America the Beautiful, Land that I love

A few weeks ago my husband got approved to go to a training back home.  That was on Wed.  On Thursday, I bought a ticket, and we flew on Friday.  Nothing like a spur of the moment trip across the Atlantic!   It was LOADS of fun!  Unfortunately we could not take the same flight as his company paid for his and we had to pay for mine.  I wasn't as nervous to make the 15 hour venture as the only adult with Anna this time, as I was last time.  It went really smoothly.  In fact, on the long flight over we were given a seat in the bulkhead (which they normally do for families with infants).  The flight attendant said that since the flight was not very full I could move to one of the seats with two seats available if I wanted to.  That sounded great (two seats for the price of one!).  Well, we moved after take off, and once we moved, I offered our seat in the bulkhead to the lady sitting next to us.  She was actually traveling with the woman who was sitting next to us in the bulkhead and readily accepted.  That is right we ended up with 3 seats to ourselves!  When I put the arm rests down I could stretch out all the way with Anna!  She only took a 45 minute nap during the entire (which was much longer than she slept traveling at 6 months) She timed it perfectly.  It was during meal time so I even was able to eat my own food!    We stayed with my parents for a week.  We were able to do all kinds of fun things!  Going home really reminds you of how much you miss everything.  It was wonderful for Anna to get to spend so much time with my parents.  We were able to go and see Drew's grandparents which was wonderful.  We also were able to spend a lot of time with our good friends the wheelers.  They have a daughter 6 months older than Anna and it was as though they had played with each other all the time.  They became instant BFF's.  It was adorable.  They were making each other giggle in the car rides.  They were playing hide a seek, chasing each other around, so cute!  We thought it was wonderful.  Drew and Joe have been best friends for a long time, its great that his wife and I get  along swimmingly, and now the girls do too!  Drew has nicknamed Anna "Boca" for a long time.  That is the name we use most often when we call her.  Emmeline (Joe and Alissa's daughter) kept saying Bokey after she left Anna on the first day.  Alissa was wondering what she was trying to say, then it dawned on her.  She asked if she was talking about Boca, indeed she was.  She reportedly walked around saying "Bokey, bokey, bokey"  On our last night there my parents took Anna and I (Drew had to fly back home the day before)  out to dinner at a place called "Hanks" it was great food and cool that they had a "Hyattsville burger"  I didn't get one but I had a bite and it was great!

After we left my parents we traveled to Detroit to see my sister Denise and her family.  It was great to be able to meet baby Grant and spend time with all the boys as well.  I have really missed seeing them grow.  Anna loved spending time with her cousins.  I think she loved waking up in the morning and having a house full of kids to play with!  Jackson would spin her around, which she thought was hilarious!   We were able to go to the pool, watch Jackson play soccer, and do a little shopping while we were there.  Denise showed us around her neighborhood and took us to her old old.  I got pretty emotional as I was leaving (also a bit stressed with the upcoming journey).  I think what did me in was the extra long hug Jackson gave me.  It is really hard not to see all the little milestones in the kids lives.  A few days later Denise called me to tell me that even though she didn't realize Luke even knew my name, he kept walking around the house saying "Kimmy gone"  how sweet!  Don't get me wrong we do love the opportunity we have to live in England.  But parting truly is such sweet sorry.