The Long Road Home

We have finally arrived alive and relatively sane to Fukuyama. We have actually been here for two full days now, but the flight here was pretty grueling and combined with jet lag I was in no mood to blog about it initially.

For lack of a relevant picture: a stone Anpanman

We left from Winnipeg on Monday evening and first flew to Vancouver. This was a good flight since we were all well rested and still excited about the trip. The kids were great and I was under the delusion that maybe the whole trip would be like this. We then waited in Vancouver for 7 hours before our next flight. Since I had booked my tickets online, they weren't able to issue me a ticket for William until I showed up at the airport in Vancouver. I am not sure why booking an infant ticket is so complicated, but I stood at the Air China desk from 10:30 pm until almost 2 am while they tried to add him. I was started to get a bit anxious about our 3 am flight by this time and as soon as the ticked was booked we rushed our way through security and to our gate. This sounds much less complicated than it was, since both kids were fast asleep but needed to be taken out of the stroller and pass through the metal detector by themselves. We arrived at our gate with tired, crying kids just as they started boarding. Once on the plane Karlee and I realized how incredibly tired we were ourselves but the stewardesses felt the need to keep the lights on glaringly bright and do "helpful" little things for us every 10 minutes, like offering us drinks, more blankets for the kids, reaching across us all and shutting our window blind, and of course asking questions about the boys. By the time they turned the lights off and stopped constantly bothering us, the kids were once again awake and we didn't have the option to sleep. Theo and William good for the most part considering how long the flight was, and it was only in the last 4 hours that Theo told me he didn't really want to be on the plane anymore.

Just love this gal

At this point I need to draw attention to how truly amazing Karlee is. She didn't complain once about the terrible flight times, long waits, Theo asking questions every waking moment, heavy carry-ons and crying baby. She never took the lighter load unless forced to and was always willing to deal with my cranky kids even when I am sure she would have much rather been trying to sleep. Most amazingly, she never snapped at any of us and continued to be friendly and positive long after most people would have burst into tears or killed all three of us. We absolutely never would have made it to Japan without her.

Our adventures in China to follow...