Around the USA in 14 days

Jambo from Tanzania 🙂 Made it back safe and sound.. after one night in Qatar… which by the way was awesome!! Seriously, fly Qatar if you have a chance, they were great! So helpful and nice.. AND, they put me up in a pretty sweet hotel since my flight to TZ wasn’t until the next day!

Now that I’m back in Moshi, getting settled after a last minute trip to Dar this past week, I can finally get some of the pictures up from our trip to the States!! It already feels like forever ago that I was there.. but it has only been 2 weeks since I’ve been back.

Overall, my time home was wonderful! Like I said in my last post.. its not very often that you get to spend a solid month home without work, or other committments! People who live here in TZ, have said that, that when they go home to visit, they really get good quality time in with family and friends…and it’s so true!

The best part was sharing so much of my life with Joel.. it was about time that he met my family, friends and saw more of my life on the other side of the world!

I won’t bore you with details from each place.. I’ll just share the highlights of our trip and all the best pictures 🙂

1. First stop: Lima!! My wonderful hometown. As much as I made fun of it growing up, or complained about how boring it was, it is always a good place to come home to!! The quiet small town feel is comforting and it HAS started to take it up a notch with things to do! Yay Lima 🙂 The highlights: hanging with my parents, Joel meeting Lady (and secretly loving her! Ha.. TZ is NOT a house dog friendly place!), introducing Joel to my high school friends, second family friends, Angie, and taking him on a “day in the life of 18yr old Liz” at Bath High School! I made him try Buckeyes, a happy meal at McDonatls, salmon at The Met, good ole Applebees and Panera! He also got to experience all seasons.. sun to snow!

2. Next up… the 9 hour drive to South Carolina! Luckily its a pretty drive through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, then South Carolina! South Carolina was great- he got to meet my sister and brother in law, and of course, baby Ella! Highlights: Ella’s Baptims, Ella’s Baptism after party, seeing downtown Greenville, trying southern food, Joel getting introduced to hockey, corn hole, smores and the classic movie, Field of Dreams!

3. Third Stop: Back to Lima: more of the same: more family time, more hockey watching, more snow, more introductions, more Lady time, and many more Amazon purchases and shopping!

4. Fourth Stop: Colorado: Denver!! One of my all time favorite places with some of my all time favorite people!! And lucky enough, my 1425 girls were all able to make the trip to come and meet Joel :). Highlights: Denver was full of lots of girl talk (sorry babe!), catching up, parties, more introductions for Joel, a trip to my old hospital, trips to the mall, and Joels first time eating green chili (thanks Sarah!), bowling, and seeing a chiropractor in action!

5. Fifth and final stop.. and bonus stop: Breckenridge Colorado!! We lucked out and Joel got one extra day in Colorado because one of his flights was cancelled. So that meant we had more time to get some extra shopping done, see a few more people and spend a night in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.. one of my favorite places! I was so happy to show Joel this part of CO! The mountains were still full of snow, and he said….. he wants to try skiiing next time we are there! Yay! Highlights: NOT the drive (we saw about 20 accidents on the way to Breckenridge.. it was kind of scary!), but the views, the weather, the town.. it was all perfect!

My final days in the USA were great.. more time in Denver where I got to meet the newest 1425 member, Sweet Baby James Joseph Zelasko! Kathleen delivered a few weeks early, so so he could meet his Auntie Liz- thanks JJ for arriving early and letting me snuggle you!! After Denver it was back to Lima, and then one extra trip to South Carolina where I got to have a few extra days with Ella and spend Mother’s Day with my lovely mama, and my sis! Highlights: more family time before I made my way back to Moshi!