The Long Road Home

We returned to KL from Krabi on Tuesday, and had the afternoon to do some laundry and enjoy one last hurrah at the pool before packing up. We swam, played at the playground and played ping pong at the condo's rec center.

We also experimented with a ping pong ball in the fountain - it didn't go as quickly down the stairs as we predicted! Here they are ready to catch it when it comes down...

We packed our things and found that we needed an extra bag (thanks, Tiffany!) to haul home our treasures and holiday gifts. The taxi picked us up at 11:30 the following morning to take us to the airport. It all went by so fast! Here are the kids waiting for our taxi.

I must admit that all of our travels did put my nerves to the test, especially with the recent disaster near Malaysia. We flew Malaysian Airlines our first trip to Krabi, and Air Asia for our second trip. The crash between Indonesia and Singapore happened while we were in Krabi, and we still had to get back to KL on Air Asia. These last flights almost put me over the edge, but all went smoothly. My thoughts go out to the families of those on Air Asia flight 8501. Here are Chris and Tilly, ready to head home.

We arrived in Taipei, Taiwan a little after 8 and had 3.5 hours before our next flight. Chris and I were both feeling a bit under the weather so we just tried to keep everyone entertained. We had heard about these free massage chairs in the airport and they were a hit - you just have to collect tokens from an information center and relax. They even kept Tilly and Levi occupied for 30 minutes!

After that we got some tea and did whatever we could to kill time until we boarded at 11:10.

The kids didn't sleep at all on our flight from KL to Taipei so they were beat, and it became clear that Chris and I were coming down with something. The flight from Taipei to Seattle is quite a bit shorter on the way home due to the jet stream, so we only had a 10 hour flight. We left Taipei at 11:50, and just missed celebrating 2 New Year's Eves by 10 minutes! We arrived in Seattle on time at 5:50 pm on the 31st and stayed downtown so we wouldn't have to drive home in our weary states. The kids slept a lot on the plane so we ordered room service for dinner and tried to keep them up a bit longer in hopes of getting back on schedule. Levi fell asleep around 11pm, but Tilly and I stayed awake to enjoy the fireworks over the Space Needle! Our hotel looked out to the needle, so we were able to view them in pj's (and winter coats - brrrr!) from our deck. She thought it was the coolest, and Levi was really bummed to hear that he missed them.

So, we made it home New Year's Day and have been re-adjusting to normal life and time. The first night home nobody could sleep until late, and we all slept until noon the next day - Tilly logged almost 15 hours of zzz's! The last couple nights have been a bit better and I'm hoping that we will all be functional by 9am tomorrow. Monday is back to school and work, jet-lagged or not! We loved our adventures, and are already planning the next one. Well, at least I am - It is too cold here! I love sitting outside at night in a tank top and shorts. Cheers!