Why Hello there USA!

Well, we finally said "sayonara" to Hiroshima on July 29th….it was a bittersweet (mostly sweet) day for us Bardens! The kids and I were already planning on coming back to America sometime early-mid August (to see family,{mainly my Grandma (gigi) Maryann who isn't doing well}) and then Brian made the executive decision to have elbow surgery, so he joined us for most of the trek home! Right now Ava, Jag and I are in Oregon visiting family (we got to spend some quality time with Gigi and it was great, can't wait to see her again tomorrow), playing outside in the near perfect weather and enjoying the soft, lush grass…meanwhile Brian is in Phoenix awaiting his doctor's appointment tomorrow to schedule his surgery! Lets all pray that it's just a "cleaning" out of bone spurs and he will be on his way to a speedy rehab soon! thanks!

Ava & Chica- both on cloud 9!

25 and a half hours, 4 flights, 16 hour time change and MAJOR jet LAG= some pretty awesome children! No joke, we left our apartment around noon on Sunday (29th) in a cab headed for the Hiroshima Airport- boarded a flight to Tokyo-killed some time in the airport with our Favorite Carp employee-Noma-boarded a HUGE A380 to Los Angeles- 9 or so hours later we landed in LA, cleared immigration and customs and boarded a shuttle to another terminal to re-check in and wait for our next flight! At this time, Brian went to his own terminal and boarded his flight directly to Phoenix :( boo. Our 3rd flight for the trip was a quickie to San Fran….where we sat patiently for over 4 hours and anxiously awaited out 4th and final flight to REDMOND! Woo HOO! By this time I was pretty much done for and worthless but none the less, excited to see Mom and dad and even more excited for them to see Averie and Jagger! All in all the travel wasn't that bad and by adding an extra stop to our itinerary and flying Singapore Air rather than United I saved a bunch of money and bought a new lens! ha! By the way, I HIGHLY recommend flying Singapore Air over United Airlines when flying to Asia any day- They had amazing customer service, beautiful flight attendants, great food, awesome seats and the price was right too! Well, its 1:47 am and I am going to make myself go to sleep (adjusting to this time change is no easy feat)! Goodnight and sweet dreams. God Bless! xxoo

Saying Goodbye to Noma at Narita Airport! (We really miss her)!

Ava & Moppy ready to cross the pond!

About 2 hours in….zzzz

Lucky Jag, got greeted Good Morning by these two beauties!

Helping Nana water her hanging basket-

Ranch life is hard work!

Ava loves her Nana!

and her papa!