Final week in Houston

After 3 wonderful weeks in St. Louis, we spent one last week in Houston before heading back to Doha.  We stayed with our friends the Carneys and had a great time catching up and enjoying all the craziness of 5 kids in one house! 

Jaden and Nicholas with best friend John

 I couldn't stop laughing at the wii dance off - who knew they would take it so seriously?! 

Jaden and Nicholas making some serious muscles

John and Jaden flexing for Wii Dance

Punch!

Wii Dance party video:

After a wonderful 6 weeks in the sates, it was time to head back to Doha.  We were sad to say goodbye, but ready to come home as well.  It was a hot day in Houston and I remember taking a quick shower before heading to the airport - what a waste of time!  I had 3 monster suitcases, a trunk, 2 card board boxes, 3 carry-ons, and 2 boys to navigate from our rental car to the check in counter.  I was a sweaty mess by the time we boarded our flight!! 

We dropped off the rental car and they had run out of carts to help with baggage, so the boys and I hauled each bag across the massive parking lot to the elevator - took multiple trips.  It took me so long to pile it all into the elevator, I was nearly crushed by the door trying to keep it open before the boys found the right button to keep it open for me.  Bless their hearts, they were trying to help.  We took the elevator down and praise God, there was a cart just inside!  I loaded everything onto the cart to catch the shuttle to the terminal.  I had to unload everything and haul it onto the shuttle, only to unload it all as soon as we arrived at the terminal. Another man got off at the same time and he ran inside to grab us each a cart while the boys and I waited outside with the mountains of luggage.  I loaded everything back onto a cart and wheeled inside to check in.  I was stopped before I could enter the line so they could pre-weigh each bag.  So everything had to come off the cart, get weighed, and piled back on the cart ... only to be rolled 30 feet so they could officially weigh each bag at the check in counter.  Really?  It was a work out for sure!  We got our boarding passes, walked to the gate, and sat down to await our flight.  Not exaggerating, they called for family boarding within 5 minutes of arriving at the gate!  Talk about perfect timing!!  We got settled on the plane and we off!  Boys did fantastic on the plane - I wasn't even nervous about the 16 hr flight by myself and the boys.

Our mountain of luggage that we had to load and unload a hundred times!!  Wore me out!! 

The flight from Houston to Doha is a night flight, so the boys slept for a while on the plane and when we arrived in Doha, it was dinner and bed time again.  Jet lag was miserable last year and I was prepared for the worst.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It only took them about 3 days to adjust!!  Yeah!!