Twenty-Seven

Waiting to get off the plane in Tokyo.

Awake! (on the flight to Minneapolis)

We left our house at 7:40 this morning for our trip. We had a nice two-hour drive to the airport (with Anna asking "Can you see an airplane yet?" starting at about Home Plus). We checked in and grabbed some Starbucks with Craig, changed Sarah's diaper, etc. Going through security was fine since Busan wasn't busy. I had more carry-ons than I would have liked but I don't see how I could have lightened my load. I had my Phil & Ted's double stroller (although I only used the doubles setting in Denver: Sarah rode and Anna held onto the leash in Busan and Tokyo; Anna rode in Minneapolis (and Sarah rode in the sling there), one little rolling suitcase with Sarah's carseat strapped over that, a diaper bag, and Anna's Hello Kitty carry-on (that she was really great about carrying and being responsible for). The hassle in security was collapsing the stroller and getting the laptop out.

Sarah fell asleep after we landed in Tokyo (a two-hour flight). This was fine as I was really only concerned about the Tokyo-Minneapolis portion of our trip. The girls were easy. I gave Anna a magna-doodle and Sarah a toy airplane and they were content.

The Northwest agent in Korea carried all of my things from the bus, up the airplane stairs, and all the way back to our seats for me. I was so grateful for that and he was very kind about it. When we got off the plane in Tokyo, the crew helped me arrange my setup (I had it so I could push the stroller with my left hand and pull my rolling suitcase with my right with ease). We walked off that plane, went through security again, then got on our next plane.

The girls and I got the bulkhead on our second flight. This is a mixed-bag. We were in the middle section so there were four seats. Anna took the aisle and I sat between her and Sarah. Sarah sat next to a wonderful woman who was so helpful with Sarah on the rare occasion I need to devote a little more attention to Anna. The drawbacks to the bulkhead were the arm-rests don't go up (I would have liked to raise the one between me and Anna to give her a little more room), there is no storage for your things in front of you (so we had a bit of a mess going on with the items I did bring down even though I had them corralled in a tote bag), and the giant TV screen played movies throughout the flight, illuminating our faces and providing the girls way too much stimulation to fall asleep.

Anna didn't go to sleep until 10 PM (after Horton Hears a Who finished showing—and I didn't give her the headsets, she just watched it without audio). Sarah slept for 1.5 hours total on this 11-hour flight. Anna slept for 2.5 hours. I slept 0 hours because they didn't sleep at the same time.

In Minneapolis there were no longer any kind agents only rude ones who rudely said "excuse us" and tried to plow us down on our way to customs. I told them they needed to go around another way and that I was sorry if we were a little slow, I was walking with a three-year-old (we were really hugging the wall as we walked, I don't understand why they thought we needed to get out of their way). I should have added a "Welcome to America!" to the end of that.

My only mistake was taking Anna to the bathroom before we cleared customs (because I knew we'd have to wait for our baggage to re-check through to Denver and there were signs stating that there were no restrooms on the other side of the customs counter (which is totally lame, by the way!)). By the time we got out there were no more US citizens-only lines so I was behind "everyone else" and foreigners take a lot longer to process than US citizens. Sarah started to lose it in the line and Anna was fading fast.

Luckily someone helped us a bit when we finally made it through and then my aunt Elaine met us on the other side of security and walked us to our gate and helped me get our stuff on the last plane of the day.

I hoped the girls would fall asleep right away on the last plane because they were so tired and really needed to get some sleep. They did. But Sarah started to get gassy and was in pain and cried a lot. She was that baby on the plane but everyone around us was really understanding at least and not rude (I felt compelled to explain her situation). The flight ended up taking 2.5 hours instead of 1.5 but that was fine with me since the girls were sleeping by the time we were delayed.

My parents and Anita were all waiting at the gate for us when we arrived. We went down to baggage claim and Anna's suitcase never came. Northwest put it on the plane after ours. Because that made sense. Anyway, Northwest gave us a brand-new seat (and said we could keep it but it was cheap and lame so I didn't want it!) and delivered our car seat in the middle of the night to Anita & Brian's house.

We arrived at Anita & Brian's around 6:30 PM (twenty-seven hours after we left our apartment in Korea). We had Taco Bell for dinner and then the kids went to bed (8:30 for Sarah, 9 PM for Anna). I went to bed before 10.

We survived. I hope that Sarah sleeps more on the way home on that long flight because she was just too tired and loopy to deal with (had even less of an attention span that usual). Only five weeks until we turn around to do it all again!