Last leg of our trip and we took a quick flight into Portland.  Home.

We celebrated second Christmas and spent some quality family time that was long overdue.

So good to relax by the fire, and let the cousins make up for lost time.  New Years Eve was spent with these cuties, teaching them about make up.  Perfect night.

I also try to squeeze in a few “normal” life activities when we are home.  This trip, we made it to story time at our local library, my kids are still surprised when it’s in English. Visiting friends, going to the movies, some beach time and new fun games rounded out our final leg.

It’s never easy to get back on that plane, knowing it will be 6 months before you get to see these moments again.    We are used to the traveling by now, but the saying goodbye is still just as hard.   We cherish the people in our lives who have stayed with us on this journey, who host us and send us care packages.  Being an expat is a roller coaster of excitement, sadness, guilt and a million other emotions in between.   We appreciate all the love.

We red-eyed back to Cartagena and I thought about all the hours my children were traveling.  Planes, road trips and back again, and not one fuss about it.   If they take away this one skill, to learn to love traveling, this will have been a great success.