If there is one word that summarizes our February trip to the States, it’s snow. It hampered both our entry into the country … (our flight to DC was cancelled, meaning we had to find an alternative destination, in this case NYC, and make it work) … and our flight out of the country (flights departing NYC were running an average of 5 hours and 42 minutes behind schedule. So I caught a bus).
It was the first time Elizabeth has played in more than a few inches of the white stuff.
Here she is attempting to brush off some canon balls so she can hone the skills she learned at the canon range in Portugal. For some reason, we love putting our daughter in front of military armaments of yesteryear.
We went so I could “cover down” for a colleague of mine in Brooklyn who had been (and still is) out sick. Other than being a great work opportunity for me, it was a wonderful chance to see family and friends (here's a picture of Elizabeth playing with our friends' son, Ethan, in Queens).
It was also a fantastic prospect for getting our fill of the amazing cuisine from our home country.
Elizabeth enjoyed the cuisine too. Here she is now scooping sour cream into her mouth in front of a plate that was previously filled with Mexican food. This is actually on our first night in country and, to us, was like 1 a.m., which is why she looks stoned.
Thankfully, she got used to the time difference and the snow and had a good time playing outside ... just about every day. The snow was too high for her to walk around in, though, so she mostly looked out at the vastness of it, yearned to see more, and then, when it all became too much for her to fathom, laid down for a relaxing giggle.
When she couldn't go outside, she was coming up with ideas of how she could traverse the frozen fields and explore this new country. Eventually, she got the idea of putting a saddle on this great white beast and employing his height and speed to explore.
(Despite how it looks, the window doesn't look out to heaven. It was just very snowy and white outside.)
Here's Elizabeth's Oma getting distracted while reading her what appears to be a JC Penny's catalogue that sells both pantyhose and discounted trips to Bali.
It was a fun, long, and productive trip for all of us. And it made us miss living in the States.
The trip back was pretty hellish, with Elizabeth only sleeping for two hours and then crying for another hour while she wondered why she wasn't in her bed. But she adapted pretty quickly to the time here ... and to her old habits again, including putting on daddy's shirt and ripping the shift key off my keyboard. I think she wants to write the next blog. We'll see.... 
