Monday, July 6, 2009

Family Time

This photo was taken yesterday evening. It's my brother's family with mine. He has 4 boys and, as you probably know, we have 3. My brother, Attila, and I are the 2 in the center sitting down and our families are around us (kids range in age from 3 - 16 yrs old). I love this photo.



In the US

Our journey began on July 2nd. We left Hungary on a Malev flight and flew from Budapest to London Gatwick at 4:30pm. We arrived at Gatwick at about 6pm local time and spent the night at the lovely Sofitel Hotel which is attached to the airport. Unfortunately, I left my Blackberry in the seat pocket in front of me as I was preoccupied with getting my 2 sleeping beauties (Ali and Mia) off the plane. Fortunately it dawned on me early enough - as we were going through passport control - and I was able to get it back thanks to the helpful staff at LGW airport. Honestly, this is one of my favorite airports...

We spent the night in order to break up the journey to the US. Our Delta flight to Cincinnati left early on the 3rd of July. It was 8 1/2 hours and the kids were champions. I think everyone seated around us looked a bit scared when we got on with 3 little kids. During the last hour of the flight as we were getting ready to land I was so pleased to receive compliments from nearby passengers about how well behaved our kids were. I thanked them but asked them nicely to hold the compliment until we had landed as there was still time for it to all backfire :-) Thankfully, it didn't. T and Mia are really great now on planes and can entertain themselves well by drawing, playing (T had his Nintendo DS) or watching movies or listening to songs on their iTouches. It was Ali who had trouble sitting still and also felt a lot of pain in her ears during landing. This happened on the BUD - LGW flight too. It's never really bothered her so much before. She chewed gum, drank water but it still hurt her. She didn't cry and tried to be brave but still sort of wimpered and held her ears...

Once in Cincinnati, we rented a car at Thrifty and drove straight to my brother's home just outside of Indianapolis. The drive was about 2 hours long and the kids were okay until the last 30 mins when they all started to melt down. After quick hugs and hellos we jumped in the pool which helped us all feel better!

4th of July weekend was great - filled with a bbq, lots of hanging out time, swimming and fireworks.

Photos have yet to be uploaded but I expect to get a couple up later today.

A big, big Happy Birthday to Nana! We love you and can't wait to see you next weekend.

More soon...