Flying to England

  Logan and I finally bought a computer to use so I have something to type on. My last posts were less wordy because it was hard on the phone. But so you know we are all doing well and excited to have made it to England! 

Our flight over was not so bad. Its never easy or fun with little kids but it could have been a lot worse - like we could have been flying to Asia and it take another 10 or more hours. Seriously it is much faster to fly to London than Okinawa. 

I was really proud I was able to get all our stuff down to 4 checked (big) bags. But then our carry-ons kinda got big as we had food for the kids.  

We got to the airport and in and were checking in when they said that we had to fill out a travel health questionnaire and it took forever! Liam wanted to get on the baggage belt play with the self check in computers and steal Connor's suitcase. He was a pill but ok about coming back when I called and we figured it out. 

First flight was to Dallas. So fast and so easy. The only problem was Liam getting his fingers pinched in the tray table. He wailed and I jumped up to help since he was across the isle next to Logan. They flight attendants were really nice about it and got me ice and and a water and snack for the boys that no one else got. It was sweet they gave me something for Connor too just so he wouldn't feel left out. We flew on American Airlines and I had heard a lot of bad stuff recently but from the people we worked with they went above to make things comfortable for us. They didn't make Liam wear a mask the whole time and everyone was really nice. 

In Dallas our last flight was delayed by 2 hours. We found out it was because they took the co pilot to Chicago and then had to call in another person who was at home to come in. Can you imagine? "Hi, Jim. We need you to come in on your off day and fly a 9 hour flight to Heathrow before turning around a few hours later and coming back" - That's not just filling in a few hours for someone, its an entire day! To waste time Logan took the boys on the train that loops all the terminals twice and we checked out the big Christmas decorations  

They moved us to preferred seating for the long flight for free so Logan and Liam in his car seat were behind the bulkhead with lots of leg room (and no one for Liam to kick the back of their chair the entire time). Connor and I sat behind. 

Liam only fussed when after 3 hours in his seat he needed to poop but we let him out to play in the floor space and he did his business and move and then was happy to go again. 

The meals were typical airplane food. We ordered a vegan meal for Liam and a kids meal for Connor. Neither of them touched any of their food and almost of Liam's food had dairy or soy. Connor's kid meal was exactly like all the rest but the main dish was mac and cheese with eggs in it so he couldn't eat it. It didn't matter though because he refused to eat any of it anyway. Thank goodness mom had packed the boys big lunches because that's what they ate! 

It always happens for me when we get down to 5 hours left on a flight that I get discouraged. We have already been on the flight for multiple hours but 5 hours is still so long to go! Liam didn't fall asleep until the last two hours! That was like 10:45pm our time. Connor didn't sleep at all on the flight! 

Got to London and were the last off the plane because poor Logan struggled with the car seat. I tried to help fold it and get it in the backpack bag but I was holding a still sleeping Liam. Unfortunately we were able to keep him asleep as we transferred him to the carrier but trying to help Logan he woke up. The car seat is very heavy and the seat folds up so it can go flat in a backpack carry bag but it is a little tricky to figure out if you haven't done it in a while. 

 One of the attendants helped me and the boys get off. As we walked through first class the lady reached down and handed Connor a bag. It was all wrapped in dark plastic twice so you couldn't tell what it was. I told him we would open it when we were done with immigration. We all forgot but when we got to our temp housing it was a toiletries bag haha. I don't know why she thought Connor would want that but I thought it was cool haha. 

Since we were last and all had to go potty we actually didn't have to wait too long in immigration and there was no customs forms to turn in! Yay! But because the flight was delayed our driver wasn't there. In the transition of getting Liam in the carrier and getting through the airport his diaper leaked through to both of us. Good thing I had extra clothes for all of us in our carry on that was easy to get to! I changed us while we waited for our driver. 

Our driver was nice and helpful as we installed the car seat again in the van, loaded the bags and took off for RAF Alconbury. Logan was in the front while I sat between the boys in the back. We left early Sunday morning and arrived in England in the morning on Monday their time. The base is about and hour and a half away. It felt like a quick trip though. Connor finally let himself fall asleep for a while. It was around 10am but it felt like 3am to us. 

Liam hung on awake the whole ride. 

As we were pulling up just outside the gate Liam started throwing up. Lots of times but almost nothing came out. I used his blanket to catch it all. Poor baby was so sad. I never found out why he got sick - maybe lack of sleep and weird eating schedule?

We went straight to our temp housing, threw the kids and bags inside and we were "home" for the next two weeks. I didn't even get a pic of the place but it looks exactly like the duplexes across the street. Funny is one side of the street are 2 room bungalows for the Brittania Inn and then the other side is regular duplex housing where people live. 

I brought in the last bag and Connor who had only slept for about a half hour walked up to me, buried his face in my stomach and cried. He was so tired and feeling homesick and sad about leaving Albuquerque. He told me he didn't like anything here and wanted to leave and go home. He cried for a long time. I finally got him to calm down with a warm bath and as we dressed him he said "I know what would make me feel better! Watching Ponyo!" So I found it in one of the mailed boxes our sponsor left of the table and popped it into the hotel dvd player, he got his foxy and foxy foxy, the transformer toy from Granma, blankets, water and he was happy and good to go! The next night he was sad and missed Granma so we had to call her but he has gotten better and better each day. 

Anyway we got here and it really was a pretty good trip over all. I've had much much harder ones on the way to and from Japan. You may not believe me with a little mishaps we had but they were just little things and we fixed them quickly and moved on. 

I unpacked set up the kid's beds and we all took some well needed naps. It felt like 5am to all of us and we slept great. I still had us only sleep like it was a normal Liam nap and at 4om England time we all got up to eat dinner and made us wait to go to bed until 8pm. That was our first day in England!