Continuing the Journey

No More Hotels For Us...

...'cause we are home!

We arrived in our home airport Friday night a few minutes later than expected...which put us right on time for our original flight schedule. The three of us were smelly and exhausted, but thankful to be finished with airplanes and layovers. As we headed toward the terminal......I saw Meggie and Carson standing in front of a crowd -- and I was so excited to see them that I took exactly one horribly blurry picture...
...before the kids came running...
...and smashed into us with hugs and tears! Carson seemed shocked to see us and kept telling me, "Mommy, I MISSED you!" and "I'm so glad you came home!" Meggie was a puddle of tears and nearly made me cry as we hugged and she wouldn't let go.

We approached the end of the hallway and saw the group waiting for us, made up of family members and dear friends. Molly was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention...
...and eventually ended up in Daddy's arms, crying and shaking like a leaf. Poor thing. At one point, someone asked Carson what he thought of Molly.
His answer was priceless: "I think she's perfect!" Isn't he a sweetie?!

We stood around and visited for a while then thanked everyone for coming and headed to the minivan. Molly was beyond exhausted and overwhelmed...
...and the car seat sent her over the edge. She cried and screamed for Daddy...which didn't help her much since Daddy was planning to drive us home. Meggie had the EXCELLENT idea...
...to distract Molly with a DVD. It worked like a charm and Carson was THRILLED to get to watch a movie!

We were planning to head home and were discussing how hungry we were when our friends Sarah and Scott called (well, technically, just Sarah called) to invite us to eat dinner with them. We were tired and smelly, but we WERE hungry...and since they invited us to meet them at Cheddar's (which is by the airport but over an hour from our house, so not typically convenient) we decided to go. Interestingly, as we got out of the van at Cheddar's, I saw my family getting out of their cars next door at IHOP. So what was going to be a quick dinner ended up turning into a bit of a party!

Since Molly had a beautiful Mulan doll given to her by my dear friend Wendy P. (Wendy, I LOVE that doll -- I'm so impressed you were able to find it!!) and Carson was feeling a bit left out, Daddy had to dig through our suitcases in the parking lot...
...to find the new Ultraman action figure we bought for him in China. Since that took a few minutes, Meggie took the opportunity to try to make a connection with her new little sister...
...and, wonderful big sister that Meggie is, these two were best friends before our food arrived!
I mean, really, how many 16-year-olds would wear Mulan's sash as a hair bow just to make a four-year-old laugh?! Carson pretty much ignored Molly during dinner, choosing instead to visit with my family and play with Scott and Sarah's kids.

Molly ate NOTHING and started to fall asleep sitting straight up in her high chair. Poor baby, she was SO tired......so Meggie snuggled her and she fell asleep almost instantly. We all cracked up when Molly shifted in Meggie's arms to get more comfortable...
...and ended up sleeping like this on Meggie's lap! Always posing for a photo opportunity, I guess.

We got caught in construction traffic on the way home and didn't get to our house until nearly midnight...which was way too late for all of us! It was there that I finally got a good look at the sign Meggie made for us...
...and then, as we headed upstairs to get ready for bed......saw this! Ahhhhh...it's so nice to be welcomed home!!

Meggie helped Molly into her PJs and suddenly Molly was a MESS...
...as she sobbed and screamed at the top of her lungs! We tried to place her in her bed, but she just got significantly worse. It was almost like she was afraid of her room. Since it was so late, we just decided to have her sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed and work on the bedroom issue later. She did great in our bed and slept like a log until 9:30AM the next morning.

So now we head to the real fun...adjusting to life with three kids. Right now I'm off to bed...it's getting late and I have a feeling Molly will be getting up early tomorrow.

NEXT: A busy weekend with a spicy Baby Girl and a jealous Little Man.