Aunt Nette's Big Adventure

Time is flying by so quickly this summer! Case in point:  It has already been almost two weeks since I left on my big adventure to go visit my sister, brother-in-law and nieces! How can it be that I'm already home?!

I'm not going to disclose the location here, but it took me three flights and several time zones to get to where they are living. The trip started off with a big delay due to a mechanical problem on the landing gear or front tire of the plane that was to take me from Nashville to Newark. I definitely am thankful that they discovered that there was a problem before we needed to use said landing gear and tire, but the delay caused quite a bit of drama for the rest of my trip over.

But God sent people to help and by the time I landed in Paris on Sunday morning (local time), things had mostly gotten resolved and I was able to get to my final destination without an overnight layover in Paris. And then I had only one more flight and the reunion at the end was so sweet!

Once I got there and we got to the apartment, it was about time for bed, which was fine with me! I bunked in the room with the girls and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Every morning, I got to snuggle with them before we got up and started the day's activities. I even got to have the first birthday kiss from a new six-year-old! Priceless!

This was taken after we got up on her special day!

I brought two very full suitcases of things that my family needed/requested. It was fun to see their faces when they received different items. One girl was especially happy to be reunited with her Pillow Pet!

Another favorite activity was a special Aunt/Niece date to an arcade to do a little early celebrating for the soon-to-be-eight-year-old. I wasn't feeling 100%, but it was fun to watch her play and we got to take some fun photo booth pics together. Also priceless!

A big part of the joy of the trip was just getting to spend time together and for me to experience a small taste of life in their city. They took me to see the girls' school and the language school and I experienced shopping and walking and sweating!

One day we went to the beach and while it was different from beaches where we've gone together before, it was so much fun to play in the water and look for pebbles along the shore. And the views!

Thankfully, my trip home was a 180-degree difference and held very little drama. I had to wait in a long line to check in at the first airport, but after that, things went very smoothly and I arrived back in Nashville at the same gate where I had departed a week earlier.