On Vacation! (:

Yikes! It's been a LONG time since I wrote anything. I guess life had just been "boring" - until lately that is! We've had a very exciting and busy last few days!

On Saturday morning we loaded our suitcases and our Ella into our van - amid the flurries of snow gently falling - said goodbye to Pumpkin and Dory, and headed to the minneapolis airport. It was definitely great timing to be leaving the state of MN and going to California. (:

Our day of travel went relatively smoothly. While we were at the gate waiting to board, Dave and Ella studied the plane and all of the activity going on around it through the window. We boarded, the plane backed up from the gate, and then.... we stopped. And waited. And waited. Hmmm. After a bit, I was starting to think that something may be wrong, and then.... the pilot's voice over the speaker...."mechanical problems" Ugh. Oh well, at least we had a more-than-three-hour layover in Chicago, so we weren't too worried. We deboarded and were told that they were getting a new plane for us. Good news, right? Well, Ella definitely did NOT think so. She wanted HER plane! The "gray and blue" one! She absolutely, positively, did NOT want to fly on any other plane but the one that she and Dave had watched and discussed for so long only a little while before. So we white-lied and said that we were going to fly on the same plane. And all was well. (:

Ella did very well on both flights. I was a little worried since she was still working on getting over a bad cold and had been diagnosed as having an ear infection the day before. But she seemed to have no pain or discomfort with the pressure/altitude changes, so that was a relief. She spent most of the time studying the plane safety card. I'm not sure why she is so obsessed with diagrams and manuals, but she is. We landed in Sacramento just before 6pm, and were greeted by a very happy Paake and Beppe. Oh, and by FABULOUS temps also!

We are excited to be here and looking forward to the 3 weeks - yes THREE WEEKS - that Ella and I get to be here!

And I am happy that Dave is getting a week off from the grueling days and nights of chaplain work. He's had some very heavy and emotional times with families - which usually went along with nights of only a couple hours of sleep. And some very draining (yet very valuable and worthwhile) times of self/group analyzation and theological/denominational defense and learning. So it's wonderful that he has this time to step back and breathe a bit. And to enjoy the California sun too. (:

(I'll try to add a few pics in a bit)

Okay - here are is what Ella did on the plane:

Slept - in this position - for a grand total of 15 minutes:









And read and discussed the "airplane card" - for pretty much the entire rest of the flight: