LDHQ: September 2010

Thanks to the only commercial airline that travels to/from GITMO, we avoided the Space A route, and getting back to Cali took half the time as getting there. We first flew 3 hrs in a small twin-engine propeller plane of about 10 passengers, stretched out on the last row of seats with nothing but the luggage piled behind us (no lavatory), earplugs in our ears (but a challenge to keep in Leyna's while she was awake), and soda cans in a small cooler sitting near the pilot (thanks, but again there's no lavatory). Surprisingly the flight into Florida was smooth with little turbulence. The most uncomfortable it got was enduring the thick heat in the cabin before take-off, the freezing cold air while up in the sky, and dodging the sun peering through the windowshade-less windows (I chose the wrong side of the plane to get comfy on!) Finally, the remaining 3 legs of flights via Southwest brought us safely into Sacramento where fun with my brother and his family began!

This was the first time they all met Leyna so it was her first time to mingle with her cousins. It's great they are all close in age, EJ is few months shy of 3 yrs and Matthias recently turned 1. Leyna had a lot of toughening up to do though since she's typically surrounded by so many girls back in Oki. Girls just don't unpredictably "rooaar" at you like boys do, so sure enough our lil Princess came crying to me many times! Nevertheless, they had plenty of happy playtime together. The clear skies and cool air in Rocklin made for a perfect day at the park.

At the start, they were more interested in playing in the ground cover and grass rather than the actual playground. It's nice how kids can be so easily entertained.

Leyna takes a moment to practice her Tai Chi!

...and a quick ride on a seahorse...

Then onto the big stuff. Leyna followed the boys up to the slide...then realizes she doesn't know what to do next. haha. She wanted to walk down it instead of sit...