Back to Normal

Whatever that is! We had a great time in New York!  A crazy whirlwind trip....we got up at 3:30am on Tuesday morning to fly out at 6. We got to start playing in New York around 11 and took the subway to Times Square.  The kids knew all about the Twin Towers for some reason so they were very interested in that.  Much of New York that we all know from movies, history, etc. is completely foreign to them though.  New York pizza in an old church, Toys R Us with a ferris wheel inside, stores full of M&M's and Hershey's chocolate filled our day.  We were tired early!

We got up Wednesday and had to get 9 people ready to be on t.v!  I don't think we even knew enough to be too nervous.  None of us had ever done anything like this before.  The Fox thing doesn't count; Scott and I were alone in a room with a cameraman and a camera with people talking in our ear.  Truly the hardest "speaking engagement" I've ever done!  I knew when that was over that anything was going to be easier than that!

We got to The View and got taken to a dressing room with 'The Sterling Family' on the door.  Kris Jenner was sitting across the hall in her dressing room and Hunter Haye's band was wandering around. I'm not really one to get starstruck but it was definitely interesting to run into people like that in the hall!  Very surreal.  The producers showed us the set to explain how things would go that day, did some of our hair and makeup and we waited.  We actually had a ton of fun!  And I need to just say that Procter & Gamble and Avila were both fabulous!  They were both extremely genuine and interested in our story.  The President of Avila had read much of this silly blog and was invested in our story.  We feel extremely blessed that The View's producers went to great lengths to not only surprise us at all, but to research the best school to meet our needs.

We flew home Wednesday and couldn't believe it was back to school for Thursday.  Fast trip!  The kids enjoyed themselves but kept saying 'I love Missouri'.  Which is good.  They've seen cities in Peru and in New York and are starting to form an opinion about what feels like home. :)  Many of them felt famous at school Thursday, one specifically with the ladies. :)  

One of the nights this week as we were getting back into the groove of normal, we had interesting dinner conversation.   Food was cleared away and 4 of the Peruvians stayed at the table talking.  We learned things about their childhood, their family, their memories that we had never heard before.  It was awesome for many reasons.  1. They felt comfortable to share and 2. There is so much more to their past than we realized.  It's amazing how much we are going to learn over the years, I think. There's so much there to unfold. Fun and scary all at once.  Our kids have been through a lot for their ages!  Have had to make hard decisions for themselves. And are tough, amazing kids because of it!