Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ok, so where were we...

Oh yeah, well skip ahead about 6 months. We are now out of the Philippines and have just wrapped up Home Leave. For those of you not familiar with the Foreign Service, that is the mandatory four weeks you must spend all your money, um, I mean, time in your home country for repatriation, aka rediscovering what it is to be American.

We squeezed in as much as we could. We hung out on the West Coast and enjoyed as much as we had time for. The main attractions included visiting family, Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, exploring Arizona, Los Angeles, Disney Land, Legoland, the snow, the beach and a bunch of hotels in between. Exhausted? Check. We also had the chance to treat the kids to the concept of the Great American Road Trip. Overall, I would say it was a great success.

Now we are set up in temporary housing in Virginia while Steve finishes up his training for his next position in Helsinki. It's great to be here, seeing old friends, visiting museums and playing in the park, and if it were a long term set up I would be very happy. But all we've got is another week, and I think we are all ready to be a little more settled in and in our own home.


Enjoying the view at Zion National Park


A snow storm near the Grand Canyon.


Exploring ancient Pueblo ruins in Arizona.





The boys enjoying the beach in California.