Taking another trip home

Hi - alot has happened since our last posting. We went back to the US for two weeks in at the end of the July. As you can imagine, we had quite a full schedule! Sean flew to Chicago while I went to DC for the first week. Sean started his journey with a triathlon in Bloomington - Normal, IL. He made the trip from Oz with his bike and was ready to go. Despite the rain and unseasonably cold weather he did great for his "off season" race. I know many people who would love to come in 5th in their age group. Well done. From there he went to Chicago for a week long training session for work.


I arrived to DC to a great treat. Sherry and Mauricio met me at the airport! They actually parked the car and came in to the airport to meet me. That hasn't happened since I used to travel for KD and Mom and Dad were always waiting at Atlantic City International. It was such a nice homecoming! We stopped at Rhodeside for a take away salad and then spent the night chatting and drinking delicious white wine sangria into the night. It was so nice to be around old friends. That's what the whole week was about for me - aside from the business of re-renting our apartment. I got to see Mark & Anna's new house and hang out with them before the "big day". I also spent time with close friends from CEB. Thursday night was dinner with Anne, Anne, Shannon...and Madeline. It was just like the old Thursday nights we had monthly, just less drinking and more cooing over the baby. Easy to slip back into old conversation and fun times. It was wonderful to meet Maddie. She is so precious. She was dressed for the big night out too in her adorable Lilly dress. I wouldn't expect anything else from a KD is training. Friday I was headed up to Connecticut so I spent the morning with Sherry. I can't wait for her to come to Oz in a couple of months!!



Believe it or not, it was my first summer visit to Connecticut. Boy was it beautiful! Everything was just so green. A perfect setting for a wedding! Sean and I met back up at the airport where Sean's mom was waiting for us (we're getting spoiled) and got us to the hotel just in time for the rehearsal. Sean was standing up for Mark and I was acting as a stand-in for Anna's grandmother. I was very believable if I do say so myself. The wedding was fabulous. Such a great time! Sean decided to experiment with only drinking champagne all night long...by the end of the night he was calling himself Sean 2.0 and clearing the dance floor - for those of you who were there, you know what I'm talking about! Eventually it was time to drag Sean 2.0 to bed!

After the wedding we spent the first part of the week at the Bailey's. We enjoyed some relaxing nights in the back yard enjoying the cool New England summer evenings and planning their upcoming trip Down Under. Tuesday we headed down to New Jersey to spend the rest of our trip at the beach with the Murray's. Now if you read down this far, you will be rewarded with a funny story....

We made the trip by train and had to change trains in New Haven. Remember I was telling you that Sean had a race, training and a wedding...all of those things require very different things to pack so his bag was quite large. Well we got on the second train and Sean couldn't find a place for his bag so he jumped off to go in the far door. I found us a seat. As the train pulled out of the station, I called Sean's cell phone to let him know where I was sitting. "Hi, where are you?"..."&$*& I am still on the platform! They left without me!!!" I think I laughed clear to NYC.

Well we finally made it home...Sean about 30 minutes later than me...and we settled in for a nice time with family and the beach. It was great to see Nana (thanks for the homecoming dinner), Grandmom and Grandpop, Uncle Glenn and little Matthew. And boy has RJ grown since we last saw him. He's turning into a little man. The weather was mostly overcast while we were in town, but I think that was good given my glowing white winter complexion.
Jeanna, Denise, Lauren and I took Mom out to a girl's night out. What a good time!

Dad, Sean and Bob did some male bonding in the form of body skimming. I can't believe that they convinced Sean to that the day before his second triathlon of the trip. He's usually so level headed!

We also discovered 870 Third Street - hopefully it will become our new family beach house. Stay tuned!

Well, so now we're back. It was harder adjusting coming back this time than when we first moved. I'm not sure if it was going from summer to winter or just being reminded of what great friends and family we are blessed with!