Adventure Lives Here! : Back to School

We arrived back to Galena on the morning flight of August 20th. Boy was it a crazy morning! I woke up bright and early to get all of our fresh stuff packed into totes for our luggage, making sure I put the correct items into the correct totes as I weighed all of them at Sam's Club the day before to make sure they were under 50 pounds. By the time I got the girls up, ate, and cleaned up the area we were staying in (thanks Arne and Susan for always opening up your house to us, even if you aren't there) and out the door, we were already a little late. Got to the airport, checked in our totes and our dog. Was feeling like I would make it in of time, but I still had to run our Suburban and trailer to the lovely peoples' place that we store our Suburban for the winter and get back to wait for the plane. I ran into our neighbor and friend, Amy, at the airport and she kindly offered to watch the girls while I dropped off the Suburban. As I was headed out the door the Airline Agent at the counter said we would be boarding at 8:20. I looked at the clock and it was 8:15! I had no idea why we were leaving 40 minutes earlier than scheduled, but I was in a panic. I had to get the Suburban and trailer to storage for the winter. Got to the storage place and the taxi I had called showed up just as I pulled in. I didn't even have time to park the Suburban and trailer in the correct place. I quickly jumped out, threw the keys under the mat, grabbed our carry-on bags (backpacks full of milk :) ) and jumped in the taxi. As we were pulling away in the taxi, I got a call from my friend Amy saying don't stress they aren't going to board at 8:20, they aren't even suppose to board till 8:45. So I was a little relieved after that call. Got to the airport and as I was walking up, I see that everyone HAS boarded, except my girls! Amy is kindly waiting with them and her baby and husband (they are on a different flight). We gave the agent our tickets and ran to the plane. Everyone is waiting for us, even Vallie (our dog) is strapped in and ready to go. I got the girls all buckled in and the pilot took off! No wait time in the airport whatsoever!

As I was sitting in the plane, looking out the window at the beautiful scenery, I started thinking about exactly how many totes I had checked on. Hmmm..."I think I might have forgotten one in the trailer, thinking it was one that was suppose to stay in the trailer. During all the chaos, I didn't even count all my baggage I had checked on! Bummer, 50 lbs of fresh stuff sitting in the trailer that won't be touched till next June! Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, just enjoy the scenery!" (In the end, I was able to have the people who store our vehicle, get it out of the trailer and donate it to some people I didn't even know. Glad it got some use!)

As soon as we landed the girls got huge smiles on their faces and said over the rumble of the little plane we were on, "Yes, we are here, we are finally here!" We stepped off the plane and the girls looked around for their Dad, but didn't see him and said with sad faces, "Daddy isn't here. Oh man Daddy isn't here." Until suddenly they spotted him, waiting by the luggage claim (which is just a box that a forklift carries and sets outside for the passengers to grab their luggage out of). They ran as fast as they could to him and jumped into his arms for lots and lots of hugs! It was wonderful to be reunited as a family after a long summer apart!

After all the excitement of being reunited, we drove to school and Ross went back to teaching for the day and the girls went straight to their classrooms (their choice) to start school. Ross had flown in to Galena earlier to start school by the 13th, but the students started school the 18th. The girls were a couple days late, but it was worth it to be able to stay in Montana a few days longer to help my Mom with her knee surgery recovery. I was exhausted after all the barge shopping and barge loading, so I tried to come home and take a nap to no avail as I was to wound up! It was good to be home and not have a house in ruins from a flood to fix. It was so nice to walk into a house that is livable and we don't have to spend all year working on. Praise God we don't have to go through what we did last year again this year!

Since we didn't have time to take the "First Day of School" pictures, we took them the next morning after arriving back here in Galena. A few days late, but that's ok. These pictures are taken on the porch of our house with the slough in the background.

Three girls happy to be with their Dad again.

That's right, a lot of people wear XtraTuf boots to school until it gets too cold to wear them.
It has been a pretty rainy and cold summer so the XtraTufs come in handy!

Individual shots of...