Grampa's House

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We finally made it "Over The Hill" to see Tina's dad and her brother's family. They have been so supportive of our family as we have gone through the entire adoption process that we wish we could have had them meet Kai sooner, but all the same it was a great visit. Tina's dad is 87 years old and lives just down the street from her brother's family. We visit them a lot, but this last year has been busy and our usual summer visit this year was made by just Tina and our younger son Ben. Cam and I were both busy with work.

We talked about having them come visit us on Veteran's day, but felt it would just be too much. At that point we had only been home from China for about 5 weeks and having 5 people (and possibly 2 dogs) was just more than we felt Kai was ready for. To be honest it was definitely more than Tina and I were ready for! So we postponed until Christmas. We were concerned about driving over the mountains in winter. We have done it pretty regularly over the last few years, but earlier this fall the weather had been pretty bad and we were feeling uneasy about doing a six-plus hour drive with a toddler. Thankfully Tina's dad helped us with airline tickets as a Christmas gift.

So instead of a 6 or 7 hour drive we were looking at a 35 minute flight. The kicker: The drive from our home to SeaTac, parking the car, shuttle, checking bags, security check, etc... doorstep to doorstep was just over 6 hours travel time. You can't win.

All the same Kai was a real trooper. He travels easy and is amazingly agreeable. A couple of fun footnotes on the journey over include stopping for dinner on our way to the airport at the same restaurant we went to when we flew to China. The waitress we had the first time was working and remembered us, she was really excited to see Kai. Then at the airport we ran into our niece's boyfriend Max. He had to fly back to L.A. to play a gig. Our boys are friends with him and were a bit bummed they weren't going to see him this trip, so this gave them a chance for a short visit to catch up with one another.

During the visit Kai pretty much stuck to his schedule. We weren't hard and fast with it, but for the most part he just went with the flow. It amazes me to see how easily he adapts to change. Kai had fun playing with his cousins and meeting his Grandpa, Uncle Bill, Aunt Erin, Aunt Peggy, and cousins Caitlin and Hailey. We even had an outing to the antique carousel in Spokane. Stupid me forgot the digital camera on that outing - have to get those photos next trip.

I'm glad we waited to make the trip. Kai has had the time to settle in a bit here and feel more rooted, which I think helped him be confident and comfortable meeting new people.

It was funny when we got back to our house, he was very excited to see his home again. It made us wonder if he thought we were going to come back here or not?