The Trip Home: Long Waits, Airport Gates, and an Impromptu Stay at Jen's

Here's the next installment of our trip-home saga, as promised. (I know you've all been on the edge of your seats...for like a month, because that's how long it has taken me to get around to this.)

So we got to the airport at about 10:30 a.m. on Monday the 11th. Our flight was delayed 2 hours, so we became well-acquainted with that place, hanging out at our gate from about 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. We did get free drinks and sandwiches, though. Cha-ching.

The best part of all was getting our six million 50-lb. bags checked. FINALLY. We had been hauling them around long enough. I was elated to see them move along the conveyor belt, but Anna was distraught. She kept saying, "No bye bags. No bye!" We truthfully had to turn her stroller around so that she couldn't see them leaving her. We decided that it was tough to see those bags go, bags that had been her friends and travel companions for 10 long months. But we'd see them again, Anna. All in good time.

Another fun story. While we were waiting and waiting and waiting to board our flight, Anna decided to check out another toddler who was toddling nearby. (Actually, it was the other way around. Anna's not quite one for going out of her way to introduce herself, at this point.) Anyway, a teenage girl and her mom were looking after the little boy and Trevor decided to initiate some chit chat. In Polish, he asked the girl how old the little boy was. She stared at him each of the three times he asked, with the feeling in the air getting more and more awkward each time. And then she said, "Oh, I don't speak Polish." So Trevor switched over to English and the chat continued. I had a silent celebration in my head, thinking to Trevor, "Ha! Now you know what I felt like this past year." I was secretly glad that he was going to have to get used to English again, now that we were headed back to the States.

Here is cute little Anna, waiting at the airport gate before we left Warsaw.

Fun with clay on the plane. (After all of the clay colors were good and mixed (read ruined), I think Trevor played with the clay more than Anna did. 9 hours is long for adults too, I guess.)

We were SO excited to see Jen and Sean at the airport in New York! Jen came armed with sandwiches, grapes, chocolates, and a book and a crossword puzzle card to celebrate mine and Trevor's anniversary. At this point in the day (it was 1 a.m. Poland time), Trevor and I realized that we had not said ONE word about our anniversary. We had talked about it a week or so before, but everything had been so chaotic leading up to our departure that it hadn't even crossed our minds for days. Happy 4 years to us.

Since we missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake because of the 2-hour delay, we stayed the night at Jen and Sean's. I'm so glad we got to spend some time with them. It was hard stretching our already-exhausting travels over two days instead of one really long one, but it was so fun to hang out.

This documents the first time Anna's nails were painted. And now she can't stop. She's constantly showing everyone her pretty nails, whether they're painted or not. You created a monster, Jen.

I love the lack-of-a-chin look going on here (for Anna).

Anna also loved Jen's hair. (I believe she even referred to her aunt as "Brown" a few times.)

Love the tongue.

Goodbye, New York.

We finally arrived in Salt Lake, completely knackered and jet lagged to high heaven, at 11 p.m. Tuesday night. It was good to be back.