Last night of autumn in "Dorothy country"

I am a little short on time tonight, but I wanted to fit in one last blogpost while we are still in Kansas City.  I had to include "Dorothy country" in the title.  We have gotten that response often in Australia when we tell people we are from Kansas City.  It is then followed by the line "you get those twisters there, don't you?".  I am just impressed that Australians have heard of Kansas City.  But, they do love their American movies.  

I am sad to see our visit come to an end.  We had such a great time seeing everyone.  We got to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday.  The next weekend, we got to partake in a surprise birthday party for my sister, Suzie.  The kids got to see friends from school and the neighborhood.  Sean and I got to enjoy time with our family and friends.  We got to experience some warm, summery days as well as some cool, windy autumn days.  It has been an extremely full 3 1/2 weeks!

The four of us with Sean's parents and grandparents in front of his grandparents' RV before they headed out on their return trip to Texas.

Here we are with Sean's parents as we are heading into Legoland

Legoland's version of "Dorothy country" as it is shown in the Wizard of Oz

Carter and Aubrey with Aubrey's best bud, Ian.  We got to enjoy a hayride on a chilly, fall day.

My dad on his special day

He's really trying to get all those candles blown out.  Thank goodness there wasn't really 80 of them on the cake!

A typical Meissen gathering.  LOTS of people gathered around, very few empty seats, and a card game going on in the background.  This is only about 1/4 of the total people present.  (I am one of eight children.)  I'm going to miss this during the upcoming holiday season.

Carter petting our cat, Shelby, one morning.  He tried really hard to get on her good side during this trip.  Unfortunately, she would usually look annoyed when he was trying to give her some love.  Most of the time she fled the scene with a nasty growl and hiss. 

We didn't get any good still pictures of my sister's birthday surprise.  But, we did get a picture (on the same day) right after my nephew, Aaron, surprised my brother, Steve, and sister-in-law, Connie, with an earlier than expected leave from the Marines.  It was an eventful day!  

Aubrey hanging out at a park with her friend, Max.

Aubrey and Carter checking out the animals with PaPa at the Sea Life Aquarium.

Carter and Aubrey taking an imaginary ride on the famous train at Fritz's Restaurant in Crown Center.  The kids loved having their lunch delivered via train!

I know this blogpost has a lot of random pictures.  It gives just a glimpse of us hopping from one activity to another.  I have quickly learned how a visit to Kansas City is bittersweet.  I do not regret our decision to move to Australia.  I think it is one of the best decisions Sean and I have ever made.  But, just because we made a decision that seems right, it doesn't mean everything comes easily thereafter.  Our hearts feel very torn having two homes that are half a world apart.

Parallel Universe

The entire time we have been living in Sydney we talk about "home" in Kansas City.  We have really looked forward to going back to visit this home. We could not wait to be back in our yellow house in our quiet neighborhood and seeing all our family and friends that we have missed dearly.  The trip home was long and tiring, but finally we got here.  We borrowed 2 vehicles from Sean's parents.  They just happened to be the same 2 vehicles that we were driving prior to the move because Sean's parents bought them from us when we left.  Our cat, Shelby, was even waiting for us inside the house.  Sean is back working at Cerner at the North Kansas City campus so that he would not have to take vacation time for the entire month.  So....basically, we walked right back into our life here in Kansas City, with the exception that I am not working and the kids are not going to school.  The weird thing is, Sean and I keep finding ourselves saying "when we get back home" (now talking about Sydney).  It suddenly has became very clear to us that even though it feels like we have only been gone a short few weeks, it really has been a long 6 months.  And, we have truly created another "home" in Sydney.

So far, the time at home has been great.  Everyone seemed to get over the jet-lag easier than I did.  Carter did stay up until 4:00 am with me the first two nights, but the kids were on a pretty normal schedule by the first weekend home.  I had a little rougher time.  I am more of a night owl.  I had to struggle through quite a few nights of lying in bed, looking at the clock, and thinking "I need to go to sleep".  I was up and functioning during the day, but I did not feel well for the first week.  We are now all fully adjusted.  So, we will have to enjoy that for the next week before we have to turn our schedules completely upside down again.

We have gotten quite a bit done in the past 2 weeks.  I have shopped, and shopped, and shopped.  We have been trying to fit in as many visits with family and friends as possible.  Unfortunately, there is not enough time to see EVERYONE since our weekends are busy and Sean is working full time during the week.  But, we are trying. I can only compare it to trying to fit a year's worth of shopping and social events into 3 1/2 weeks.  It is fun, but it is a little bit of a whirlwind.  

In Sydney, we have been living in an apartment near a very busy street for 6 months.  It has made me long for evenings spent outside chatting with neighbors while the kids ride bikes and play games until we reluctantly go inside for dinner.  Most of our downtime during this trip in KC has been spent just hanging out in the yard.  Carter has been helping Papa do a lot of yard work at our house.  He has been having so much fun reconnecting with his friends in the neighborhood.  Aubrey has learned how to ride a bike without training wheels in the cul-de-sac. 

We have another week here in Kansas City.  It is going quickly.  The calendar is  pretty full; we still have a lot to get done.  I still haven't even been to Oklahoma Joe's for barbecue!!!!  

Basically, we are so blessed to have 2 wonderful places to call home.  Neither place is perfect.  Life always brings up unique challenges no matter where we are.  But, both places offer us some fantastic perks.   

After paying Sydney prices for food for the past 6 months, we were pretty excited to see this on one of our first meals out in Kansas City.

The view down our quiet street

    Doesn't every girl learn to ride her brother's Lightening McQueen bike with a batgirl costume on?  We don't even need to bring up the shark helmet.  

Yes, she even had batgirl nails.  They only lasted a couple of hours though.

She's got it!!!  (This was a day later.)

Carter and his friend Lauren

Aubrey sharing some laughs with her friend Danika.

Carter hanging out with his friends Ashton and Michael.  Nothing quite like a good game of laser tag for some quality bonding time.