Home from Vacation

Well, we are all back home from our jaunts around the world. The kids and I were gone for a week in Southern California, staying with Chris's grandmother. It wasn't nearly as warm as I would have liked - but it was sunny, and to feel real sand on my feet was a balm. We spent a day at Disneyland, time at the beach, time with Sterling just sick in bed (and me so grateful that the view from Great Grandma's is so lovely), visited with a few friends... it was really nice.

Chris is also back from his 12 day trip to Sierra Leone. It required approx. 41 hours of flight/transfer time in each direction, a nine hour time change, 7 days in the country, and lots of overwhelming cultural experiences. He was there as part of a team - director and assistant, writer, and Chris (producer) - scouting out information for a feature film that they hope to film in the next year. It is a fictional story about the recent civil war there. While in the country, they had rather astonishing access to interviewing several people who had fought in the war, as well as to view the countryside, spend an afternoon in a diamond mine, sleep under their mosquito nets in the 100 degree nights... Lots of culture shock, some amazing film footage (they filmed a documentary while there), and a good opportunity to get to know one another as a team.

Chris arrived to California a few days after we did, so we all had some time together there as a family.

Now we are home, have some friends (from Bowen, moved back east) here for a visit, I'm getting over a cold, and now we are realizing that, at 33 weeks pregnant, the baby is coming sooner than later!