Goodbye Alaska

Our time in Alaska was a bit like living in a bubble. Our life was simple, fairly routine and unencumbered from most of our daily responsibilities back home. We were ready to return to Phoenix and yet at the same time we began to realize that an amazing experience was coming to an end.

Willem and Jake bonding over their love of trains.

Our last group trip to Walmart. Every Monday we would head to Walmart with the Ogao's to get the groceries for the week. Those trips were filled with the beginnings of wonderful friendships, tiring moments with the kids, a new appreciation for the food selection in Arizona and somehow a sense of comfort in routine.

Next stop was often Costco on Mondays where we would feed the kids lunch and buy produce or odds and ends we were in need of. It was a nice break from our PB&J lunches and was the perfect restaurant to take kids and not have to worry too much about the chaos of bringing 4 children under 5 out to lunch.

The night before we left, Jason grilled up some salmon for us all to enjoy and we celebrated our last evening in Alaska. Sadly, we were returning without Jason who had 2 weeks left in Alaska but we were excited to be getting back to our home and our family.

Heidi and I were curious how the flights home would go but overall we survived 8 hours of traveling where the kids outnumbered us. They were troopers for having to wake up before 5am and we are now big fans of the Portland airport for having a play area for us to spend our 2 hour layover at.

We were beyond excited to see Grandma, Oom Rik and Tia Julie at the airport upon our arrival and to visit with the Gigi and Paw Paw at the house afterwards. We had a wonderful adventure in Alaska but we were glad to be home. As soon as we hit the house, Willem ran into the living room "my trains, my trains" and we were home.