We opted for the direct flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta (16 hours+) to make the trip as short as possible. Adalyn enjoyed the unlimited tv entertainment and Grant enjoyed walking around as he was not up for sleeping. Of the 16 hours he slept 2 and even that was fairly restless. Despite all our attempts I figured it was just too different from his bed that he could not relax enough.
Once landing in Kansas City I was shocked at how easily the kids fell back into their normal routine. Neither woke up extremely early or had any signs of jet lag, wish we could say the same for the trip back to Africa. With a full list of things to do and see in Kansas City, we were off. Mark's brother, Mike had come in for the week to visit and it was great to watch him and Adalyn play together.
He took her bossing him around very well and seemed happy to go along with her creative demands.
We had dinners lined up with friends and nights out to catch up with everyone.
After seeing Mark off, the kids and I went up to Maryville for the week.
We stayed at my Dad and Steph's house and the kids loved playing on the golf cart.
I enjoyed seeing Adalyn play with her cousins Colt and Coy and introducing them to Grant.
We visited the library and my grandparent's house and Grant started walking!
One day Grant just took off walking after some practice with my dad and I, he had it down quick and was all over the house. We finished the week off with my cousin Kelsie's wedding, getting to visit with lots of family.
Up next we went farther north to Council Bluffs, Iowa, were my mom now lives.
It was an active week with a trip to the zoo, the children's museum, a birthday party and lots of fun activities at home.
At the end of our time there we stopped through Tarkio on our way to Maryville to visit with my Grandpa Wessler.
Having been on hospice since March I was hoping we would get to see him and Grant would meet him for the first time.
Thankfully God made sure we had those moments and it melted my heart how Grant warmed up to him.Next we headed back to Maryville for Colt's 8th birthday pool party.
The kids enjoyed the pool time and it was nice to get in another family celebration.
With only 2 nights in Maryville we headed back south to Kansas City for the kids to have a sleepover at Nana and Papa Snyder's house without me! It was great to have about 30 hours all to myself so I did tons of shopping, dinner with friends and even got a pedicure with my friend Nicole. The next day I picked up the kids and we spent the following week at Nicole's house.
Hayden (Nicole's son) and Adalyn became fast friends enjoying pool time, playing with all his toys and even celebrating the 4th of July together.
By the end of the week they were acting more like siblings, arguing over toys and such but were still sad to part ways as our week was over.
I am glad that during our time in Lees Summit we could squeeze in a visit with our friend from Africa, Martha, and a trip to Crown Center/Kalidescope/Fritz's to play with Bridget and Bode.
As if the family fun could not get any more, we loaded up and had a caravan down to Branson with 27 of my Walker family members.
Stopping at Lambert's for throwed rolls followed by lots of swimming, dinners together, shopping and of course a day at Silver Dollar City.
Adalyn loved the rides with no fear of any of them, Grant and I attempted to stay cool in the 90+ degree heat by going through every store possible.
The whole family rode the train and enjoyed the saloon show together. It was nice to see so many Walkers wandering around the park in our blue shirts.
After a night of Minute to Win It games we all headed back home.
Mark flew in to KC that weekend to help take us all back to Africa as the flight to America proved to be too difficult for just me to try and accomplish with the kids alone. He took in a Royal's game and we did some last minute shopping, ate as much Mexican food as possible and I was able to visit my old co-workers.
We had our final goodbyes with family at the airport on Tuesday and loaded the plane for another 16+ hour flight back home. Thankfully this flight went much better for Grant, sleeping 10 hours off and on, though he did throw up on Mark about 1 hour before landing which meant Mark wore my size small t-shirt for the remainder of the flight. I laughed out loud every time I looked at him.
It was a great trip home, lots of work to try and accomplish on my own but thankful to have great friends and family to help me out. We enjoyed our time at everyone's homes and all the wonderful amenities America has to offer. I feel quite blessed to have two homes in two different countries.
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