The Gerichs Family and Idaho

If you have been following my Facebook posts at all you must know that the girls and I are doing a US tour to beat the Shanghai heat and see some good friends.  The big downer is that Chris had to stay and work and I had to travel internationally with 2 toddlers by myself (in Economy plus!!!). #firstworldproblems

The good news is the girls were internationally traveling rock stars again!  We had a few bumpy spots but overall they did amazing on the travel.  What's my secret?  Lots of Ipad shows and movies for the kiddos who don't watch TV or movies on a regular basis, loads of 'fun' snacks, and a backpack chocked full of silly activities like sticker books, pipe cleaners and any other novel things that they don't normally do.  They only slept a total of 2 and a 1/2 hours on our red eye flight however, that somehow magically worked itself into instant acclimation to the local time with no jet lag.  

That was a huge blessing considering we wanted to get after spending time with our buddies straight away.  We know the Gerichs from Hawaii.  They are a wonderful family that are great friends.  They have 2 daughters that are very close to our girls.  In fact, H and their oldest were born 2 weeks apart. The girls wasted no time giggling, holding hands, and singing what would only be the non-stop singing of the Frozen sound track ALL WEEK LONG.  It melts my heart to have a family unit where the kids get along as much as the adults.  Bonus!

If you have never been to Idaho, I highly recommend it.  It's straight up good clean beautiful wholesome living and people.  The girls swam in the pool, swung on monkey bars, played in the sandbox, picked blueberries, & went to a water park.

Blueberry pickin'

Most notably were honored to join our friends on a 3 day camping trip.  I had never been camping before so this was a real treat.   The Gerichs have been camping their whole life and have things down to a science.  Additionally, they took great pains to make sure us 1st timers were well taken care of including clothing us appropriately.  I am quite certain if we had to go on our own things would have been drastically different.  We enjoyed swimming in the refreshingly cold "Crick" - (or creek depending on where you are from), campfires (of course smores to go along with it), painting with nature, swimming in a hot spring and much much more.  Camping did not disappoint - with great friends, great times and FRESH air!  If only my love was there, it would have been beyond perfect!  Maybe next year  ;o)  Helaina was fascinated by the individual porta-potty that we brought that even had it's own tent.  It's the little things in life.  

Indigo also enjoyed the portable potty.
She has done amazing and didn't have any accidents on our flight!

Hopefully the girls overcame some of there "cityness" during their time there and on the other parts of their trip.  We started off with Helaina screaming at the top of her lungs because a fly had landed on her.

2 year old Simone explaining to Helaina
not to freak out because it's just a worm.

They also learned a lot about sharing with others - more than they have to at home.  There was some expected bickering with the kids that naturally comes with sharing your toys and such with people for more than a play date.  However in the end, my girls are still praying for their sweet friends and the time they got to spend with them.  

The toughness of my goodbye for the Gerichs was lessened as Megan (solo) has plans to come and see us in Shanghai in just a few months.  Although we don't currently have plans to get our families together at this moment, I am comforted by the fact that with friends like this, it will happen.  Thanks for all the great memories Gerichs family!