Leaving on a jet plane

Well, it was time for us to bid a fond farewell to the mother country today. We knew that this was going to be a quick trip and the time certainly flew. We had lots of fun though and packed a lot into the short time. My only regret was that we didn't get quite enough time to visit with people. I would have loved to have been able to see some of my old school friends, but we just didn't get around to it. Our promise now is that we will be back every year. Three years in between is a little bit too long I think.

We got ready and packed. I felt like I had spent a lot of time doing it yesterday and was amazed at how long it took to get everything squared away. I know that even though I've tried my best we are sure to have left something behind. We drove to see grandma Ivy really quick and snap a few shots. Zach fell asleep in the car and since he has been woken up so many times this trip I decided to leave him. After grandma's house we ran home and got everything into the car and said farewell to Josh and Hayley. It is of course always hard to leave, but it was really made more difficult by Olivia this time. She was so sad. She just kept saying how much she didn't want to leave. I think that she was really worried about leaving Chester. She has loved him and I know that they will all be pestering us about when we can get a dog when we get back. We did of course have to have one little drama when I couldn't find my bag with my wallet in it. Luckily, I had only left it at Grandma's.

With grandma Ivy

Granddaughters

Olivia refused to have her photo taken with

Chester since she was so sad

The drive to the airport went smoothly. Zach slept for most of it, which made for a quiet drive, but I knew we would probably pay for it on the plane later. The kids rushed to get a few souvenirs and then we picked up a few things to eat. By this time we were finally told our gate number and the plane was apparently boarding! We still had to catch the train to the other part of the terminal yet so that made for a bit of a rush, but we were finally on board. Since I don't like sitting next to people I had Zach and Olivia with me and Spense got a good deal! Olivia and Thomas both did great. Zach wasn't great, but he wasn't awful either and there were other kids on the flight crying too! I did spend a bit of time at the back of the plane by the bathroom though. When we finally landed 9 1/2 hours later Thomas had just fallen asleep and so was really crying when he had to be woken up. He also said that his leg hurt him and it was hard for him to walk. This was all made better by the fact that we couldn't get our stroller until we had been through immigration, but never mind. We picked up bags, caught the bus to our car, and made the hours drive home. We were all super tired and dived into bed as soon as we got in.