Leaving on a Jet Plane...

...don't know when I'll be back again.

We're definitely leaving this evening, though we are pretty sure we'll be home on Sept. 2- providing we have no problems getting our visas in Spain. We still don't have our LOI's (Letter of Invitation) that we need in order to apply for our visas- the gov't office that prepares them says they're still not ready- They were promised to be ready over a week ago! So, now our teammate is going to have to pick them up when they're ready and DHL them to us in Spain.

Tonight we fly to Moscow and spend the night so we can leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Madrid- then we will get on a high-speed train and ride 2.5 hrs south to the beach! I can safely say that we have never needed a vacation more in our lives than right now. We are both beyond exhausted and really need to get away and recharge a bit before we head into the fall- which will no doubt be busy.

On an exciting note- we are so glad that the Irvins, our teammates, made it in on Friday evening. We've been helping them get moved in and unpacked the past few days. Yesterday, the 2 older girls (almost 6 and almost 3) came over and spent the whole day playing at our house. Gavin was so happy to have 2 new friends to play with- and I was exhausted after a full day of playing referee! Gavin learned what it means to play "family" and "house" and he and Lydia took turns giving everyone check-ups with his doctor kit all afternoon! I have to say I am amazed that girls really are basically born with the ability to multi-task! It was interesting to watch the girls watch an episode of Dora, carry on their own conversation with each other, all while trying to 'teach' Gavin how to play family. Poor Gavin could barely watch "Dasha"... let alone keep up with his lesson on how to play "family"!

Okay, off to finish packing and give Gavin and JB haircuts before we leave! Talk to you all when we get back!