We're home!

We're back from the beautiful country of Germany, sans Brian. He had to stay a couple more weeks (sadly) and then after that he's off to Korea for four more weeks. Anyone want to come keep me company? :)

We've been in town since late Monday night, but we've been doing the "jet lag", getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things stuff.

But that's not the main reason I haven't been blogging. Yet again, I have no internet. I have no access to anything resembling wireless, including accessing our printer (which I needed desperately to print for the Patch Ceremony I especially came back for...explanation below), which is hooked up to our house "server" (aka another computer). Without the main piece that connects all of them together (aka router), I can't connect to anything. Maybe this is one of the reasons they say not to be so dependent on the computer ya? It's been really frustrating.

I have been a tiny bit successful. Every once in awhile, my computer hooks up to someone down the street that has the same "linksys" as my dad. So every time my computer searches for a wireless it hooks up to that one. It's a really bad connection so we'll see if this even gets posted.

I feel really behind since I couldn't post a lot while I was there. Don't worry though :). Even though I'm home, there is still lots to report on from Germany. So, if you're not interested, again, just skip my blog. But the stuff we did was so much fun. You'll be happy you stopped by.

Plane Ride

So, yes, our first flight I had a 10 hour plane ride with an infant and two girls. Thanks to my sister, Amber, (a former gate agent), I was all psyched up to ask the flight attendants (who are always so cranky when they see someone with an infant...I would be too) if it was possible to get an extra seat for the baby if there was room. They helped me out great, and luckily, the people around me traded and were so sweet to move around for our comfort. There was a really great "dad" person there who got into conversation with us, loved Spencer and his epileptic excitement, and told us all about his kids who lived in Germany and answered all my questions, if we "happened" to move over there. He also was gracious enough to keep an eye on Spencer (who was watching a movie) while I ran to the bathroom or helped the girls with something (in the row ahead of me).

I received so many compliments about how great Spencer was. They were so surprised that he did so well. I even had people from the back of the plane compliment me on their way off the plane. haha. They must have had some pretty rotten experiences with kids on planes. And considering he only got 15 minutes of sleep the whole 10 hour flight, I was surprised he did so well. (He got woken up from his nap, I think cuz he was "backed up" and it was coming out and just didn't go back to sleep).

The girls and I had a "Plan of Action" for getting through as many security checkpoints as we had to, as well as having to go through Passport Control twice and then having to claim our luggage, to then walk it a few hundred feet to check it in again. They were so awesome. I totally bought them presents for being so good and helpful.

Second Plane Ride

Luckily, our layover in Chicago we had some time to spare (unlike our running to our gate when we heading over to Germany). We had three hours, but by the time we got through everything and up to security, we had about an hour. Spencer fell asleep in his stroller, and the girls had conked out. (It was 7:30 p.m. Chicago time, which was 3:30 a.m. Germany time...it was like they had pulled an all nighter).

There were so many gracious people to help me out. An older couple that I had struck up a conversation with offered to watch the passed-out-girls, while I ran to get them some dinner for when they woke up. (We wouldn't have any other time to eat if I didn't get it then).

I had to wake up the girls when we were getting ready to walk onto the next plane. Xanthe looked like she was going to barf (I'm laughing as I'm writing this because I totally know how that feels when you're so tired you feel like throwing up) and Xoe was bumping into things. But they didn't even complain. They just worked our Plan of Action and fell asleep the minute they got to their seats (which we had extra ones for them to lay out on).

That was a 3 1/2 hour flight so they got a good nap. (And ya, I got the experience of sitting directly behind a kid who cried the whole time. Now I totally appreciate Spencer even more.) They were bummed when I had to wake them up again to get off the flight, but they woke up fairly quickly to help me pick up our bags and get a taxi to our hotel. (Brian got us a place to stay so we didn't have to drive home that night. We didn't have a car cuz my friend Randi was so awesome to drive it home so we didn't have to pay for parking for 3 1/2 weeks. She was going to pick us up the next day). They even told me they would be the bell hops and bring our bags to the room for the bargain price of $1.00 each. I took them right up on that offer!

Jet Lag

For any of you who can grasp how worried I was about getting the kids back on a schedule with the 9 hour time difference...this is why... By the time we landed in Tucson at 10:30 p.m., it was 7:30 a.m. German time. I was really worried they would be up all night. The best thing I knew to do was to keep them up all day (or night to them) on the plane, but I really didn't think that would happen so I didn't stress about it. But as you know, they all did! Even Spencer! They all pretty much slept through the night that first night (except Xoe who woke up at 3:00 a.m. for a little bit and then went back to sleep). Spencer did great too. We're still working on getting him to sleep through the 4:00 a.m. waking, rather than just fussing and rolling around for an hour. But at least he's not wanting to get up and play.

I think the jet lag has hit me the worst since I'm the one that hasn't been getting a very good sleep. I'm woken up frequently in the night by each kid (where I quickly order them back to bed). I had my very FIRST migraine yesterday. I was really out of it for most of the morning! But I had to push through it cuz our Girl Scout Patch Ceremony (of which I'm the Leader for) was the same night. I had to make it through it, cuz this was the only reason I came home early.

So, all in all, we're doing well and back into the swing of things. I'll hopefully be able to blog tomorrow. My little brother Sam is randomly coming into town (he was nearby in Phoenix for a catering party he had) to visit for one day. :) Should be fun!

(Side Note: Even though we're happy to be home and trying to rest, it was REALLY hard for all of us to leave. I got choked up when I had to leave Brian at Passport Control. We had such a good time with him and it's gonna be hard without him for 6 weeks. We miss him already.)

Here are some pictures hanging out with Brian in the airport before we had to say goodbye.