Duckling Reunion

We flew to Colorado on Saturday, August 27th to pick up Emily and Nikki. We attended the going-away party held for them by their foster parents, attended by a goodly sum of school friends, several members of their placement team, and at least two of their teachers. We spent the night in a Holiday Inn in Grand Junction, and caught a 6:30 AM (!) flight out to Denver Sunday morning.

It was Nikki's first flight, and Emily's second. They were total troopers. Emmie sat with me on the flight to Denver; Nikki was with Katrina. Both oohed and aahed at all the scenery passing by below - and not one peep of trepidation, even when the little Spirit of St. Louis-sized twin turboprop puddlejumper we flew out of Grand Junction got a nerve-wracking set of the shakes as we were descending. Our little brave ones just shrugged it off and kept on looking for shapes in the clouds.

Once in Denver, and suffering through an entirely unacceptable amount of time for our first rental car company (that's the last time I try to save twenty bucks by going with the cheapest, non-national brand car rental that Travelocity comes up with), we headed off to see Kayla for the day. By the way, for those of you keeping score at home, we drove a Nissan Maxima in Montrose, and a Pontiac GRAND-FREAKING-PRIX in Denver. (Insert Tim Allenesque simian hoots here). All I can say is, the term "gas pedal" on a car like that is something of a misnomer. Despite my own personal feelings about gas economy (I like it very much, thank you), it was still pretty cool to put the pedal to the metal on a hunk of retro-cool Detroit iron.
But enough on that. We got to spend way too few hours with Kayla, but they were good. We went to eat at Wendy's (the kids' choice) and played at a park until we had to take her back. It went well. Here're a couple photos from the time we spent together.
Kayla and Nikki aboard the little narrow-gauge train that runs through the park.







Emily and Kayla. That red hair is just to die for, no?








The girls were sad to leave each other (seeing Kayla watch us leave through the window was quite nearly unbearable), but we should be one unit sometime around the end of the year.

Emily and Nikki are doing great here at the house - I've been reading them The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe every night before bed, and they're of course enthralled with the magic of it. They spent much of today riding their bikes up and down the street - I was out working in the yard, so every minute or so a blonde or red-headed blur would streak by and yell "Hi, Dad!!!!" Great days, great days.