Traveling

~Laila on her first plane ride~

Happy New Year!  The Christ's have been a very busy and traveling family since the new year.  January 1st we hopped on a plane and headed to Alabama for Catherine to go to SOS for five weeks and Craig came along for the first week.  While Kamea had been on a plane before when we moved from Spokane to Okinawa, it had been almost a year since she had last flown but she did great.  She was so happy and loved pointing out all the airplanes, she even got so excited and didn't want to miss a minute of the plane rides that she never slept!  By hour thirteen of our long flight from Tokyo to Atlanta we were worn out and she finally took a nap, just as we began the descent, go figure!  Laila loved flying on the airplane for the first time, she did great too, sleeping off and on throughout the flights.

~Kamea with Great Grandma and Grandpa Anderson~

We had a great time in the states, the first week we were in Alabama Craig's grandparents came to visit and see the kids.  It was so nice seeing them for a couple of days and they were able to meet Laila for the first time.  Also, the weekend before Craig left we had another visitor, Craig's sister Carla flew in from Buffalo and stayed with us for a few nights.  Craig had to fly to Oklahoma later that weekend to start his training for CFIC and made it out of Alabama just in time before the big winter storm.  I realized very soon how terrible Alabama drivers are in the "snow," people just stopped in the middle of the freeway or just drove around with their emergency flashers on.  I'll admit, there were overpasses that were very slippery but the roads were not that bad overall.

~Laila and I at Kids World in Santa Barbara~

I was very fortunate that my parents came down to help with the kids for the first part of my class and Craig's mom came for the last week to help out.  It was so nice seeing family and the kids loved having their grandparents around to spoil them.  Shortly after Craig left for Alabama we had a wonderful surprise, he came back to visit during one of the long weekends.  The timing was perfect because Uncle Mark came down from Huntsville with his fiance Carla to stay the weekend and our good friend from Spokane and Okinawa, Steve, came out for training.  We had such a great time visiting and playing with the kids.  The last day we took a trip to the Montgomery Zoo, the kids loved the animals and Kamea had so much fun watching the monkeys.  I think she could have spent most of the day watching them or in the big bird cage.  She kept signing bird and learned to sign alligator too.

~Kamea and Laila with Grandma Christ at the zoo relaxing on a bench~

The rest of the time in Alabama was nice, it was great being home every night and spending the weekends with the girls.  They both seemed to grow up so much during those five weeks in Alabama.  Kamea has mastered so many signs and has become such a wonderful helper.  Laila went from tummy time to sitting up all on her own and totally skipped baby food because she saw her big sister eating real food and wanted to do the same.  They both loved when the weather was okay outside because that meant time to go to the park and swing.

~Laila swinging with Grandpa at the beach~

Once I was done with my training Craig's mom and I flew out to California with the girls and I spent the next week and a half visiting friends and family there.  Kamea and Laila went to visit Grandma at work and Uncle Doug and Aunt Jill at their work also.  They both loved going running on the beach in the warm weather then playing at the park after.  Kamea's favorite toy was her bubbles and new car, she got so excited about the bubbles and would spend all day getting in and out of the car.

~Kamea chasing bubbles~

We had a great time in California, very relaxing and so great to see family and friends.  My parents and brother made a trip up from Seal Beach to visit along with Craig's Aunt and cousin, the kids had so much fun seeing everyone.  We spent every morning skyping with Craig for breakfast, the kids loved seeing Daddy and showing him all their new tricks like Laila doing patty-cake and Kamea pointing out her head, eyes, nose and teeth.  We went to the Santa Barbara Zoo on my last day there and both kids loved it, the animals were much closer for them to see compared to Montgomery.

 ~Kamea playing in her car~

Unfortunately Craig's training got delayed because of ice storms in Oklahoma and one of the jets broke so he was delayed quite a bit.  I left California and brought Laila back to Okinawa with me and Kamea stayed behind with Grandma and Grandpa, it was so sad leaving her.  We've skyped every day though and she's having so much fun with her Grandparents and Uncle Doug and Aunt Jill have even had a slumber party with her so she's having a great time.  Craig's going to finish this week, fingers crossed, and leave Oklahoma to pick up Kamea then fly directly to New Zealand where Laila and I will meet him the same day for our next big adventure.  We'll be in New Zealand for almost three weeks starting with Craig doing the Ironman in Taupo then us driving throughout the north and south island.  My brother and his girlfriend will be meeting us down there so we're really looking forward to the trip ahead.

~Laila taking the car for a ride while Kamea took a nap~

We'll post again after our New Zealand trip!

Craig, Catherine, Kamea and Laila