Jen, Stu and the boys, a year in the States 2013, 2014 6 months, 2015 4 months: First few days in the US for Jen ...

From leaving my house at Australind to arriving at the house in Denver was a total of 50 hrs!! I flew Perth to Doha, Doha to New York and New York to Denver. I had a 9 hr stopover in NY where amongst other things, they had to "de ice" the plane before taking off.... a little disconcerting!! I did get to see my first snowfall EVER and it was kind of nice to see it in New York!
I finally arrived in Denver on Australia Day, and it was so lovely to be met by Stuart, after being apart for the last month. I was also pleasantly surprised to find all my luggage had arrived as well, after the 2 hrs it took to get through customs at NY, I was a little concerned. Stu then proceeded to impress me by actually knowing the way home (with a little help from Simon....our GPS!). After a pretty stressful few months getting the family prepared for this adventure, it was nice to be back together again.

I managed a good sleep on Saturday (Australia Day) before Stu and I headed off to a meeting for Australian exchangees in Colorado. It was nice to meet everyone else (we are the only ones from WA) and to be able to exchange thoughts and ideas on getting yourself set up with cars, bank accounts, mobile phones, insurance...the list goes on. We all then went to someones house for a "party" to meet the Americans who had just returned from Australia on exchange and other members of CITEL who have over the years, been on exchange to Australia. There were about 60 people there and it was a really enjoyable night.

Bloody freezing but doing it for the team!
Jakeb and his mate Dan were up at Winter Park when I arrived...a ski resort out of Denver, where they were staying in a cabin that belongs to a US friend of theirs they met at UWA. They had a great time and Jakeb has managed to snowboard every day he has been in Colorado. He flew to Chicago the other day and is now in Indiana and off to NY in a couple of days.

The house taken over by snowboarders

Stu and I drove up to Greeley to visit Morgan at his University on Tuesday after school. He is about 1 1/2 hrs drive away. It was great to see him again and to be shown around his accommodation and the town. It is a University town and although it was dark, it looked nice. He seems really happy and has joined an Outdoors Pursuit group where each weekend they go snowboarding, mountain climbing, ice climbing, hiking etc. He plans on snowboarding every weekend for the next few months. He also has tickets to see the Denver Nuggets vs LA Lakers in Denver in a few weeks. For those of you as ignorant as me, apparently the LA Lakers are THE team to see!! Oh, and it's basketball!

Morgan

Joshuah gets up at 6am each morning to catch the bus at 6.40am and start school just before 7am. He continues to amaze me....having to do another year of school in another country, at 17 yrs of age, totally different culture and he just does it! I have found all 3 of the boys are so adaptable and it must have a lot to do with moving around WA so much when they were younger.
We have had snow here which transforms the place into a winter wonderland. It is so quiet and you wouldn't know it was snowing. Jakeb and Joshuah attempted their first Australia Day, Australian snowman complete with Vegemite for its facial features. It was freezing outside but they managed to go out in their Eagles jumpers and boardies......for their country!!

Our Australian snowman complete with Vegemite.....he's a little creepy, boys!!
Joshuah and I attempted a little backyard cricket, and apart from the fact that I am a rubbish cricketer, it didn't last too long as it was so cold!!