Our Adventure

The last few weeks were very busy for the Diamond family!

First Week of March: with our furniture gone and us in "camping" mode we were running out of things to occupy the kids.  While cleaning out some cabinets we found some birthday party stuff and they pretended to be having a birthday party.  I loved watching their imaginations come up with the party plan.

 

Packing Day: 13th of March we left our apartment and moved into temporary housing (Great World City serviced apartments).  The kids helped pack (well, sort of)...Ainsley packed her animals and swim suit; Kara packed the lego set; Jack packed one ball.  We got a kick out of seeing what they found most important.

After we moved into our hotel Matt had a business trip to China, then Ainsley and I took a quick trip to Bangkok to visit a good friend, we squeezed in a Disney on Ice show, said good-bye to friends, paid bills, closed accounts, and re-packed our suitcases.

Leaving Singapore: We were supposed to fly out of Singapore on March 23rd, a Wednesday.  However, Ainsley caught a really bad virus and the day before we were supposed to leave she was admitted to the hospital.  We rescheduled our flight for Friday morning and extended our stay in temporary housing.  Then Jack and Kara started to run a fever and we thought it could be a week before we made it to Austin.  Luckily their fevers broke within a day, but then Ainsley's virus ended up much worse than expected and she didn't actually get released from the hospital until Friday.  Our flight was once again rescheduled and we finally left on Saturday. 

The Flight Home: we caught the "maxi-taxi" at 6am on Saturday morning and headed to the airport with 11 suitcases and 3 carry on bags.

Luxury Travel: while the flight from Singapore to Austin was long, we were very fortunate to have business class seats (part of the repatriation package).  So, overall no complaints!

Matt soiled two shirts (vomit from Kara) and had to buy a new t-shirt in Tokyo.  Here he is wearing his new shirt and holding what he thought was lemon-flavored water, but turned out to be lemon-flavored beer.  Why did he think it was water?  Because it was for sale at the gate.  Go figure!

The flight from Tokyo to Dallas the kids slept most of the flight.  They had a hard time waking up when it was time to land.  We were so thankful for the extra room in business class. 

Arrival in Austin: we landed at 6pm-ish Saturday evening in Austin.  Pa met us at the airport with our car seats and to help with the luggage.  (You can imagine how out of place we looked arriving in Austin...jet lagged, dirty, three cranky kids, and 11 pieces of luggage to take off the belt!)  We loaded the kids into our rental car and headed home!

Home: we have been in Austin now for one week.  Jet lag has passed and we are enjoying our house.  Matt and I bought cars, and counting both sets of car seats plus Pa's set, we have nine car seats at the Diamond household.  Haha!  The kids have adjusted really well to our new life.  Unfortunately I misplaced the camera until today so I have no pictures to share since we landed.  The sea shipment arrived and now all of our furniture, clothes, toys, etc. are here.  Pictures are hung on the wall and now it really feels like home.