Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to it.  I’ve just been very tired and jet-lagged this week.  That, coupled with the responsibilities of my teaching position, have made me not at all “into” posting this week.  While I am still tired, I feel that I am getting back on track now and will attempt to resume my prevous posting schedule.

Let’s start with the trip to the US.  For the most part, the travel to the US was uneventful.  There was the last-minute packing and scrambling in order to be ready to go to the airport, but our ticketing went smoothly, the flights were on time and the kids handled themselves remarkably well throughout the whole thing.  Even a year ago, they might have been an absolute nightmare on the plane, but this time around they did much better than we expected.

There was only one tense moment as we travelled across the world…about halfway through the first flight, the stewardess takes the microphone and says “If there is a doctor on board, please contact a flight attendent.”  This caused a momentary flutter of panic for me, as all I could think about was the movie “Airplane”.  Surely they couldn’t be serious! 😉  If you’ve seen it, you’ll have to agree that it was necessary to quickly assess whether I had had the chicken or the fish.  However, the flight continued on without incident and we never did find out who was sick or what was wrong.

When we finally made it to Chicago, we were tired but excited.  Our first order of business was to head out into that cold, cruel city and obtain a rental car.  Now, if we actually had winter jackets, this would have been no problem, but we had nothing of the sort, and the temperature was in the low teens.  (Farenheit).  The kids wore sweatshirts and lightweight jackets, but that wasn’t enough to keep out the cold.  We were glad that the bus for the rental car place came quickly.

When we got off the bus, we were greeted to the most amazing sight.  Snow, lots and lots of beautiful, white, falling snow!  It covered the walkways, insulated the railings, and caused havoc on the roadways.  We were in the middle of a winter wonderland…just what two warm-weather kids had dreamed of.  They didn’t remember snow at all, and they were eager to get reacquainted.  (unfortunately, we remembered well what snow was all about, and the memories aren’t nearly as fond as the ones that they made on our trip!)

The following pictures are of their first, excited foray into winter, taken as Scott waited to pay for the rental car.

A two hour drive to Milwaukee put us at Grandma’s house where there were proper cold weather clothes waiting thanks to my mom’s bargain hunting skills.  Even though it was late, we had to don jackets, hats, boots and gloves and enjoy the snow a bit more…

There’s nothing like a beautiful snowfall on a crystal clear evening.  What a great time.  After we had had enough of the cold, we headed over to the home of our good friends, Heidi and Paul for some catching up and well-deserved night’s sleep.

Next up:  The condo in Wisconsin Dells.