Night in DC...Then Onto Home

On Friday January 4th, the girls and I made an overnight stop in DC before flying back to Tel Aviv. The stop served two purposes; it broke up the trip and it gave us the opportunity to see Kathie and Alison (friends we made in Oman in 2003). After a long travel day (see previous blog), we finally checked into the hotel just before 8pm. It was a whirlwind of an evening - a complete blast from the past. The last time that the 3 of us girls were together was almost 2.5 years ago when Alison and I drove from DC to NJ to surprise Kathie a week after her daughter Molly was born. We had adjoining suites with the door left open the entire night, we ordered in pizza, Kathie brought gifts, junk food, and cocktails for everyone, and we stayed up until 2 am reminiscing and reconnecting.

Saturday we had breakfast, packed up our stuff, and hung around the hotel until 2:30 pm when we had to head back to the airport to catch our 5:30 pm flight. The time flew by quickly and our time together was over as quick as it began... the shuttle bus gave me a minute's notice to get on or they would leave to the airport without us. :( So we said our good-byes and off we went to finish the last leg of our journey.

The sun, moon, and stars were definitely aligned on our trip home: United gave us the bulkhead seats on our flight to Frankfurt, the girls were on their best behavior and didn't have a single meltdown on either plane to Frankfurt and then to Tel Aviv, our luggage arrived quickly, and friends at home stocked the friends and left flowers, gifts, and chocolate chip cookies. What a homecoming.

Matt is busy working with the President and Secretary of State's visit, so we haven't yet seen him since our return. Hopefully he'll be home late Friday night. The girls are almost adjusted back to Israel time. They've been having a great week back at school and doing their normal activities. Tomorrow we have our swimming lessons, Friday a play date, and two birthday parties on Saturday. No rest for the weary.

Here are a few photos of Kathie, me, and Alison as taken by Riley. Pretty good, eh?

Kath, me, and Alison - in our PJ's

Sheridan, Riley, Matt, and Molly