Katie's First Day of 2nd Grade ... Aug 12, 2009

Katie's first day of 2nd grade went great. Her teacher at Goshen Elementary School is Mrs. Turnage and it is a combined 1st grade/2nd grade class. Personally, I think this combined class structure is idiotic, especially since Katie didn't get to take advantage of being in the 1st grade class, but a lot about U.S. public schools is lame (WAY too many rules). But Heather says that the actual classroom education piece is better than Budapest AISB, so I guess it makes it worth it. It is crazy that school has already started.

Chicago, IL ... August 5 -7, 2009

We took a quick trip to Chicago to visit Peter and Mary Clarke (and Liam and Aiden) who moved from Budapest about the same time as us (they are in mid-transition to Shanghai now). It was great to see them again for a couple of days, especially since it won't be until next year that we will run into them again. We visited the Morton Arboretum and a couple restaurants before heading down to Champaign to visit my parents and my sister Trisha and her family (who were visiting from Minneapolis). The kids had a great time playing together and the parents probably had more fun playing games after the kids went to bed (another Phase 10 win for me since the "practice round" didn't count.)

Hotel living ... July 9 - Aug 10, 2009

We lived in a hotel for a month before giving up hope that our furniture was going to arrive any time soon. It was not very fun (and not very comfortable for the girls). And we are glad that we decided to move out when we did because our furniture did not arrive for another month and a half!

Katie's 7th Birthday ... July 25, 2009

Even though we had not moved in yet, we celebrated Katie's birthday at our house with the Delle Foglie's. We went to Chuck E Cheese earlier in the day. I think Katie enjoyed her special day (which had already been celebrated twice before!).

Dellefoglie's visit ... July 22 - 26, 2009

Heather's sister, Dawn, and her family, visited us for a few days. We were supposed to have our stuff by then, but even after 6 weeks, we were still living in a hotel. We had closed on our house, at least, so they just brought a couple of air mattresses and camped out at our house. They actually spent the night there before we did.

They were great to have, and not JUST because they painted the girls' rooms! We played Phase 10, which I think I won, but I can't remember. Maybe Dawn can remind me if I won or not.

New York ... June 9 - 12, 2009

Don met us at the airport in New York. We had so much luggage, we didn't think we would be able to fit it all in our rental van. We had a great weekend with Grandpa Larsen and are looking forward to being closer to him for a little while.

We were able to somehow get all of our stuff packed in on Sunday afternoon so Don didn't have to make another trip to the most torturous airport in the world. We flew out late Sunday evening, arriving in Cincinnati close to midnight. Then we had a shuttle drive us to Louisville.

Champaign visit ... August 7 - 8, 2009

We're back! Did you miss us??

After we spent a couple of days in Chicago, we drove down to Champaign, Illinois, where I grew up and visited for the rest of the weekend with my parents. My sister Trisha and her family were also visiting, so it was good to see everyone and good for the kids to play with their cousins.

We made a trip up to my dad's office and lab and he showed all of the kids how to freeze things with liquid nitrogen. We also visited the Curtis Apple Orchard where the kids got to play for a little while. We drove back Sunday afternoon to Louisville.

Flight back to the U.S. ... July 9, 2009

The plane ride back to the US. This will be the first time Ryan and Ashley have lived in the US. I still remember a couple of years ago when I showed Ashley (she was probably just 3 years old and we had been studying the planets) a picture of the United States. I asked her what it was. She looked at me for a second and then said, "Mercury?". I think it is time that the girls learned what a state is and started to learn a few of them. Today they do pretty good playing the ABC game with countries (A=Austria, B=Belgium, C=Croatia, D=Denmark, E=England, etc.), now we need to teach them US geography a little bit.
The flight was actually quite nice and uneventful (and the kids enjoyed the red socks!). It was a direct flight from Budapest to New York, so no layovers required since we were going to spend a few days with Heather's dad there. The hardest part was we were traveling with 14 suitcases, so trying to deal with the logistics of that was a little difficult, but we actually managed well.
So, this is the last of the Budapest posts...at least for a little while.

Checking Out of the House ... July 9, 2009

We went to the house the morning of our flight home to hand over the keys (we had returned the rental furniture a couple of days before). I've included a picture of Andras, our handyman/gardener for the last 3 years. He originally was a little scary, but was a very nice man and Heather said he even shed a tear as we were locking up the gate for the last time.
We loved our house and the yard and really this is all the kids know and really remember (for now). Ryan was born here and Ashley was only 18 months when we moved here. Katie remembers a little about our time in Toronto, but hopefully will remember a lot more of Budapest. I've said it before, but we will really miss this place.

Last night in Budapest ... July 8, 2009

It's our last night in Budapest. It is crazy how fast the time has gone by. It is fitting that our last night is in our hotel overlooking one of the most beautiful cities in the world (and the girls' pajamas that a few years ago went down a lot closer to their feet!).

Zoo Playhouse ... July 8, 2009

Heather and the girls went with their friends one more time to the Zoo Playhouse (and apparently had a superhero dress up party). And it is too bad we are leaving because Ryan and Dylan would have become great friends.

House of Terror ... July 8, 2009

The Terror Museum sits on Andrassy st. 60, the previous headquarters for the secret police of both the Nazis and the Communists. It was in this building hundreds of people were tortured and murdered for their political affiliations. Note the carved out "TERROR" on the re-designed roof...when the sun projects through these letters, it depicts the "terror" that projected down on Hungary during the Nazi/Communist regimes.

I took a tour of the museum which depicts the history of the Nazi and Communist regimes and illustrates the terror that occurred during the 70 years of bondage by one of the two regimes. Some believe that it is politically slanted to over-embelish the Hungarian victims, alluding to the fact that Hungary played a bigger part as the victimizers than the victims. Either way, a lot of people and their posterities suffered for many years and still suffer some sort of effect, especially considering where the economy and infrastructure could be today if they had been allowed to truly develop it. But that is just my opinion.

They didn't allow any photos or video inside, but trust me, it was sobering. Especially the elevator ride to the prison basement where they show you a video of a guard explaining the execution process.

Arriba ... July 8, 2009

And if she wasn't at Szamos...she was at Arriba, the only good Mexican place in Budapest. We used to go to Arriba together for lunch on Saturdays...now we will have to go to Taco Bell instead, I guess (if there was a "sarcasm" font, I would have written that last line using that font).