Weekend in California

Even though the primary purpose of my recent trip to the USA was for greencard/immigration issues, the main personal reason was to attend my brother's wedding. It was a fabulous trip, but was a LONG journey through it all. Let me re-cap the some of the craziness that has been part of the last 2 weeks...

I had 2 days to prepare for my USA trip from the time we returned home from our 2-week-long Mediterranean cruise. I spent those 2 days doing a lot of unpacking, laundry, re-packing as well as arranging childcare for the girls for when Matt was at work, creating spreadsheets for Matt so he knew where and when to go to collect children as well as a schedule of events including everything from "fruit day" at preschool to soccer club and ballet lessons. To top it off, I made up 10 meals and put them in the freezer so that Matt wouldn't have to worry about cooking when he got home from work and had the kids to tend to all by himself. Whew!

After a few tears, I said goodbye to the kids and headed off to London's Heathrow airport where I boarded a nearly-empty flight to the States. 9.5 hours later I arrived in Denver, Colorado where, after a lengthy inquiry at immigration (what is a Canadian/ UK-resident doing in the United States???) I barely caught my connecting flight to Kalispell, Montana.

My luggage did not make the connection to Montana, but thankfully it arrived the next day - along with several inches of snow! Blegh! After a few days of shopping with Mom - at blissfully cheap American prices - we (Mom, Dad, Grandma Brooks, Uncle Greg, Aunt Denise and I) packed up and headed to Los Angeles, California - via Salt Lake City (where we met up with my youngest brother, Dallin - from Idaho). Once in California, we met up with my sister Lindy, her husband Shane, and their daughter, Gwen at our hotel. Dale joined us later that afternoon and we were all together for the first time in many years! Yay!

That evening we were invited to Alana's house (Dale's fiancee) for dinner and to get to know each other's families a little bit before the big day. Dale's best man, Jake, also flew in from Kansas City and brought with him this fabulous painting he did of Dale & Alana:The family dinner: Tolleys and Wendts

After a lovely evening indulging in Italian food, we headed back to the hotel where we spent the night reminiscing about those days gone by, telling stories of all the crazy stuff that went on between us siblings... like the time Dallin chased Dale with a baseball bat until Dale jumped out a second-story window at our house in Kansas and sprained both his wrists... ah, good times!Me and my sibs: Dale, Lindy, Me and Dallin

After all the wedding festivities, I flew back to Montana with my parents where I stayed a few more days until I got the all-clear from the Caterpillar legal team handling my greencard re-entry permit application. Then I spent another 26 hours in airports and on planes between Kalispell, Denver, Chicago and finally back to London. Overall, I was sleepless for nearly 40 hours and am now trying to re-adjust to normal life back in England... but it was SO worth the trip!