Hello USA

Well we made it! Here is our traveling story.

We left the house at 7:30am so we could be to the airport 3 hours before take off. And it was a good thing we did. We first went to the wrong place and had to pack up the luggage back into the car (which was a very tight fit in the first place) and drive to the international terminal. Then it took us nearly an hour to get to the check out counter. At the counter it took us another 20-30 minutes to check in because after she got the tickets all done, we asked to make sure we got a bassinette for Sophie and she had to redo our tickets. Good thing we asked. Then our pram was too big to go through the security x-ray machine thing so they had to take it to the over sized luggage scanner. We finally made it and only had to wait a few minutes before boarding.

The 3 hour flight to New Zealand was ok. Sophie fussed for a little while but then fell asleep. In New Zealand, we couldn't find our pram/stroller. Usually when you check something at the door, they have it waiting at the door when you get off, but nope. After checking around I found out that they checked it straight through to the US. So now I had all this stuff and no help to carry it. They felt so sorry for me they gave me a little helper to carry everything. Again we got to the gate with only a little wait before boarding.

The 12 hour flight to San Francisco went better than expected where the children were concerned. Sophie slept nearly the whole way, waking only once to feed. Blake watched a movie and then slept for 7-8 hours before waking for breakfast. The people behind us were so rude though! The guy behind me wouldn't let me put my seat back at all. The lady behind Blake would let him put his seat back, but once he fell asleep, she would push it forward so he head would fall and wake him up. And these were grown people! I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I only got 2 hours of sleep.

In San Francisco they gave us a lady to assist us again. She helped us get our luggage and then we set off to find our stroller. We were informed that it was on the wrong plane. It supposedly went through to Los Angeles instead but would meet us in Phoenix. By this time we were behind and our plane was leaving soon so we got to totally skip customs. One of our bags had the tag fall off so when we tried to recheck our bags, they could only take 3 and we had to go get a new bag tag. Thankfully they didn't make us wait in the 2 hour line that United had for check ins, but let us go to the first class check in line. Our plane was delayed so we didn't actually need to be in as big a hurry as they thought we did.

The flight to Phoenix was not as nice. Once we passed from Air New Zealand to United there was an instant change to bad attitudes and bad customer service and worse aircraft. Blake was still being good, but Sophie had a little harder time of it. We arrived in Phoenix and went off to find our stroller, just to find out it hadn't even left Brisbane yet! It was going to arrive in Phoenix a little before we left. I didn't want to chance missing it so had it booked all the way to Rapid City.

I was doing ok still by this time. We got to the hotel and checked in. Got showered up and fed Sophie but by this time the restuarant downstairs had closed. The only eating place within walking distance was McDonald's (gross) but what else were we to do? So we ate and then Blake and Sophie went to bed. It was about 10:30 pm Phoenix time by now. Sophie only slept 20 minutes and then threw a huge fit until midnight. She ended up sleeping in my bed, even though we got a free crib. She did let me sleep really well from midnight to 7:30am.

Sophie and I woke and both got breakfast. Then she went back to sleep and I tried to take a nap but couldn't. Blake slept and slept and slept. I had to wake him up at 11am so I could give him the promised swim in the pool before we had to leave. It was chilly outside but he still wanted to go. I did let him warm up in the hot tub when he was done. We ate lunch and packed up. After yesterday I wanted to get to the airport early. Though everything this time went so smoothly we had to wait at the gate for 2 hours.

Sophie cried nearly the whole 2 hours from Phoenix to Denver. Blake was disappointed that there wasn't any movies. He worked on his sewing. We got into Denver early and started the mile long hike from gate 31 to gate 88. We stopped to eat dinner and other breaks on the way. When we got down to our gate it was mayheim. Nearly all the planes were being rerouted, not leaving at all, or very delayed because of weather. Not weather in Denver, but weather at the destination. Our plane was on time, but we were warned that we may have to land in Casper instead of Rapid.

Sophie again cried the whole 40 minute flight. Blake took a nap and was very hard to wake when we got there. In fact he tried to go back to sleep at least 4 times while I was waking him and that is unheard of, if you know him. We landed and I gave Sophie over to Mom. She was still crying and carrying on. I went to get the luggage and to find customer service about our stroller. Since it was 11:30pm at night, there was no customer service. I couldn't find anyone. I decided to get our luggage first and then worry about that. And what do you know! Out comes our stroller with the rest of the luggage, yipee!

I don't mind cold, but we came in the middle of a snow storm! The wind was so nasty. We had to get help to load up the car, and then we almost decided to stay the night in Rapid instead of driving home, but I was so tired of traveling and we didn't want to deal with luggage anymore. So we braved the trip home. It took us nearly twice the time but finally made it. Sophie slept till her almost there button went off, and then cried the last 10 minutes. She had a nice play in the bathtub though. My mom finally got her to bed about 3am, after another crying fit.

Blake got to bed about the same time, and my mom and I got to sleep around 3:30am. We were able to sleep in till nearly noon though! Whew. Yesterday all we did was unpack and settle ourselves. We did go to the pool for a time to get out some of Blake's energy. Sophie even went in for a bit and really enjoyed it. I challenged Blake to a game of Foose ball, which I cleaned up on of course. Then we played pool and Blake got so lucky he had all his balls (and the 8 ball too) in except 2 in the first couple of shots. Then we played basketball before coming back home for dinner and then off to bed at 9pm.

Today we are doing more cleaning and having a relaxing morning. We are going to go meet my mom for lunch, do some last minute Christmas shopping, and then we are home early to meet my Dad, coming back from a week away at work. My brother is coming in late tonight and it will be a great family reunion in the morning, just in time for Christmas.