I'm posting this to November 10 because that is when we left Texas; we arrived in Singapore early Monday morning Singapore time/ late Sunday afternoon Texas time.
It's finally the big day! Henry was so excited when finally I answered yes to his daily question: "Do we go to Singapore this day?"
The kids played really well together while I cleaned out the fridge and Craig emptied the water heaters, etc. There always seems to be a ton of little last-minute things that I can never figure out how to do earlier than the last minute. I guess that's just the nature of those things though! We ate as much as we could out of the fridge & pantry before I finally threw the remaining items out at our last snack around 11 AM.
Our driver was scheduled to pick us up at 12 which I felt was tight for a 2:30 PM flight considering all of our luggage (10 checked bags, 2 checked car-seats, 1 checked booster seat, 7 carry-ons, and 1 stroller to be gate-checked for use at LAX and possibly Singapore). There was an accident an a major back-up of traffic on the freeway to our house so the driver didn't actually arrive until about 12:20. Thankfully he was very communicative and kept calling us to update us (thankfully, also, he didn't get into an accident himself keeping us updated!).
All of my worry & stress was for nothing because checking in our bags was relatively painless (and they checked them all the way through to Singapore so we didn't have to do anything with them at LAX). We walked down to our gate with plenty of time to spare for trips to the bathroom and lunch at the gate. Finally now I could just worry/wonder how the trip would go.
Craig & Henry sat together and Anna & Sarah sat together; I sat behind the girls. Henry fell asleep for maybe an hour on the flight to LAX and we got several compliments on how well-behaved our kids were. We still had the long flight ahead of us though! We had to change terminals at LAX and we were glad we brought the stroller for Henry. He was getting pretty tired by this point but he was still excited about the trip.
We hung out in the Star Alliance lounge for a few hours which was really nice and relaxing but I wondered if we should have just gone over to the gate area and run the kids around and walked a lot?
For the long flight, Anna & Sarah sat together and Craig sat across the aisle from them while Henry & I sat directly behind the girls. The seats on this flight were enormous. This was a Singapore Airlines flight and all of the seats were business class. The kids were all tired and as soon as we took off and were able, we had the flight attendants turn our beds (mine & the kids--I decided to sleep when they did so I wouldn't get caught not sleeping at all!). The girls were out like lights and Henry was asleep within an hour after take off (he is a people-watcher and can't help himself). I went to sleep shortly after Henry and while the bed was hard, it was awesome. I am only 5' 4" so Craig wasn't quite as comfortable at 6' 2" but I could lay flat and totally stretch out. When I woke up the flight was already half over! Incredible!! Henry woke up about 10 hours into the flight and somehow 8 hours seemed totally manageable after that much sleep. And it was. Henry got a little antsy when we had about 3 hours to go but after I read him several books he entertained himself most of the rest of the time. I never busted out my new apps for the phone or the iPad. The girls watched one movie and Henry only watched two TV shows. ??? Anna & Sarah were almost totally self-sufficient with the excellent care of the Singapore Airlines flight attendants. I told Craig I only want to flight Singapore Airlines from now on!
(Okay, to be 100% honest, Anna started to complain of feeling sick toward the end of the flight and thank goodness we prepared and gave her the motion sickness bag as she did throw up right as we landed. This is the third time she has thrown up on an international flight; I think the time change/sleep funkiness and different eating patterns throws her off somehow.)
Before we knew it we were walking through customs and collecting all of our bags again. There was no sky cap or anyone else around to help on the Singapore end so we got three smart carts and Anna & Sarah worked together to push one of them, Craig pushed one and carried his bike, and I pushed one and drove the stroller (Henry could not be convinced to walk at this point he was pretty wiped out!). Customs was a non-event but the driver we thought we had arranged did not come. However, the problem was solved relatively quickly at the ground transportation desk with two minivans (one for us and some of our luggage, one for the rest of the luggage).
I sat backwards in the minivan so I couldn't tell any difference about the driving on the left side of the road issue and the kids & I chatted and enjoyed the different sights on the way to our temporary apartments. I was still in shock at how well the flight went at this point, too! We saw interesting cars & trucks, double-decker buses, interesting trees & buildings, and even a building called "Henry Design Center." Henry started falling asleep in the van just before we arrived at the apartments but quickly pulled himself together when I announced that we were there!
