Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and The Terminal

If you crossed the movies 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,' with 'The Terminal,' and add in a little '3 Men and a Baby' with some 'Groundhog Day,' than you have an idea of what our return trip was like. :)

We were stuck in the aiport terminal for 10 hours trying to figure out how to get our travel group home, there were Men arguing, Women crying, Babies being changed on blankets on the floor, and 4 older kids looking like refugees on a blanket on the floor eating pringles and oreos while watching a movie on a portable DVD player.

The good news is that Abby and I were able to get on Standby for David/Grandma/Evie's flight, so even though we couldn't sit together, we were all on the same plane going home. 16 hours of flying is not imaginable. When we go back to visit when Evie is older, I'm taking a cruise ship to get there. I will never fly that long again. Uh-uh. Not. gonna. happen.

Of course this connector didn't go to Newark, where our car was. Oh, no...... it was going to JFK in New York. We got in at 2:30, it took until 4:00 to get bags, go through immigration, and then through customs. Then we got a Taxi to take us to Newark. But of course it was RUSH HOUR in New York City, so it took 3 1/2 hours to get to Jersey. The cab ride was so stop-and-go in rush hour that Grandma got car sick and spent 2 hours dry heaving into a zip-lock baggie.

Let's add that. 15 1/2 hour flight, 1 1/2 hour getting out, 3 1/2 hour Taxi ride, 3 hour drive home from Jersey. 23 1/2 hours of travel time, not counting being at the airport 3 hours before our departure. About 27 hours in a row of being AWAKE. With an infant and a 6 year old and a gagging 74 year old. Can you say GUILT anyone? I feel so bad for everyone. Especially Grandma. I don't think she'll ever want to vacation with us again. :(

I can tell you that both kids were amazing. Considering how tired they were, how little they had to eat, and how cranky everyone was, the kids were a miracle.
Evie was super-great in her first Car-Seat ride. When you think about it, all of our bio kids are used to car-seats from day 1, but to be put in one for almost 4 hours, totally strapped in, when you are 10 months old and have never seen this stuff before...... that must be so hard!

We got home around 11:00 last night. Both kids were pretty wide awake at that point because not only did then sleep a lot on the plane and the car ride, but to us all it was 11:00 in the morning China-time, so our bodies were all 'Hup hup, things to do!! It's daytime!!'

Evie was horrfied at the large white fuzzy monsters in the house. She took one look at the dogs and SCREAMED. And not a nice/cranky scream, but pure terror. We got the kids fed and into bed around 11:30, but Evie was so worked up at the strange house with the fuzzy giants in the wacked-out time zone that she had a lot of trouble falling asleep. She slept until almost 1, then was up until 2:00 or so, then slept until 4:00. We all had breakfast at 5:30 this morning, and we put Evie back down to sleep at 6:30. Poor little bunny is just beat.
Abby gets the sleeping award for the family. She slept 4 hours on the plane, then all 6 hours driving, then went to sleep at 12:00 and slept until 5:30. 15 hours of sleep, people! Ye-Haw. She's gotta teach her sister how to do that. ;)

I'm going to go have some more (perfect) coffee now, then we'll tackle Family Grocery Shopping and visit Nana.

Thank you sooooooooooo much to my sister, Deb, for helping post to my blog while I was in China and stuck in the airport. You're the best!!