The kids had lots of fun jet skiing with dad and grandpa.

• Jacob turned one! My mom made his darling clown cake.
  

• Trent learned how to swim! By the end of the summer he was pretty confident alone in the deep end and could even do the back stroke. (kind of!)

• The kids watched hours and hours of Disney Channel, catching up on all their favorite shows. We didn't mind allowing them this luxury, since we don't have TV in Tokyo.

• Tons of shopping for me! I came home with a years' worth of shoes and clothes for all of us, and of course, this mountain of food.
  
  

• And the grand finale--A Disney Cruise with my parents and siblings. It was awesome! I'll do a separate blog on this later when I have more time.
  
  And now we're back home, still trying to get over our jet lag. It's so much harder to adjust to Japan than it was to go back to the US. Not sure why. But we're all glad to be back on a routine, getting ready for school to start, and back home with Ryan. The kids missed their dad!