on the way

Ok I am determined to blog about our trip, but condense a little so i don't share way too many pictures and details. But with a trip as long and jam-packed as it was, it has taken me this long to even get through uploading all my pictures in all of my spare moments. So, I'll break things down a little.

First of all, the getting there. This trip was fun because we tried to make the most of all of our layovers and travel time. We left the evening of THURSDAY, July 12th after Paul got home from work and flew to Austin. I was reminded how nice it was to have another adult to travel with as I usually fly with Caitlin alone and especially nice this time around as it was our first time traveling with two kids.. and two lap children at that! It was quite the parade getting through the airport but things went well and we were on our flight in no time. The plane was a small commuter plane, just 2 seats on each side, and so the 4 of us were crammed onto one side. It was very cozy, especially with Caitlin bouncing up and down and across and any direction she could to make the most of the space we had but luckily it was a direct flight so we survived. The kids did great. Caitlin was busy as usual but no meltdowns or yelling or hitting or screaming so it was a success. And Nolan did awesome on hi first flight! No crying and mostly snuggled with Daddy and slept the whole time. We arrived into Austin late that night and Caitlin was so excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa's she had a hard time calming down to go to bed! I stayed up late with Lorraine trying to impart every last detail of instruction that i could think of before leaving my kids. I wasn't worried at all, I knew they would do a great job taking care of them but i just didn't want it to be too hard for them and I was sad to leave my kiddos.

 

We woke up early FRIDAY morning to get back to the airport for our flight from Austin to JFK. It was amazing to just sit on the airplane and read and relax. We got to New York in the afternoon and our flight to Ghana wasn't until that night so we decided to go explore Coney Island for a few hours! It was the perfect place to go because there wasn't too much traffic in that direction and neither of us had ever been there. It was also good because we didn't need a ton of time there. We checked out a little open market, and walked the boardwalk. We ate the famous Nathan's hot dogs (sponsors of the all-you-can-eat hot dog contest on the 4th of July) and we rode in the ferris wheel (supposedly the World's Largest Wheel). It was Paul's first time in a ferris wheel!We also got ice cream cones and I got cinnamon french toast flavor. Umm, wow. After a little while we got a taxi back to the airport.

 

 
Ok now fast forward one week to our trip back from Africa:
We had another layover at JFK. This time we got in around 5 AM and had about 11 hours to kill. So we got to meet up with Mike and Jenna (they had been working in New Jersey for the summer). We met them and got to see their house and the little town they had been living in. We got bagels at a local place and got cleaned up and rested a little. We drove together to downtown NYC. We got lunch at the Shake Shack which was very delicious and then we walked around Time's Square a little and looked in some shops. It was fun to hang out with Mike and Jenna, we had missed them this summer! I had never been to New Jersey so it was fun to see a tiny bit of that state and it's always fun to be downtown!  I love the feeling of New York.