The long road home

So, I'll definitely get to my pics of the South Island soon, but while it's still fresh, I thought I'd share our journey home.  I apologize ahead of time for the lack of pictures and complete randomness of this post.  This jumble basically mirrors the one going on in my head.  Feel sorry for me, I'm a mess lately!

We had to fly from Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia (about 3.5 hours with a 4 hour layover), from Sydney to Los Angeles (13.5 hours with a 7 hour layover) and finally from L.A. to San Francisco (about an hour).  Whew!  After almost 30 hours in transit, we were beyond wiped!

Although the 13 hour flight was crazy long, they fed us constantly and we got to watch some pretty current flicks:

I also watched The Big Short (interesting), The Danish Girl (fantastic), Carol (super lame) and the one where Seth Rogan does a bunch of drugs on Christmas (very funny).  So dope!

Speaking of dope, while we were on our layover in L.A., my aunt and uncle picked us up and took us to Hermosa Beach:

Keep in mind we've been awake for 2 days at this point, so yes, we look like straight up crap on toast.

We got back to the airport and found out our flight was delayed (UGGG!) and Aaron was so tired, he slept on the filthy airport floor:

We really need to burn that outfit.

When we finally got on the plane headed to San Francisco, the pilot said there was a storm going on and "hopefully we'll be able to land."  Umm, whatever you say, just get me home!  It was one of the most turbulent flights we've been on, but we were so tired we slept through most of it.  When we finally heard "Welcome to San Francisco" it was like music to our ears.  They sure weren't lying about the weather:

Here we are officially at the end of it all:

Walking through the airport, knowing there were no other airports or destinations after this was so surreal.  At the end of it all, we felt like we completed exactly what we had set out to accomplish.  It's like we'd been on a marathon for the past year and could finally stop running.  It was both a sadness and a relief.

My foot got worse and then better (NSFW, this is so gross):

I'll admit, it's my fault because I'm a picker and I can't help but mess with it constantly (that scab has got to go!).

Aaron made sure he got his Taco Bell fix:

That's a face (and beard) covered in true happiness (oh wait, that's just hot sauce).

The next day, we picked up our babies:

There were other dogs and people there to say goodbye.  I'm sure it was bittersweet for them because they had a great life at Ryan and Sophia's and I know they were sad to leave.  

But, man oh man are we happy to have them back!

Try to ignore how messy our room is, I know it's so stressful.

Having them back has been so fantastic and I just stare at them sometimes in disbelief that they're all mine.  However, it's been an adjustment for all of us.  Aaron and I have gotten used to it just being us, so having to constantly clean up after these two destructive dogs is something we're totally not used to anymore.  We keep looking at each other like "how did we do this before??"  They're total boys, always covered in mud and bleeding from somewhere.  I can't tell you how many times a day I have to ask "where is this blood coming from??"  For example, right before we got home, Capone tried to sneak under a chain link fence and ripped a chunk of skin right above his eye, which their step-parents had to get stapled closed.  

I still have to take him back to the vet to get the staples removed.  Sigh.  Ryan and Sophia are eligible for sainthood, in my opinion.  

We still haven't seen everyone, but I got to meet my nephew, Maxton:

He's only 7 months old, but is gigantic and completely adorable!  I'm in love (and needless to say, he loves me too.  I swear he actually whispered "auntie" when no one was looking).

Uncle Aaron loved him too:

and so did his cousin, Kane:

We spent the week alternating between seeing people and getting Aaron ready to go to work.  His sister, Melissa, threw us a little welcome home party.  I forgot to take pictures of the people (oops), but here's the cake (priorities!):

He left for Colorado Friday and it was a crazy, mad dash to get him all ready to go.  I made the guys ham sliders for the road:

He sent me pics of the drive:

Sometimes I forget just how beautiful our own country is.

I got to hang with my bestie, Ashley at our favorite place on Earth, Zachary's:

Since high school we've gone to Zachary's and ALWAYS ordered the deep dish spinach and mushroom.  So nostalgic!  Pizza around the world can't compare to pizza on memory lane with my best friend.

Now, I'm working on unpacking, tons of random paperwork (you'd be surprised) and keeping the dogs clean and happy.  I went to Petco and got some treats:

and I made them a crapload of pumpkin, peanut butter cookies:

Totally random shout out alert: just want to give a quick shout-out to REI.  Having an REI card is totally worth it if you shop there (even just for a couple big-ticket items, here and there).  They really know how to treat their members.  I got a dividend for past purchases, which was nice:

Thanks REI!  Even though the prices in your store give me hives, I do think for certain things (backpacks, tents, things you'll use forever) it's totally worth it.  BTW, if you use my membership number on your purchases, it's really only helping me, so eat your heart out.

I'm still adjusting to being home, having dogs and not having Aaron next to me.  In some ways, it's definitely nice to be back, but in others it's like being hit by a ton of bricks.  Being brought "back to reality" is super hard, after the magical year we've had.  Don't get me wrong, travel hasn't been easy by any means, but being away from all our responsibilities made it such a shock when we came home and had it all slapping us in the face.  Our families and friends have done a great job helping out while we've been gone, but now we're back and need to pick up the slack.  

It's beyond bizarre to feel like a foreigner at home.  So many things are different, none more so than me.  Everywhere we go, everything's the same and different at the same time.  I know that makes no sense, but little things are still unfamiliar.  I haven't driven in a car by myself in over a year and I still get confused which side of the road to drive on sometimes.  I don't know any of the new radio stations and I actually kinda liked that new Justin Bieber song (I know, I had to take a shower after realizing it was him).  I'm still getting used to remembering where everything is in my parents' kitchen and how to get to the grocery store (avocados are so cheap here!!).

It's also strange how people approach us now.  We ran into a girl Aaron knew from high school and she practically flipped when she saw us, talking a mile a minute about following us on Facebook and the blog, it was adorable.  Most people are pretty happy we're back.  Others are a bit less enthusiastic.  Some people seem to carry some sort of resentment or anger that we dared even go at all.  I guess that's life: there will always be negative people you must tune out because their feelings have nothing to do with you and everything to do with their own insecurities.

Let's end this mess of random thoughts on a high, shall we?  Here are pics of Kanie that I sent his daddy yesterday (Capone was under a blanket somewhere):

It's good to be home...