Polish Ladds do Dallas

For the first time in more than 5 months, Chris, Brody, Ariana and Corey travelled to their native homeland....Dallas, Texas. There were 2 goals.

1. reconnect with dear friends and family who have put up with these silly blog entries, and


2. attend Ryan Ladd's Bar Mitzvah in Austin

Both endeavors were abundantly successful.

Our friends created numerous events for the kids including a roller skating outing with Brody's Stonewall crowd, a bowling outing with folks from Travis, Elizabeth's roller skating party that was rescheduled to occur when Ariana was in town, and several sleepovers with their friends. All the while, these events allowed Corey and Chris to reconnect with their friends (the wonderful parents of our respective children). We shared hugs, stories, laughs and meals like we had never left.

As for family, we were in Texas for 14 days, and changed beds 4 times, staying in a hotel in Austin, at Chris' folks' house and at Corey's folks' houses. Nothing like a relaxing trip!

One of the highlights was "Christmas in McKinney," a delayed version of Xmas with Ray and Carolyn (Chris' folks). We spent a traditional Christmas day there with pancakes in the morning, presents, and then a huge turkey lunch, which Corey almost missed because of an urgent call from work (I guess no one else thougth it was Christmas in the middle of January). We ended up with lot of great Christmas and Chanukah presents from all the grandparents...so much so that we had to buy one new suitcase and borrow a big old one from Sylvia. Ok...we also take some of the responsibility for an extra suitcase ourselves as we indulged in some of the necessities you can't get in Poland like Peter Pan peanut butter, Swiss Miss hot chocolate, and such.

In Austin, we spent a long weekend that was packed with family and fun events. Ryan was a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday evening and did a fantastic job. That night there was a fun dance event that he had dubbed an I-party. Unfortunately, our kids pooped out from jet lag and too much noise at about 8:30pm. At least we got to enjoy the good food from Chuys! We also enjoyed some warm weather over the weekend and played some outdoor basketball and football (the American kind of football) in their yard with Corey's cousins and other family from around the country.

Check out the great photos. We had a great time and want to say thank you to all who hosted us, planned friendly gatherings, and generally made us feel so welcomed and missed. We really miss you all too and are grateful for all the friends and family that we have back in the USA.

From there...we left "home" and arrived "home" all in the same day, only 6,000 miles and many cultures apart!