Travel or The Long Road Home

   

I've been trying to find the words to relate the 36 hour span from getting up in GZ to getting home. You know that old, "if you don't have anything nice to say" quote? I keep bumping up against that. So I'll try to be factual instead of emotional.

Friday evening, I was reminded that one's cycle can be thrown off by crossing the international date line.

Friday night, we went to bed "early" so we could be well rested for our big travel day.

Luke woke up at midnight.

At 2 a.m. The doctor's office called to let me know that when she went to verify insurance, she discovered that the kids DO have coverage, but BS assigned them to a different doctor's office. If you're new to the blog, you might want to read here to understand why this kept me tossing and turning in irritation.  

4:30, we got up and got moving. After arriving at the airport, we discovered that our first flight had been cancelled. Awesome.  Our guide got us onto a later flight to Beijing, and we sat and waited and waited and waited.

Fortunately, Luke slept part of the time.

It's funny. In China, she wasn't really interested in the toys I brought her.  Once our flight was called, we sat on the plane for a while before finally taking off. 

Not uncommon for GZ airport.  Delays and cancellations are routine here.  In the air, we realized that we were cutting it close to make it to our next flight. 

 Our time in BJ airport can be summed up with, bus to terminal, customs, security, potty, sprinting to change terminals, getting to our gate 10 minutes before boarding. I was bummed because I'd hoped to pick Samuel a t-shirt up while we were there. But we made the flight, and that's what counts.



The flight was.... I guess long is the best adjective for it. Endless hours of sitting cramped up, with multiple trips to the coffin sized bathroom as one's sole source of entertainment. During this flight, I started feeling yucky. More yucky than could be accounted for by loss of sleep and trotting through an airport with a person strapped to my sweaty body. I started dozing off, and Paul would wake me when he needed help with the kids.

 By the time we landed in Seattle, I was past yucky and onto sick. It wasn't airsickness; I was wearing my patch. In fact, I told Paul I thought the scapalomine was the only thing keeping me from throwing up, and even then, it was touch and go for a while. I had some pepto tablets with me, and took a couple of those. I napped in the playroom at the airport.

Paul and the kids ate, but nothing sounded good to me. I'd had some fruit and hash browns for breakfast at the hotel, and I'd picked at the plane food a little bit, but I hadn't really been hungry all day.

 At last we got on our third and final plane. During this flight, I started feeling a little better. Landing in Sac, we were met by friends and family, which, of course, helped me feel even better. There's nothing like getting home to snuggle your kids to perk you up.

 Our flight got in at 8:15, but by the time we got home, fed the kids, passed out gifts, started some laundry, and got to bed, it was after midnight.

Next morning, Brianna tried on her silks.  I kept plowing through the laundry, and felt very accomplished to have the suitcases empty and put away at the end of the day.

We ALL took naps. Not just the babies.  Not just the tired parents. Every single person. It was like someone cast a sleeping spell on our house.

 Yes, the babies are in cloth diapers.

 Lots of time spent playing and getting to know siblings.

This morning, as soon as she was done with breakfast, she wanted down to go play.

 There were, of course, a couple of casualties while we were gone. The trampoline had too many big kids on it and collapsed. Poor Eli! His birthday present didn't even last a whole year. 

 The other unfortunate demises were the printer and the computer. The kids tell me that someone was trying to "fix" the computer, and that didn't go well. Sam and Eli helped me disassemble everything last night and untangle the cord spaghetti and start putting things back together. I got as far as restoring wireless to the house before hitting the wall and needing to go to bed.

 Paul came to bed late, and we turned off he light at 11:48. Katie woke disoriented, but was quickly comforted. I went back to bed, only to have Luke wake up for a bottle before I'd gone back to sleep.

2 a.m. found Paul and I wide awake. I finally went downstairs to get an apple and noticed Annaliese's bedroom light on, so I stopped in there to chat for a bit. While we were talking, Paul came downstairs to tell me that both toddlers were awake. Katie was chattering happily, and Luke was making noises. To make a long story short, I never quite made it back to sleep.

  This was Mr Happy Buddha after 5:30 breakfast.

At least I remembered to start the rice cooker so we'll have some ready for lunch. Four hours until nap time. I think I can, I think I can....