USA visit May 2015: West Virginia

We had such a great time visiting home in May.  I will have to divide up the trip into multiple posts because there are so many pictures I want to document here on our blog.

We spent just over 2 weeks at home, one week with each of our families, plus a couple travel days.  The flight over is usually during the day time for us while the flight back is overnight.  The day time flight is not my favorite because if we're lucky, we have it down to about 16 hour travel time with only one layover, which means we have about an 8 hour flight over to the States, then the second is usually 1-2 hours.  The overnight is easier because the kids actually sleep about 4 hours of the 8 hour flight instead of less than an hour nap on the flight there.  It's actually kind of a treat for us on the overnight flight because we each get to watch one or two movies which almost never happens because we just don't watch movies much lately.

Anyways, we made it, but as usual, sickness followed us traveling home.  This will be the third time traveling very long distance with having at least one person sick.  This time, all FOUR of us were sick for about 10 days each!  Luckily, the kids started it a week before we left so most of our trip was healthy.  Luckily for us, we had lots of help, especially that first week home, so we could get rest.

It was pretty hilarious having a family doctor appointment at the nearest urgent care just a day after we arrived.

Our entire time at home was amazing.  We didn't do much besides play with grandparents and cousins, eat too much good food, and shop like crazy people since we pretty much only shop when we come back to the States.   Most of the shopping was online (it's pretty great to have a sister who works at Zappos!) so we didn't have to run around too much.

Here are some pictures or our time in West Virginia with the family.

Silly girl in Mimi's glasses

We clocked a lot of time on the swingset

He found the fun drawer

Maddie LOVES to be outside.  Helping Mimi plant flowers, spread mulch, and use a little wheel barrow was a blast for this girl.  As a side note, I haven't coveted much of the excess or space that we have in the USA because there are so many other things here that are so different here that we love, but watching her out in the yard really made me want to have a bigger home with a big yard to ourselves.

Mimi and Pops have the best set up for these little kiddos.  They always had things to do and corners to play in with their cousins.

We had a weenie roast out back.  The weather was actually pretty cool during our week there, so having a fire was really nice.

Maddie also loved getting ready with Mimi in the mornings.  When we couldn't find her, she was somewhere opening drawers, closets, and bins discovering little treasures.  She helped herself to all of Mimi's makeup and jewelry.  So funny.  I definitely don't have as much makeup or makeup that is as fun as Mimi's.

 We had a casual birthday celebration for the kids since we don't get to celebrate birthdays altogether.

And here are the cousins, all lined up, oldest to youngest.  It's a lively bunch.

Maddie also LOVES to be in the kitchen helping with anything that I'll allow her to do.  She got to make biscuits, cake, and "wash" plenty of dishes while we were there.

Making No Bake Cookies...big one is for Daddy!

It seems like our boy always has scratches, bruises, bumps, or black eyes.  What a boy :-)

We spent a couple warmer afternoons outside in the pool.  We got to sit and watch them splash each other.

 Checking out Uncle Brad's motorcycle.  She was completely taken with it.  I think she would've driven right up the driveway on her own if she knew how to work it.

We also got to see both Bryce's brothers' new houses (two brothers and their families just bought new homes in the area).  The kids took lots of rides on the golf cart up the driveway to get the mail, over to Joan and Harry's house, along the side yard, and back, over and over again.

Seriously, we had such a good time.  #ilovemyfamily