Amelia and Duke and I are currently in the air, about two hours from Honolulu. We’re on our way to go visit my parents for close to a week. The main agenda item is to visit with Grandy and Opa. While it hasn’t actually been that long since we saw them at Christmas, living halfway around the world has made it feel like longer. We’ll also do a little bit of shopping while we’re there and remind ourselves that some parts of the world aren’t perpetually 85 degrees.

After we leave Denver, we’ll head back to Davis for a few days. We have some doctors and dentist appointments that we’d like to keep, and I’m heading into the office for a day to go to a few meetings and catch up with everyone that I’ve missed so much. And if we’re lucky, we’ll celebrate Duke’s 5th birthday by flying somewhere in Charlie and having lunch together. We’re also hoping to meet up with friends for dinner or coffee and hear how everyone is doing.

This is usually a beautiful time of year in Davis. I expect that going there will bring up a lot of mixed emotions. It’s already making me think about the life we’re building so far in Guam – all the ways it’s different than I expected. All the ways its exactly what I expected. I am thrilled about everything that new life is bringing us, but this trip will also be a reminder of the good things that we had to give up to make it possible. I’m also curious about how the kids will do as visitors to their old life.

On another note, we have been paying close attention to all the news about COVID-19. Right now we feel as if it’s completely safe to travel as long as we do all the things we should be doing anyway – namely washing hands. On a positive note, we’ve encouraged the kids to sing the A, B, C song every time they wash their hands, so Duke is reinforcing good hygiene and his letters at the same time! We will continue to watch the developments and decide if we should change any of the future legs of our trip.

{Edited to add:  I wrote this while we were in the air on Saturday night, but I haven’t gotten around to posting it until just now, so if all goes well, we’ll be heading to Davis in a couple days}