Grampa's House
We finally made it "Over
The Hill" to see Tina's dad and her brother's family.
They have been so supportive of our family as we have
gone through the entire adoption process that we wish
we could have had them meet Kai sooner, but all the
same it was a great visit. Tina's dad is 87 years old
and lives just down the street from her brother's
family. We visit them a lot, but this last year has
been busy and our usual summer visit this year was
made by just Tina and our younger son Ben. Cam and I
were both busy with work.
We talked about having them come visit us on
Veteran's day, but felt it would just be too much. At
that point we had only been home from China for about
5 weeks and having 5 people (and possibly 2 dogs) was
just more than we felt Kai was ready for. To be
honest it was definitely more than Tina and I were
ready for! So we postponed until Christmas. We were
concerned about driving over the mountains in winter.
We have done it pretty regularly over the last few
years, but earlier this fall the weather had been
pretty bad and we were feeling uneasy about doing a
six-plus hour drive with a toddler. Thankfully Tina's
dad helped us with airline tickets as a Christmas
gift.
So instead of a 6 or 7 hour drive we were looking at
a 35 minute flight. The kicker: The drive from our
home to SeaTac, parking the car, shuttle, checking
bags, security check, etc... doorstep to doorstep was
just over 6 hours travel time. You can't win.
All the same Kai was a real trooper. He travels easy
and is amazingly agreeable. A couple of fun footnotes
on the journey over include stopping for dinner on
our way to the airport at the same restaurant we went
to when we flew to China. The waitress we had the
first time was working and remembered us, she was
really excited to see Kai. Then at the airport we ran
into our niece's boyfriend Max. He had to fly back to
L.A. to play a gig. Our boys are friends with him and
were a bit bummed they weren't going to see him this
trip, so this gave them a chance for a short visit to
catch up with one another.
During the visit Kai pretty much stuck to his
schedule. We weren't hard and fast with it, but for
the most part he just went with the flow. It amazes
me to see how easily he adapts to change. Kai had fun
playing with his cousins and meeting his Grandpa,
Uncle Bill, Aunt Erin, Aunt Peggy, and cousins
Caitlin and Hailey. We even had an outing to the
antique carousel in Spokane. Stupid me forgot the
digital camera on that outing - have to get those
photos next trip.
I'm glad we waited to make the trip. Kai has had the
time to settle in a bit here and feel more rooted,
which I think helped him be confident and comfortable
meeting new people.
It was funny when we got back to our house, he was
very excited to see his home again. It made us wonder
if he thought we were going to come back here or
not?