They met us at the airport with their two children. Wil, 8 (almost 9) and Erin, 7. Also a breath of fresh air. I don’t know if they had a family meeting about how to make us feel at home before we arrived, but that is just what they did. In the car Landon, Wil and Erin were fast friends playing with Transformers in the backseat while Cathy and I chatted it up in the front. There were many things we all discovered we have in common; it wasn’t just that we were both from America.(America, that’s what home is called here, though, I’m not from America, I’m from the United States of America. Big difference if you come from a military family because there is a South, Central and North America. We are of the UNITED STATES. I mean my Dad and brother both went to USNA, not just “NA”. Apparently, JC and Brendan (Billy’s brother and cousin) also went to USNA, and played soccer. JC graduated a year before Ryan, but helped him start the Soccer UN-Club (because they weren’t able to have a soccer club there). And Brendan and Ryan just ran into each other at the bar the other night. So it turns out that we are all bit more connected than we originally thought. Right side up or upside down, it really is a small world after all. That Walt Disney had it right from the very beginning. The initial drive up the mountain I really didn’t even notice how curvy, narrow and steep the roads were. I was too busy exchanging life stories. Really though, every time I drive down them with Derek I think about how the road would probably make my Mom feel a little sick. So I’m not sure how I didn’t notice it on the way up. Finally after too many hours of travel we arrived at our new [temporary] house. It is gorgeous, and big (for us). A rusty cabin that reminded me a little of the house my family rented on our legendary ski trip to Oregon. Billy and Cathy showed us around and then took us out to the backyard to educate us on poisonous spiders and where we would find them around the house. This was the beginning of my phobia. What they failed to tell us was two things, 1. They weren’t out yet, and 2. There is a chemical you can spray that will either kill them or keep them away. Two very important pieces of information considering how many interactions we were about to have with spiders.
After the kids played on the stairs for a while- Landon’s new favorite toy is the stairs now. We went to the Spice of Life Cafe downtown to get some breakfast. Ugh, it’s bedtime! Not breakfast time! You mean we have to stay awake an entire day- again?! So, we sucked it up and had breakfast served with a mild side of vertigo, and then ventured down the street to Derek’s new Chiropractic Center. Exciting! (Totally deserving of it's own blog. So you'll just have to wait on those details.)
The rest of the day was filled with heavy eyes and a whiney child. Once our new friends headed home we had to keep ourselves entertained. While Derek and I hung clothes in our new closet, Landon napped. And that was the end of Landon.
He’d had enough. I don’t think we ever got him fully awake again. We did get him into his cool flight jacket Ryan had made him for his birthday and then into his stroller for a walk, but I don’t think he was fully awake still. He did look like a grumpy, old veteran sitting there in his slightly oversized jacket though, it was quite comical once all the crying stopped. Once we were home Landon went to bed for the night without dinner (his choice). I think it was about 2 weeks till Landon actually had dinner. He always chose to sleep over eat, on his own!Those first 9 days Derek and I lived on coffee, tea and a late night fire to keep us warm. Of course by late night I mean 7pm because I don’t think we ever made it past 8:30pm.
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