The Last of LA and Home Sweet Home

A Reina-insisted photo: "Mommy, take our picture"

Enjoying the VERY cold LA water.

After a night's recovery from Disney, we spent the next few days with Paul, Jannie, and Grandpa Jeff.  Most notably, we walked around Hermosa Pier, saw some seals and played at a little arcade.  It was probably the first time Reina had done any type of circus type rides.  Chris also got in a few video games that he swears he used to be good at!  On our last day with Uncle Paul and Grandpa Jeff, we went swimming in Uncle Paul's pool.  Reina must have spent at least an hour in the water, if not longer, and got confident enough to swim in the pool with just a noodle.  Kaiya also got in, but didn't enjoy it quite like Reina. 

With Uncle Paul in the pool

The flight home was long.  Reina did amazing.  We were on a very new plane (maybe 2011) and it had touch screen monitors in front of each seat, which meant Reina could watch quite a few different kids' shows and movies.  Kaiya did ok.  She was a little bit fussy before "bedtime," but after she fell asleep for a few hours, she was fine.  The turbulance on the long leg was very bad about an hour and a half out.  The worst I've ever had.  I was happy once we landed.  But, like on the way to the States, we had very little time to get to our next flight.  With customs, immigration, and re-checking our bags we didn't have any time to eat anything before getting on our Tokyo-Naha leg.  Once we were home we all crashed until about four am.

"Swimming" all by herself

Since being home I've been obsessed with organizing all of our closets.  This is mainly because we were making the big move: Reina and Kaiya in one room.  Uncle Mike is coming in a bout a week, so we needed to get Kaiya into Reina's room for that, but this had always been the plan.  Eventually the spare room will be a play room.  Well, night one with both girls in the same room has been the best night of sleep for both of them in months!  I'm sure its mostly coincidence...that coupled with the fact that we played hard at the beach yesterday afternoon to ensure both girls were nice and tired. 

Kaiya also FINALLY has two bottom teeth. I've been saying since we landed in Portland that those two teeth were due any day.  Yesterday they broke through.  Hopefully THIS will help her sleep better.  Maybe that's why she's been such a bad sleeper.  I hope so.  Kaiya has also mastered pulling up (I've found her standing in her crib) and more recently sitting up on her own (from lying down).  Time sure does fly. 

Reina wanted to drive, Chris wouldn't let her.

We're still working on buying another house in Bellingham.  The house we're buying is bank owned, which I think has made the process a bit more cumbersome.  We got some news yesterday that I think will help move things along (but things could also go bad too with the news).  Hopefully we close by the end of August. 

At the arcade.

Home sweet home