Tickets, please?

I guess I've been a bit of a slacker this week.  I didn't do ANY of the things I said I was going to.  Honestly, though, we've been busy.  The first few months we were in Monterey, I spent a long time trying to get the kids on a schedule.  We tried out story time at the library like we'd been doing in Texas.  We tried all kinds of different playgrounds.  We just couldn't really come up with a good routine like we'd had previously.  Then, based on the recommendation of someone Josh works with, we found the Monterey Moms meetup group.  It saved my life.  Seriously. Since last November, we've been doing 2, 3, and even sometimes 4 different activities with the group every week.  Some weeks, like this week, are pretty busy.  But it's so good for B and K to get out and socialize that I wouldn't have it any other way.  So on Tuesday, we had a walk along the ocean followed by another meetup where the kids made painted handprint spiders (in honor of Halloween).  Wednesday, we had a Halloween party followed by B's class with the Monterey Rec Center.  Then this morning, we had our FAO Spouses group monthly potluck and skype session with a lady in Jordan.  It was all lots of fun, but this week has been BUSY.  Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get around to making all those phone calls.

In the meantime...  I'm happy to report that we have plane reservations!!  It took many emails back and forth, but we got the flight that we wanted on the airline that we wanted.  The only downside (if you can really call it a downside) is that there is no airport hotel where we have our scheduled layover, so if there is a delay of some sort on our connecting flight, we're really just stuck sitting in the airport.  We've got a 6 hour layover as it is, so any sort of a delay really pushes us in to that window of "what are we going to do with the kids".  Luckily, there is a play area in the airport, as well as plenty of restaurants.  And really, this is much better than our other two options of an early morning flight to New York followed by a long leg to Hong Kong, then a connection to Nepal, and on to Dhaka or - my personal favorite - the flight that had a layover in Pakistan.  Super!  Not that I have anything against Pakistan, but when you're talking about places that you could get stuck for a while, it's just not at the top of my list.