Jan 23rd and 24th, and again on the 25th before FINALLY!

We flew on January 23rd (San Fran to Tokyo), and by the time we landed it was the 24th and we connected to Bangkok.  Landed at almost midnight, slept 5 hours at an airport hotel (sigh), hit the hotel breakfast buffet and pool for a swim before we went back to the aiport for a final flight the afternoon of the 25th.

I feared it might have been pulling teeth to get everyone on that last airplane but they were SO FIRED UP to see their friends that I had to turn around and shush the big three (who were sharing the row behind us) several times on that last flight.  They were giddy.  Ecstatic.  Loopy.  Silly.  And so so ready to be with their people.

This is also the point on our journey where we started shedding luggage.  Left 6 pieces in storage in Bangkok.  Two of our bags were for other people and we happily delivered them and said goodbye for good!  Three other pieces were were able to send ahead to our city in China with friends who were flying that way.  If you didn't follow all that, it's ok :). Since moving out of our North Dakota housing I've felt a bit like I run logistics for a small company, and I'm not interested in keeping my job! ha! thankfully it's all gone fairly smoothly, though we do have a pile of dirty laundry in luggage storage in Bangkok, and I can't find my Bible (hoping it's with the dirty laundry?!?!) and I realized on day two that I only had access to one pair of pjs each for Isaac and John Paul and one bathing suit for myself.  oh well.

We were so happy to be with friends that we smiled through the jet lag :)

Amazing reunions with friends - yay!

and even a little hand holding on the escalators :)

I missed some boy friend pictures but oh it was sweet times for everyone.

The kids programming was amazing (always!) and we played so hard all day that we couldn't help but sleep well at night (mostly!).

The kids theme centered heavily on Roman times and several of my boys did not leave the hotel room without their swords and shields.  If there was any risk of ambush at the breakfast buffet I was going to be well protected by my sons and their weaponry :)

We were mostly out and about, long days for everyone, but I do love this one picture of a quiet morning moment, Luke and I the only two awake (except Matt, who was already up and gone).

Watching the morning sun shine in northern Thailand, not a bad start to the day!

January 22nd, hello San Francisco

Well it seems like forever ago but now that I have finally bothered to turn on my computer I think it's time to start catching up on the past few weeks!

January 21st we zipped the final suitcase and boarded our first airplane, Raleigh to San Francisco.  The return leg of our trip back to Asia had been booked and re-booked and re-booked again as flight times kept changing and I guess that's what happens when you book so far out, huh?  So the final iteration of our itinerary was my favorite, and it gave us a 36 hour layover in San Francisco.  Normally a layover with 14 pieces of luggage wouldn't be my first choice, but a *free* stop in such a fun city made it worth the luggage struggle.   We landed at 9pm local time, and I just considered it a head start on the jet lag journey ahead of us ;)  Luggage collected, hotel located, beds divvied up and we slept hard our first night in San Fran.

Back in Raleigh I had scoured the library for books about San Francisco, and we checked out everything from picture books about cable cars to travel guides to get ready for our day in the city.  [My favorite of all of them, Fly High Fly Low by Don Freeman is worth purchasing!  Such a good book!!]  So we woke up ready to see the sights!  Our hotel was in a great location and we could walk everywhere, except when we rode the cable cars :)

We were just a few blocks from Lombard Street, where we marveled at the steep twists and turns, walked down to the bottom and headed for the bay.

We wandered around the pier area for a while before buying some sourdough bread and walking over towards Ghiradelli Square to try out the cable cars.

The morning started off damp and overcast but by this time the sun was out and the skies were gorgeous.

Thanks to all our San Francisco book reading the kids had gotten off the plane talking about cable cars and Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge.

John Paul was looking for cable cars in the airport parking lot :)  Good thing we finally found one to ride!

We stopped at Union Square, wandered a few more city blocks and hopped another cable car line for the return trip to the pier area.  This conductor was really a treat - and since we rode to the final stop he was able to answer our questions, give a demo of how the brakes worked, and everyone got in a little bell ringing too.

After all that?  Clam chowder lunch and bike rental for seven please ;).

I was initially skeptical of this plan.  Bikes? In a big urban center?  across the Golden Gate Bridge?  But it worked out amazingly well.  We were able to mostly stick to bike paths, we got one tag along bike (John Paul and Luke took turns between the tag along and the smallest rental bike, and it was much easier to just have one free-wheeling little guy to keep up with).

The hill up to get across the bridge was long and steep.  And the bridge itself was even longer, and so so noisy!  It was a little intimidating, but thankfully the bike path was separated from traffic by fencing and the views were pretty incredible from up there!

In Sausalito we headed straight for the ferry dock and caught the ferry back to the San Fran side of the bay.

We had been riding several hours and everyone was glad for a chance to sit and rest, and it was starting to get pretty chilly.

Alcatraz was lit up in the sunlight, and the views of the city skyline were pretty impressive too.

Off the ferry on the other side we swung by pier 39 to check out the seals and then returned the bikes and drug our weary legs to In-N-Out burger for dinner and milk shakes.  Then up hill, up up up, all the way back to the hotel and YES! we slept great that night!

one more fun picture

We had a great time this night just adults out on the town.  

Turns out we aren't that spectacular at trivia, but we do enjoy appetizers and fun conversation, so that counts for something!

wrapping up here

Well we are still waiting for visas.  sigh.  Actually Matt has a visa, but the kids and I are still waiting, and we are really hopeful we will hear something today.  Or tomorrow.  Because our flight leaves on Sunday and pretty soon this will be solidly into "cutting it close" timing.

I flew home from Orlando on Monday morning, after a sweet visit with friends and so grateful for the time God gave us together.  I was missing my little people!  Tuesday we hit the highlights in town - Chic Fil A, the library, and our favorite park.  It was a perfectly "life in America" feeling kind of day and we enjoyed every second.

Love love the library.  And the parks.  Chic Fil A isn't too bad either :)

Today it's snowing, and we might not be back to the park for a few days, but we do have a mile high pile of library books to enjoy.  In fact the bigs are all reading now, and I'm sitting with the little two who are engrossed in the audio version of The House at Pooh Corner.  John Paul keeps giggling - that Tigger is a pretty funny character!

But the time is drawing to a close and Luke is begging me to let him take a bath so he can play with his matchbox cars in the water.  With snow coming down and nowhere to go, I think he just might have a great idea :)

finishing up with the cousins

Well the end always seems to come and it did.  Time for the Columbia cousins to fly home (and time for Matt and I to fly to Orlando, but that's a different plot line).

We had such a great visit with Stephen and Jen and Raleigh and Clinton... and some of my favorite moments looked like this:

We did have matching boy cousin shirts... all five boys and they were personalized too. These scenes with all five boys dressed in matching and out on the town (children's museum, natural history museum, breakfast with Granddaddy) might have been my favorite!

Oh, and we continued to watch copious amounts of sports on television, and the men went to a WFU basketball game.

and while Matt and I were in Orlando Mom and Dad took the kids to see the Lady Wolfpack play basketball too.

We've got "how to have fun" all figured out :)

a little getaway south of town

We are about to hit the 2 week mark on our North Carolina stay, which marks half way till we depart for Asia.  We are also getting ready to launch into a bit of crazy (or maybe we already are in the crazy?) and the upcoming month has lots of travel and LOTS of time away from Matt.

So when a friend said "Please use my lake house, I'd be delighted for you to get some family time there" we said "sure thing!"

We drove down Friday late afternoon and picked up Little Caesars pizza (at the gas station in the one-stoplight town) and six miles down the road pulled in the driveway of a wonderful home.  The kids unloaded the car assembly line style and then ran through the house excitedly exclaiming over everything they saw! Plenty of beds and Luke feels like a king because he is sleeping in his very own room in a huge king size bed (although tonight he was a little less enthralled and said, "but I can't stay warm without someone to cuddle"... spoiled little brother, huh?).

Today was gorgeous, and cold, and there is a good bit more snow here than we got in Raleigh.  We went for a long walk along the golf course.  The rest of our day was full of games, books, and laid back relaxed family time (with a smidge of bickering too!).  Now the little guys are asleep, the big kids and Matt finishing a game of Settlers and I'm catching up on the blog.  Tomorrow we drive back in time for church and then some Panthers football :)

How can he be SEVEN already?

This one seems crazy to me - John Paul is SEVEN?!?  Seriously?

But he is.  And he is so very good at being seven too :)

My New Year's boy woke up for his first day in 2018 ready to party.  Thanks to a last minute shopping trip the siblings had gifts wrapped and ready and we opened them at breakfast!

He and the big sisters went to run a few errands with Grandmama (including the choosing and purchase of a birthday cake mix, which is always a significant occasion) and then it was off to his birthday date lunch with Matt.

Then back home to mix up his birthday cake!  We definitely have a tie-dye theme going on this year and John Paul is a "be a part of the pack" kind of guy.  I love cooking with my kids and even though the break from tons of food prep was nice this fall (when they were at school two meals a day) I am so looking forward to more kitchen time with my people when we return to Asia.... actually, I'm looking forward to more time with them in general, kitchen time will be a bonus!

Gifts waiting to be opened by my 7 year old boy!

A tool set, wood construction kit, and snap circuits.  He is a a lover of hands-on, exploratory play and his mind is quick - we did choose to store the hammer in the garage where he's less likely to wreak havoc because while he is growing up, he's tendency to explore i.e. inadvertently destroy is still strong!

Dinner (his choice - pasta bake) and cake :)

and we celebrate one more year of the miracle-gift of this son!

Crissman Christmas

The last big event of 2017 was Crissman Christmas, and we closed the year with a bang.  Saturday's crowd was such fun, and when Sunday rolled around all we wanted to do was watch football. ha!

Seriously though, it was a great great party and I'm so glad for the years that we get to be a part of it.  The family Christmas party of my childhood has grown considerably as all the cousins grew up, got married and started added children!  This year we had 20 kids under the age of 14.  pretty impressive :) and pretty fun stuff.

Cars started arriving at lunchtime and the parking filled up quickly.  It was so fun to watch the vans arrive and the families pile out.

The house got full and noisy quickly!  Someone suggested a trip to the park for a game of football and away they all went - just in time to give some of the ladies an opportunity to get the tables set up for dinner!

[This park (just a few blocks from my parents) has been a real treat, but unfortunately with school back in session it will be limited to weekend use from here on out.]

There are two big gifts exchanges - the "real" presents.. three different generations of a name-draw and gift giving and then the white elephant gift exchange.

Justin started reading John Paul's new "who would win..." books and the boys gathered around.  After the "real" gift exchange we ate dinner, kids separate at a little kids table, a older boys table and an older girls table.  Unfortunately there are not a whole lot of girls!

But whew there are plenty of boys!

There are adult tables too, and with older children I really enjoy lots of good conversation and catching up with my cousins and their husbands and aunts and uncles too.

The white elephant gift exchange is a riot.  Plenty of stealing and a lot of laughs and groans too.  As the host house we end up with a nice pile of "loot" that no one cared enough to take home with them! My kids think this is an especially fun part of the evening and love when gifts get stolen and passed from one person to another.

Mostly, I just love the people.  So grateful to be a part of this day, on the second to last day of 2017.

welcoming the cousins

We were counting the hours until this precious family arrived... my kids were all anxious and excited about the cousin arrival!

It adds up to a LOT of boys!  And they are sharing a downstairs bunk room and it's so fun to have them all in there at night (except Clinton, who sleeps with the girls upstairs!).

Many many happy hours of play in the basement 

and a few good wrestling matches too.  Isaac is smitten with Clinton - well, most everyone is!

Luke was so excited to have a few kiddos around who were younger than he was!  He talked eagerly and often of how much he would need to help Clinton and reminds just about everyone that he is older than Raleigh (by two months!).  It's fun to see this caretaker come out in Luke, and more than one of my children has suggested that we "get a  two year old for our family"!  ha!

Auntie Jen has balanced out all the boy-ness and its a treat for these girls

And Stevie Joe Joe likes to remind John Paul just how much small he really is :) 

Oh, and se the football on the screen? We have watched games and games and games - college and NFL and my Isaac is captivated by all of it.  Luke too is a big fan and animated watch-er of many many downs.  

Stevie Joe Joe had a crowd of observers when he opened his Christmas gifts - 

and now Raleigh and Isaac have matching Panthers gear too.