HERE, THERE, and in the AIR

Thursday, July 16^th at 10:30pm we headed to the airport in order to catch our 1:15AM flight to Panama.  This was Julia and Josiah’s first plane ride and both laughed all through take-off then, praise God, promptly went to sleep.  The rest of us soon learned that sleeping on the plane is no easy task.  We were tired when we started the trip and we were tied when we landed in Panama at 6AM. 

However, after breakfast and coffee we were ready to begin our three days of site-seeing in Panama.  The canal was incredible, the kids loved the animals at the zoo, the sea food was awesome, the historical towns were cool and the place we stayed was fabulous. 

Sunday was an early morning as we headed to the airport at 5AM. 

 We took two flights and finally landed at 4:00pm in Austin where Jeff’s parents and his brother and brother’s wife were waiting for us with huge smiles and open arms.  They drove us back to our house which managed to surpass any expectation we might have had.  This is a house that Jeff’s dad bought a couple years ago and will rent it to us for the year.  Even better, you can see their house from our back yard.  The house is huge (even for our family of 9), it is furnished, set up with internet (Ryan said that he never knew internet could be so fast), and the kitchen cabinets are full and the pantry is stocked.  Jeff’s mom thought of everything – shampoo in the showers, toothpaste in the bathrooms, garbage sacks under the sink…the list could go on and on.  The Suburban he bought is in the driveway with a full tank of gas.  We feel so blessed.