home again

So, last Friday night we finally made it home safe and sound.  This time there were no issues with tickets or planes and everything went pretty smoothly.  There still was a bit of nerves since we had to rush to the gates with only few minutes spared before boarding.  When we landed in Washington DC there was a huge line of people waiting at customs so that made my blood pumping a bit but we made it out of there on time.  Kason did great and never complained about walking too far or too fast.  It was a bummer that he didn't sleep longer on our 9 and a half hour long flight.  He took a little nap under 2 hours and that was it.  So then the 2 other airplane rides he was so exhausted he fell asleep each time right in the middle of them so when it was time to land and get out of the plane, I had to wake up a little boy sleeping as hard as a rock.  And not just wake him up, it was wake up and walk a few miles around the airport as fast as you can. :)  Finally, we landed in Fargo which is a couple hours drive from our house and it was so great to hug Kade, Ani and Ehren tightly.  They missed us so much, Anika didn't want to leave my side when we got in the van.  At that point I was so exhausted I could barely stay awake and pretty soon, all 4 of us were sleeping in the back of the van.  Ehren was saying how this was good because now we know our kids can sleep in the car :), thinking of our summer trip to Canada where we want to drive thru the night on our way there, along with my parents.  People whose kids sleep every time they get in the car have no idea how hard it is when our kids never sleep, even if it's timed just right for their nap time or late at night. :)  The next morning it was a bit like a Christmas morning at our house with Kade and Anika opening all the presents from my family.  They were so excited and wanted to try on or play with everything at once.

We had a nice relaxing weekend, trying to get back into our routine and catch up on some sleep.  It was nice seeing the daycare kids back this week, although it will take a bit to get back into our regular routines of everything, not to mention staying on track with trying to potty train 3 kids at the same time.  It makes it a bit harder that my computer died while I was gone and now I have to use Ehren's little laptop.  It works just fine, but I rely on all my bookmarks, documents, menus, recipes and so on I have on my computer so I have to wing it now for a few weeks until Ehren hopefully fixes it or transfers stuff from the motherboard.

It's been fun watching Kason and Ani play together.  They are such a pair and just love doing everything together.  If Kason plays the wii for a while Anika is right by him cheering him on (she doesn't want to play) and when she asks Kason to play house he is just as excited to join her.  He's been so sweet, coming up to all his little friends and telling them how much he missed them when he was gone.  But once in a while he'll come up to me with a big smile and tells me "it was fun being in Slovakia" and it really was.  I feel so blessed for being able to spend some quality time with my parents, see my brothers's families, nieces and nephews who are growing up so fast and just being home again.  Thief River is our home now but Slovakia will always be my piece of home.

trying on her dress from babka

and we came to this in our front yard :)

    

airports stories...

Well, I have yet to encounter a trip to or from Slovakia without any flight/airlines issues.  We were supposed to leave this morning and got up around 4:15am to catch a 7am flight from Vienna.  Dad had to go to a meeting so we just said good bye and a few minutes later I was having flash backs to when Ehren left us at the airport and I was stuck there without being able to call him.  This time, the Austrian lady was telling me I was not on the flight to Frankfurt, in fact my ticket was booked starting in Frankfurt.  I started panicking in my head because if  I don't get to Frankfurt I would miss the connecting flight and so on.  Another lady gave me a phone number to call, supposedly someone from United Airlines in Frankfurt that could help.  I used one of my few Euro coins I brought with me only to hear an angry woman on the other side tell me I can't use this number and hung up before I could ask anything.  I was starting to freak out a little bit then and just prayed and prayed that it would all work out. 

Luckily there was a nicer lady at a desk where passengers can purchase new tickets.  I told her all about what's going on and thankfully she found a number to call a United Airlines agent and she called them for me which was great because I was on hold about 45 minutes and would not have enough money at a pay phone.  The agent new right away they made a mistake with my e-ticket so they tried to rebook the whole thing but since Lufthansa is on strike in Frankfurt nothing was flying there or Munich.  They found another flight that goes directly to Washington DC from Vienna but I already missed the one for today so we have to wait until tomorrow (Friday) morning to leave.  It is kind of funny because when looking for our tickets I was trying to find one to fly back on Friday but they were way more expensive so we did Thursday instead. Actually, it works better for Ehren and the kids on Friday too because we get to Fargo at 10pm and home after midnight so having Saturday to sleep in is very nice. 

So we got to spend more time with my sister-in-law Elen and her kids.  We went to my mom's for lunch and Kason and I took a nice nap because we were both exhausted.  Now our flight leaves at 10:20am so we don't have to get up that early in the morning which is really nice.

So all in all, the bad thing turned out to be good because if I had a good ticket to go to Frankfurt I might have been stuck here anyway or else stuck there because the airline is on strike.  I'm bummed about not seeing Kade, Ani and Ehren and I know they are very disappointed to not see us tonight.  But, that's flying internationally - you can never be sure if your plane is going to leave or if it's going to leave with you in it. :) 

Last Day

It was our last day in Slovakia today and it was a beautiful day.  It was sunny and 55 F which was nice even for here the way the weather has been this year.  It was like a small good bye present just for me because God knew how much I wanted to enjoy some outdoors before I got back to our yard that's filled with snow.

In a way it is nice to have Ehren, Kade and Ani waiting for us because if they were with us I would absolutely hate going back there already, before the snow is all gone.  This way both Kason and I have something to look forward to and it makes coming home so much more exciting.

These 2 weeks have just flown by for us here and they always do.  Kason did have days when he was missing home and kids that he could interact with more but it was great to see him play with the cousins more at the end.  I think he got frustrated sometimes that everyone is talking around him and he has no idea what they're saying.  I wish we could come for a longer period so the kids are almost forced to learn it more.  Kason can pronounce words so well and my mom spent some time teaching him new words which he loved.  He also loved painting with her and the last few days when he woke up he asked my mom to read their book right away and then paint.  I sent an e-mail to Kason's preschool teacher with some pictures and it was so cute because she replied to me and wrote comments and questions of about 5 of Kason's class mates.  They were all so interested in his trip and wanted to know what it was like on the plane and what he was doing.  Kason really loved it and talked about his friends for a while after that.

Today we went to see another castle, more of a ruin of a castle Devin that was built by the Romans in the Roman Empire.  Kason loved running up the hill to get to the ruins and just enjoyed looking at everything.  I am really suprised by his endurance because so far Kade was about his age when we were here and Anika was too and they both complained a lot about all the walking we had to do all the time but Kason never complained about it.  If there was a playground around he didn't care how far we have to walk he was running around all the play equipment as if he just got up from a nap.  If the walking got a bit too long Kason would say "I'm bored, all the stuff around is just for grown ups" :) which is because we didn't  see any play grounds for a while.

So here are the last of our pictures from today.  We said good byes to my brothers families and the cousins that live here and it was so nice.  Kason started getting used to their house and kids after he's been there a few times and he was all ready to stay there for the night.  It's sad we don't get to see each other more often but it is always nice to come visit and see how much their kids have grown.

babka teaching Kason some words in Slovak

Devin castle

  

these wild flowers greeted us even though there was snow on
the ground not too long ago.  Won't see that in our MN anytime soon.

walking

Kason and I got some good walking done today.  It was finally nicer out even though still windy at some point (reason for Kason always wearing a hat or a hood ) so we were finally able to walk around the downtown area.  It was much nicer the few days after I came but we were busy visiting with the family or recouping from not enough sleep then.  So we made up for lost time and took a bunch of pictures on our tour of some of the downtown area.  Kason wanted to see the castle from up close and at first I thought it would be too far but it really wasn't and the views up there are beautiful.  Ehren and I took some of our wedding pictures there and it reminded me of how we took pictures at some of the same spots as Kason and  I did today.  It was a great time and Kason didn't complain about too much walking at all.

It was a pretty busy day too.  Kason did some painting with babka (grandma) and the 3 of us went to visit my sister-in-law Slavka who just had their first baby.  He is so sweet and little, hard to imagine our kids were that small at one time.  Then Kason and I did our walking around town and it was time for dinner.

Mom and I also got some shopping done in the evening so it was a full day.  I love how they have the new big mall so close to their apartment, it takes less than 5 minutes to walk there.  I took Kason there a couple times too and he would go from store to store and telling me "mom, it is Beautiful here." :)  Instead of huge department stores inside the mall they have a lot of smaller ones but they are all very shiny and sparkly, trendy and just a lot more appealing than the stores in our malls.  They had some fun Easter decorations there we took pictures of with Kason.

So here are a bunch of pictures from the last couple days and I'll put some descriptions on some of them.  We have one more day tomorrow and then it's time to pack up and leave.  The time has just flown by so quickly, but I know it didn't quite fly like that for Ehren. :) We're going to look at some gardens in Austria tomorrow and it should be a bit warmer so I'm glad.  I am bracing myself for all that snow that is waiting to greet us when we get home.

Filip turned 7 on Sunday

It was snowing/raining and cold yesterday so
we didn't get too much walking done then

Easter Bunny village at the mall

Going to see the baby - Kason loves trams the best

holding baby Emil

Kason wanted a turn too

Kason loved painting with babka

here starts our walk today - we walked all the way to the tiny castle in the middle of the picture

here is Kason's view of me and the world :)

getting closer to the castle

we made it up there