And we're back . . .

First Day of School

We arrived home safe and sound.  Life has been busy while we unpacked suitcases, unpacked boxes, went grocery shopping, and picked up where we left off.  We've celebrated Christmas a few times since returning.  Hannah, Jonathan and Charlotte are back in school, Spencer and Ben have a pretty good eat, play, eat, rest, eat, play, sleep routine going on.  Heather has a new calling as Cubmaster, Hyrum finally made it to the office Tuesday afternoon after dealing with car trouble and dentist appointments and this weekend brought a much anticipated visit from Grandma and Grandpa.  

Hyrum and I spent 3 1/2 hours sorting books we've had boxed up for years.
We're getting rid of two boxes full of books.

Christmas #2--Presents for each other we didn't
want to ship to Germany and then back again.  

Afternoon reading time.

We've also had a lot of time to think about and process our experiences.  I feel sure that it was a good thing, maybe even the right thing, for our family to do these past few months.  We have learned so much about the world we live in, about people and most importantly about ourselves and what matters most.  We've learned practical lessons about our family and travel.  We also have a better idea of what it means to move a large American family to Europe.  We've learned a bit about how small our perspective is and just how much we don't/can't understand about the world at large because we haven't experienced it.  This trip was truly humbling in so many ways.  I hope to elaborate on that later.  

Cub Scout buddies.

When we don't read we play games.

We're grateful for our trip and we're so glad to be home.