From New York, we boarded a plane and flew down to North Carolina to visit Uncle Matt, Aunt Krista and the newest Durning, sweet Adelaide, 6 weeks old. Matt and Krista left Brooklyn shortly after us and have settled nicely into their beautiful new home in Chapel Hill. Our efforts to keep Jude healthy for meeting his cousin were successful, but we overlooked the possibility of Pete or I getting sick. During our last days in NYC, Pete came down with a super sore throat. We put him in quarantine to keep away from little Addy. When he woke up after our first day unable to swallow from pain, we headed to Urgent Care where he was promptly diagnosed with Strep throat! Strep throat?! Who up North gave that to him? j/k. No, seriously, who gave that to him?! We were told that he was "highly contagious" for the next 24-48 hours until the antibiotics worked their magic. Not knowing if Jude or I were also harboring the dreaded illness, all three Durneys were under quarantine. Such terrible timing! We found things to do to get out of the house, but would have rather spent the time snuggling Addy!
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| Jude at the new house. |
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| Jude meeting Addy. |
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| And trying to imitate her sleeping. If only he slept that well! |
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| Such a sweetie! Pre-strep throat diagnosis snuggles. Thankfully I was never sick. |
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| So snuggable! |
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| Jude the fox at the KidZu in Chapel Hill |
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| Jude and pal Esha at the Museum of Life and Sciences in Durham. |
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| On a butterfly hunt |
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| Hanging with Uncle Tom |
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| Beating the heat and humidity with Maple View Farm Ice cream! Yum! |
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| Out of quarantine, Pete gets some Uncle time. |
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| Opa and Oma came down to NC and then the party really started. |
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| This one's got Opa wrapped around her tiny finger! |
From NC we boarded another plane headed to Washington, DC. We stayed three nights at friends Curtis and Nancy's house in Alexandria, Virginia. It was a full house with 4 adults, two babies and two corgis :)
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| Jude discovered the joy of feeding a dog from the table. |
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| He also enjoyed playing with Penny Penn Penn. |
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| Caught in the act of being cute. |
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| Day at the Smithsonian Zoo with Aunt Rach! |
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| The zoo is so much fun! |
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| Cold beers felt really good on the hot day! |
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| Carousel selfie |
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| After trying out a few different animals. Jude settled on the Octopus :) |
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| Quite pleased with the Carousel |
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| Carney Family reunion at Sunset Hills Winery in Northern Virginia. |
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| Jude loved hanging with all of his second cousins. Sweet Colin showed him around. |
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| Sweet Brielle and Jude dancing. |
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| It takes a lot of effort to get 5 kids to cooperate for a photo! |
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| The newest member of the family, Harper, 3 weeks old. |
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| Jude's second Peyton hangout. He missed her! |
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| 5 of the 7 Carney "kids" |
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| And their kids. (5 cousins and one spouse are missing from this photo.) |
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| And their kids. (2 other tykes are missing here) |
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| Carney Family Reunion continues at brunch in Poolesville, Maryland |
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| Getting some Uncle time with Ms. Peyton. Her eyes! His dimple! |
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| And finally, a very impromptu 10 year reunion with 3 people from my post-grad Bremen, Germany fellowship program in Alexandria, Virginia. |
On Monday, we boarded an Amtrak train to Penn Station, NY where we hopped above ground for some last minute errands and shopping before jetting off to JFK for our flight home. A mere 6 1/2 hours later we landed at Schiphol and made our way home where we all promptly passed out for the next 5 hours!
Leaving the states this time around was harder than last summer when we embarked on our great adventure abroad. Partly because I don't know when we'll see a lot of family and friends again. At least last summer I knew that we would be back in a year. We'll be home at Christmas, but just visiting immediate family. Seeing such a concentration of friends and family in 3 weeks was really special and I know it will be hard to replicate. I think it was also that the thrill of the unknown was gone. This time around, we knew what we were coming back to. In the days leading up the trip back, I didn't know how I felt about it and that was hard. Thankfully it only took one day back in the Netherlands to be excited about life in Europe all over again. I guess this is all part of expat life and we are trying to embrace it!
