Boxes,Boxes go away

I am sorry we have been silent for a while but Monday morning, May 4 they delivered our shipment and we are just getting out from under the pile of boxes. Our 20 foot shipping container in the drive was almost as big as our house. The way they do customs here is the customs agents come to your house and check your stuff while they unload it. They would randomly cut open boxes to see what was in the box. The agents were very impressed with how well packed our stuff was and how difficult it was to get through all the packing to see what was inside. This is a great ad for Writer, the company which packed all our stuff in Muscat. Everything made it and was in the appropriate number of pieces! Our house here is much smaller than our place in Muscat and mostly furnished. This means we have a lot of stuff that we don't need or will not fit so we have a storage unit not too far away by the airport. It is difficult planning a move here where most places are furnished but you can't be sure what will be in the house you buy or rent.

We have slowly been getting through the boxes, finding what we need, and sending the rest to our storage unit. The kids adore the "new house" and cheer every time we turn the corner and see the "new house". We are in a small complex of 12 townhouses. We have a large fenced yard as we are one of the end units and there is a pool which we usually have to ourselves.

One of the benefits of living in the Western Hemisphere is the opportunity to see more of my family in the States. Last week we took advantage of two holidays Emma had from work ( National Day and the National Election day which comes once every four years) to go to Minneapolis to see my sister Tamara and her family and my parents. We barely made it to the airport here on Friday morning, May 15. The lady gave us a lecture about arriving one hour before departure while pointing to her watch and showing us how it was 59 minutes till departure. When we reached the check in I realized I had left the car seats in the car. Fortunately the long term car park is about 100 metres from the terminal. (It is a very, very small airport.) I was able to run back to the car to retrieve them. When we booked Emma's visa online as part of the visa waiver program the Homeland Security site made it clear we did not need to print out a copy to bring with us while travelling, as all the info would be in the computer. Of course, the airline was also upset with us at check in for not having a copy, even though there was no mention of needing a copy on their website. Confusion still reins as we noticed each time we went through security during the trip. We made it on the flight to Atlanta where we were changing for our flight to Minneapolis. While having dinner in the Atlanta airport Alex suddenly became very ill and started throwing up. We knew that there was a 24 hour throwing up bug going around the Caymans as friends kids had it the previous week. Our concern now was someone would notice Alex throwing up and with a very high fever and think he might have swine flu and throw us all in quarantine for our trip. I forgot to pack a spare shirt so he went shirtless. As we got on the plane for Minneapolis the flight attendant noticed our shirtless kid and we just said he got his shirt all dirty while having dinner. No one needed to know about the throwing up!

We had a fabulous visit in Minneapolis with my sister Tamara, husband Brad and all five kids. My mom and dad were also down from up north. Alex and Ellie had a blast with all their older cousins and Grandma. Emma and I had a chance to go out for several nice dinners without kids and do some shopping for essentials. On Sunday we all went out on their very comfy pontoon boat on Lake Minnetonka. The weather was gorgeous and we stopped at Fletchers be the lake for a tasty lunch. On the way home we stopped at a small island in the lake and got off to play and explore. Alex got his first taste of a real bike and quickly took to peddling all around the neighborhood on his cousin's bike with training wheels.

We had a smooth flight home except for some ticket issues again when checking in both in Minneapolis and Miami while changing planes. While checking in at Minneapolis two of our three bags were overweight so I played a fun game of rearrange items from one bag to another to a carry on bag while reweighing after each move. We finally got each bag to within limit to avoid any fees. Our total weight had not changed, just what was in each bag. We have not been on a US domestic flight since we moved away in 2002 and you quickly realize how much nicer international air travel is! We got home in time for bed on Wednesday 20 May and even though they had a wonderful time the kids were both still excited to see the "new house" when we came around the corner. There were many requests the next few days for Grandma and for Ro ro (their eldest cousin Rowan, who is wonderful with the kids).

Friday night the kids had a movie and pizza night at their nursery school. I dropped them off with their pillow for a night of "Stuart Little", popcorn and Dominoes. Ellie was the youngest as her class wasn't actually invited but they made an exception since she and Alex are so close. Alex was holding onto me and didn't want me to leave . I kept trying to sell him by mentioning all his friends were there, they would have popcorn and pizza and they were going to watch a movie. Alex was not convinced but Ellie just got more excited at each activity. Sometimes she is more grown up than Alex.

Saturday morning we went to get bikes as Alex is now hooked on cycling. Since Ellie believes she is the same age as Alex we had to get her a bike also even though she is not close to pedalling on her own yet. Alex got a "Cars" bike and Ellie got a Dora the Explorer bike. Ellie's even has Dora's special backpack on the handle bars with a special map in it, just like Dora has. Alex puts on his helmet and tears around the front parking area of the complex. He can weave around the cars and only goes tumbling off when he veers into the grass. Ellie just likes to push hers around and occasionally sit on it and look cool. She is not even very interested in allowing me to push her. Alex also enjoys riding Ellie's bike around and this does bother her. The other day we were all sitting on the sofa when she spilled some juice. With her cheeky smile she just said "Daddy clean it up." At this time last year Alex could only say a couple of words.

Saturday afternoon we went to Petapalooza. It is an annual event to raise money for the local animal shelter. There were ten live bands, the surf wave was open as well as the skate park. Everyone brought their dogs. All pets were invited but I don't think it was the kind of event cats would want to be at. There were also two huge inflatable slides. It didn't faze Ellie that most of the kids tearing up it were four or five times older than her. She made it to the top before getting scared and crying. An older girl was nice enough to slide down with her. She just wanted to do it all over again and did, crying when she got to the top and waiting for an older kid to slide down with her again.

We are finally getting settled in and the kids are really enjoying themselves. I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer. Hopefully we will be able to stay more current now that we are settled in.