Our trip to the US

Well here it is the last day of our trip and I am just getting around to blogging about any of our time here! We were so thankful that we were able to have this time at "home" for the past 4 weeks. We had not planned on coming back during our two years in Kenya but Rhett had the opportunity to attend the Infectious Disease Society of America meeting in Vancouver. Lucky for us, my parents decided it would be in their best interest to fly me and the kids over with Rhett (vs them making the trip again!) so we turned it into a family vacation of sorts. We arrived just in time for Ford's 3rd birthday party celebration. He has been talking about his "Mickey Mouse Birthday" for months (not sure why the only interaction he has had with Mickey Mouse is a pair of pjs). It brought back lots of memories because we celebrated Ford's first birthday with a similar tailgate/family party and that was when Ford opened a special gift of a "big brother" t-shirt and shocked everyone with the news of Gus's future arrival!









My Mom found this toy motorcycle which was a huge hit for Ford who LOVES "pikis" as we call them in Kenya.



The kids stayed with grandparents while Rhett and I took off on our first "no-kids" vacation ever and went to the meeting in Vancouver. Rhett attended lots of meetings, sessions and poster presentations with lots of really smart people from all over the world who have lots of knowledge of infectious stuff. I had quiet, alone time in our hotel for the first time in almost 5 years. It was nice. I rented a bike on a couple occasions and rode around Stanley Park. It was lovely. We connected with some old friends and colleagues and had a nice time catching up. Here is the only picture I took in Vancouver - just to prove we were there.



We spent a couple more days with Rhett's family when we got back then we had to put Rhett on a plane back to Kenya while we headed west to Birmingham! First we had some more goodbyes to say . . .


(saying goodbye to Doc at the office - hence the cool head gear you get to wear when you are an ENT).



(and Gamma who would see Claire one more time during our visit but not the boys).

More to come on our time in Birmingham and Athens . . .