Sunday, July 12, 2009

Finally Home

Reese and I are finally home and getting settled after 7 weeks in the States and two day worth of airports to get home. We left Travis AFB Monday morning and arrived in Charleston where the flight to Germany we were hoping to catch had a long line of people ahead of us. We put our name on the list for it but the plane filled up before they even got to our category so we decided to get on the flight to Dover because they were supposed to be having 7 flights between late that night and the following evening. The supervisor had reopened the flight so we could get on and told us to hurry over because the flight would be getting ready to board any minute. We rushed through security and then sat....and sat...until someone came over and moved us to an overflow room because our plane was going to be delayed a few minutes and they needed to get a different group of passengers on their way. So we sat....and sat....and sat.....until he came back and said the flight was going to be delayed about 2 hours so we could leave the secure area but we needed to stay in the terminal because they could call us back at any time. By this time it was about 9pm and there was no place on base open that would deliver and since we weren't to leave the terminal Reese and I rummaged the vending machines and enjoyed a dinner of nutrigrain bars and cheez-its, a well-balanced meal. They called us back around 11pm and this time they loaded us on the bus and took us out to the plane, after sitting there for 20mins they said there was going to be a 45 min delay so we were going to go back inside, once inside we waited in the gate area for an hour and then they told us the plane was still broke so it was going to be about 3 hours until we left. I spent 2 of those three hours walking around in circles pushing Reese in her stroller trying to get her to fall asleep, by the time I got her to sleep and layed down to get some sleep for myself it was 3am and they were calling us back for the flight. We finally boarded and took off at 4:30am, I slept the whole 1.5 hours to Dover where we found out that not only had our delay made us miss all the flights the night before that we'd been hoping to get on, but our plane that was going on to Ramstein had already been ticketed so we didn't have an opportunity to try for that one. After we found out that the next flight showtime wasn't until about 4pm we were able to relax. Reese and I napped and then walked over to the store and got some breakfast. We played outside on the grass with some other passengers and Reese made good use out of the children's playroom in the terminal. When our flight time finally came there were only 5 seats on it so naturally we missed it and figured we would try for the one later or the two that were going out the next day. After awhile they called that they had added 13 more seats to the flight and we were very excited for the other people we were traveling with that we were sure would get on now, but didn't think we had a chance. When they called for our category we were ecstatic, we ended up being the last two people to get on the flight. Looking back we had a really good experience getting out during such a busy time, at times it looked like we might be stuck in Dover for days but instead we got to Spangdahlem Wednesday morning.
Now that we're home we're trying to get back into our routine. Reese has been sleeping a lot because of the time change and her sleep deprivation during our travel time, but I'm hoping that by tomorrow we'll both be back at it. We're glad to have Jaeger back, Reese has gotten a lot better at petting nicely which I think Jaeger is quite grateful for and she doesn't put Jaeger's toys in her mouth anymore, which I am quite grateful for. We had a great time in the states but we're glad to be back in our own house.
Since I didn't do any posts when we were in the states I'm including a few pictures from our time there. (okay, a few became more than a few)
Playing with her cousins, Benjamin and Kiersten, in Idaho Falls
Playing with Winkle, Reese loves animals
Just four little monkeys at the zoo
Visiting Aunt Kendra on temple square
Outside the temple
Reese Crandall and Rachel Kincher, BFFs because their mommies said so
Rachel is only a day older than Reese
Pismo Beach, CA

Camping at my aunt's cabin in tahoe, Reese and I slept in the tent

Hiking in Tahoe

Reese at swim lessons

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