The flight to Korea

If anyone ever thinks moving to a new country with a 2 and 4 year old, alone, is easy... they are crazy! Check in and everything at the Spokane Airport was a breeze. We had an amazing sending off party. My mother and father in law, sister in law's Jaime and Olivia and niece Claire drove up from Colfax just to see us off. My parents took us to the airport. Huge thanks to all of them! I'm grateful we got to see them all one last time, and also very grateful for their help in making checking 8 bags and a car seat really easy.

So, I thought we would be fine in Seattle because we had a 2 hour layover. I couldn't have been more wrong. Our flight from Spokane was delayed about a half hour to 45 minutes. Then, once we got to our gate in Seattle, there was a gas spill right in front of our gate so we had to wait on the tarmac. Then they reassigned us to a gate on the other side. By this point, our flight was already boarding. Getting the kids off the plan with 3 carry on cases, a car seat and 3 back packs was fun lol. I couldn't the strap anywhere to strap the car seat to my carry on (which Max could simultaneously ride in while rolling his own suit case) so we were holding everyone up. Someone had seen it on the plane and went back and got it for me. THEN, I couldn't find the way to the A terminal. Once I found that, our gate was the furthest away possible. I was basically running at this point, Harper was crying because I was getting upset. They were calling us over the speaker to get to the gate because they were trying to leave early. I'm pretty sure we were the last ones there. Luckily I had a little help at the end and a lot of help getting settled on the plane.

For a 12 1/2 hr flight (yes, our 11 hr and 5 minute flight turned into 12 1/2 hrs) the kids did amazingly well. Besides the fact that I only got them to sleep at the same time for about 45 minutes, they didn't really whine or cry much at all. Harper slept for about 3-4 hours and Max slept for about an hour or so the first time and the last hour of the flight. He was a rough one when it came time to get off. I didn't really get to sleep at all since one was pretty much always awake. Getting off though, that was tough. I was exhausted, Max was ornery from me waking him up, and Harper was so tired that she just broke down when I asked her to move down the aisle so I could get our stuff. I did get quite a bit of help getting off the plane and to immigration, thanks to the flight attendants. I wouldn't have made it otherwise. They even got permission to put my through the fast track immigration line. Once it came time to get the bags though... that sucked. Matt wasn't allowed through so I had to figure out a way to get 8 big bags, 2 car seats, 3 carry on roller suitcases, 3 backpacks and 2 kids through the door to find Matt. I wasn't allowed to take one cart of luggage at a time. I wouldn't have been able to walk back through customs once I gave them my customs declaration page. Luckily, an airport worker helped me out. We were also very lucky to fit everything in our car. So, even though it was somewhat messy, everything worked out and we finally got to see Matt.

We still had about an hour and a half drive home, but the kids were excited to see Matt so they didn't sleep at all. We got home at about 7:00 after going on post to get burger king. By that point, Max was dead to the world and asleep for the night. Harper ate her food, took a bath and went to bed. Besides our bed and Harper's bed, we didn't have any other furniture, so we didn't do anything to get settled that night.