back in maine!

well, we've been back for a week, but time has been scarce, what with adjusting back to eastern time, unpacking, and general life in boothbay.

i'll pick up from where i left off, or thereabouts. the flight home went very well. it was very, very long, and our discount carrier was a bit of a pain in the butt (air berlin. the biggest complaint i had was that the planes didn't pull right up to the terminal, we had to take a bus out onto the tarmac. it was just one extra step with the kids that was kind of a pain. oh well though, the kids thought it was exciting). maggie LOVES airplanes though, so being at the airport and seeing them up close was very exciting. i guess from her perspective, getting onto the airplane from the tarmac was better, because she got to see that we were actually getting onto an airplane. when you get on from the terminal through one of those corridors, you don't really get to see that you're getting on to an airplane. oh, a maggie sentence: when we were at the terminal waiting for the bus to take us to the plane, she saw the buses going by. previously, we'd gotten some food at an airport restaurant and she had been watching the planes take off and land. so at this terminal, she pointed to a bus and said, "no plane, bus." since we've been home, her 3 word phrases have really continued to take off. you have to listed carefully because her pronunciation isn't as clear as nina's was at her age, but she's saying a ton. i've officially completely lost count, but i'd guess she's at somewhere in the 150 - 200 words range.

so, the flight. looooooooooong, but good. the kids were happy, barely slept, but our fellow passangers were as bored as the kids were. when maggie would walk up and down the aisle, people would stop her to play. no one can resist the kids. nina was flirting with 2 30-year-old men seated behind us, that was nice. they were a german and an austrian, i'm glad she likes older men. after nina had been talking with them for a while, maggie popped her head up above the seat to say hi too. one of them asked "what's your name?" and maggie responded with her trademarked, frantic "NO!!" it was funny.

we landed on time, great-grandpa picked us up and took us to astoria, and we hit the playground. we stayed at the merons' house, which was a dream come true for nina, ethan, and maggie (who still thinks she's one of the big kids at the playground. she's pretty much as big as they are, so i can see why she thinks this...)

in the morning (the "morning," that would be the beginning of our day, which was 3 am. that was 9 am austria time, so it was actually a reasonable wake up time. except that we'd just come off of a 22 hour day). we had breakfast at the diner, that was a blast, and then hit the playground again. when the girls were sufficiently exhausted, we hit the road for boston. we hit a bunch of traffic on the way, but the girls slept practically the whole time. they finally woke up when we stopped because i had to go to the bathroom, but it was time anyway.

and then, we reached chester. oh, the joy on the three kids' faces. (chester being the third kid of course). craig came by for lunch on friday, then we hit the road again. the final leg was smooth as well, and before we knew it we were back home in maine. hooray!