This is where the fat lady sings, people.  This blog is over!  I just had to get around to finishing up the lost photos from Turkey & the last photo album of our London trip...yes it was about 3 months ago!  But I really wanted to have a complete package with all of our travel photos on the blog.  Let's see if this internet thingy is around in 20 years to keep our memories safe...

Back here in the ol' US of A, it has been a really nice, smooth re-entry.  Sure, we have very heavy hearts when we think about the days in Amsterdam - we think about it daily!  Although Kai really didn't want to leave, I think he's been the most excited about our new chapter in Reno.  He has been working very hard in martial arts with his dad, uncles & cousin.  He loves his new school & has some awesome new friends.  Riding bikes has become more of an off-road diversion than a means of transportation but he still gets on the saddle.   He is really complete when he has his dogs in his lap.  And he still uses a few Dutch phrases every single day, dank u wel.

Sabrina has been in heaven hanging with her girl & guy friends again.  They sure have turned into teenagers in the past few months but she still has a very sweet demeanor & as her parents, we have yet to become completely invisible.  She has a couple sweet friends who ask her about her year & she attempts to explain.  She really misses her adorable bike named Gazellig, her BSA girlfriends, vlaamse frieten & the cute apartment with the fantastic roof deck.  Her keychain collection is impressive and I think we have lit the fire for her wanderlust.  Next time we travel, however, she might insist that the dogs come with.

Bryan is so so happy that we are all in one time zone again, & so am I.  We have very different schedules but when we are all together for dinner or family game night or a hike up "Old Man Jenkins' Hill" behind our house, it feels really really nice.  The new house is so incredibly welcoming... it has hints of Tahoe & a splash of Amsterdam, while still being in the middle of lots of wide open spaces complete with roosters crowing & split rail fences.  The photos from our trip adorn our walls & the color orange has pretty much taken over.  I'm a bit teary thinking that this adventure is over.  It was so unbelievable that I sometimes wonder if it happened at all.  When our kind friends ask with true interest about the time we spent in Europe, I so appreciate their patience as we unwind so many tales...it feels so good to revisit those times.  And these pictures do the same so even if no one at all looks at this blog, I know we will.  Although, I happen to know that is not the case. I have been astounded by the number of people I run into in all kinds of places, some I hardly know!  that tell me how they have followed our travels & read this blog.  Wow.  so happy to hear this & I hope our trip will inspire another.

Take care everyone & as my little tiny decorative ornament says: (thanks to you, Celia!) "Never Stop Exploring!"

Signing off,

Janet & Sabrina, mother-daughter bloggers

November 14, 2014

Post-Season Wrap-Up

Friday, September 5, 2014

AN ENTIRE MONTH has passed in a blink of an eye.  I am looking back at my blog post from the plane as we crossed the earth, heading back to familiar lands… it feels like it just happened so fast but also the streets of Amsterdam seem a lifetime ago.  Here’s a few things that have happened since that post, in no particular order:

1. The pilot did indeed make up enough time & we made our flight into SFO with just enough time to catch the Reno flight PHEW! 
2. A huge, wonderful surprise awaited us at the bottom of the escalator as we headed to baggage claim in Reno - - FAMILIAR FACES!!!  What love we felt when we saw Dana, Jackie & Dana’s kids meeting us at the airport!  And Bryan’s dad awaited us with the car to drive us home to his house. It was like walking into a big hug at the end of a perfect year.
3. Almost without catching up on any sleep, we launched into a whirlwind of activity which included the remodel of a house we are renovating in Reno, getting Kai organized & started on his first week of school, getting Sabrina oriented to her new school, getting both kids the checkups & shots they need & even a quick visit (for Sabrina & I) down to Los Angeles to see my family.
4. The weather in Reno & Tahoe is probably the most consistently beautiful (blue skies, warm days & cool nights, not too much precipitation…) that a person could ask for & over this past month, both locations really delivered.  Construction & landscaping has been hot work but at least not soggy or delayed!  From what we have gathered, it looks like our departure from Amsterdam was perfectly timed as they suffered a very very wet summer this year.
5. On the family unity front, we have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time together, even with all the craziness.  We are currently staying at Bryan’s dad’s house in Reno, and we are forever grateful of his endless generosity!  He hosted Bryan & the dogs for the entire year and has now hosted us for a month as we take over the entire upstairs level of his house…!  What a saint!  I think we have about another week in his place before we can move into our “new” place on the other side of town.  We have had some wonderful family dinners and football game-watching at Jerry’s pad with the four of us as well as the whole extended Raydon clan.  The time we are all spending together has been so much fun & I know we will have some new Reno traditions with Bryan’s side of the family.
6. Driving.  Driving.  Driving.  Did I mention driving????  I can honestly say I am putting a full tank of gas in my car every 48 hours.  Not good for the planet!!  But great for the oil & gas industry!!  I’m sure the “light carbon-footprint” year I spent on my bike has been nullified in just one month back here with all the driving I’ve been doing (& Bryan too).  Taking the kids to two different schools that are about 40 miles apart from one-another has been torture but there’s a bright side.  We get a lot of one-on-one quality time with the solo child we are driving that day.  I treasure these times that they are stuck talking to me!!  I feel they have learned & grown immensely in the last 12 months & it is so fun to have adult conversations with them.  Kai is actually having adult conversations that are way over my head so there’s that…
7. Working.  Working??  Working!!  I was thinking that I might ease back into the workforce at a slow, doddling pace but that has not happened!  Fortunately there is a lot of work here & I’m jumping in!  Bryan is also swamped so it just means more spreadsheets & schedules to squeeze in the driving, after-school sports & activities as well as the remodel project & the daily workouts!  This is feeling very American to me…
8. Reflecting.  I am feeling a little too chaotic to be reflective!  Perhaps this is why it has taken a month to do a quick wrap-up on the blog.  Nevermind the fact that I have not yet put our London pictures on the blog!?  Yikes.  I also have big plans to have some of our photos made into books & canvases for the new house.  When, oh when will all this happen?  I see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Getting into the new house will chop some of the driving in half so I will get a few more hours in my day.  Stay tuned, this ain’t over until the fat lady sings…

Today is Friday, August 4, 2014 & we are halfway to San Francisco, flying directly over Greenland right now…

I have spent so many months thinking about the end of the year.  I’m not sure why the end was always on my mind & if you look back on the blog posts, you can see my countdown was almost always mentioned.  I hope I was being present enough?!? I do think I was, but for some reason I was always focused on the end of the journey… be it good, bad or just duly noted…

But now, the end has really really arrived & I was very consumed over the past two weeks with the packing, the saying bye to everyone, the logistics of the move, getting all of our stuff out of the apartment (literally getting it all down the stairs, into a cab & over to the airport!  These concepts threatened my sleep for days!)  and then of course we had three days in London at the tail end so Bryan & I did have to keep up with the research & coordination on the sight-seeing until the very last day.

Now side-note: speaking of the very last day, today… we had a crazy morning of hauling around the very very heavy bags because we made a slight boo-boo that cost us quite a bit of scrambling.  We had stored 5 of our biggest bags in Heathrow at Terminal 3 for the past 4 days so we could get to the city via the underground (the Tube) without too many hassles.  It was all so perfectly orchestrated & completed until this morning.  We had somehow recalled (& didn’t bother to double-check on our claim check) that our bags were residing in Terminal 5… we took the tube & got off at Terminal 3.  We walked quite a ways with our smaller bags (& Sabrina was a bit over-loaded as it was, even before we collected the large suitcases!) to the left luggage area before we realized we needed to get to Term 3… collect bags, then take EVERYTHING to Term 2 & check-in at United!! Ugh!! And getting everywhere is not easy. I won’t bore with the details but so many transit trains & SO MUCH WALKING with SO MUCH STUFF was most certainly NOT the highlight of our year!!!  

The good news is that:

#1…our kids are grown enough to haul all their own things

#2…our kids & their parents are really buff & strong

#3…we were in England so at least the signs & everything were in English

#4…now that the other three are finally on-board with my super koo-koo over-preparedness ways, we always leave super early to give ourselves LOTS of time at all airports for this type of crap

#5…all of us knew that dropping off the big bags at United & eventually finding our way to the gate would be near the completion of our struggle & we celebrated with some pretty lousy airport food. 

Oh & just for some added fun, we had received a text at 5am letting us know that our flight to SFO was going to be delayed today.  We eventually took off about an hour late but hopefully the pilot will make up enough time that we don’t miss our connection to Reno (which would likely mean we have to spend the night *AND HAUL ALL OUR BAGS SOME MORE* in San Francisco.  Fingers crossed & for sure an update on this to come!!!)

But really what kept me from falling asleep just now on the plane, after two pretty good movies & a filling airplane dinner, was the sudden sadness that I felt as I tried to doze off.  I was sleepy & thinking of nothing at all when images of canals & my favorite streets & my bike & the park all flooded into my mind & my eyes truly welled up with tears.  I am not being dramatic & believe me, I am as surprised as you are that I would be so weepy like I’m mourning the loss of something that can’t be reclaimed!  I know we can go back to Amsterdam!! Of course we will see this wonderful place again!!  But the life we lived, the familiar way we biked everywhere, the friends we hung out with or simply bumped into on a daily basis, the specific apartment & the beloved rooftop are something I have to say goodbye to in my heart.  They won’t ever be back…I simply have to be happy for what was & not sad that it’s over.   Well now that I say it I suppose it’s true -- I guess I am in for a mourning period. I’m going to have to get over the loss of something real that I’ll never get to have again.  Sounds pretty spoiled.  Yes, that’s exactly what I was this year… I was pretty damn spoiled.  Thank you honey for spoiling us… Bry was so smart to realize that this gift to all of us was like no other gift he could have “bought” for me or the kids.  Forever we will have this gift to look back upon, to use for a baseline or foundation in our decision-making, our life choices & the way we treat each other.  Let’s make the most of it & see how we can make this the gift that keeps on giving!!!!