Today started out early as we had to do a few last minute packing maneuvers to fit everything in our luggage. Becky was throwing out things left and right so I took what I could. I scored some animal crackers, a block train set (That I can return to its rightful owner if need be :) ) and some sweet hot pink and yellow belts she had to buy to get a black one to go with her night at the Spaso House ensamble. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate those into my wardrobe, but when I do, I'll be sure to send Becky a picture!
We got all packed up and headed down for our last breakfast at the buffet. We hope the kids enjoyed their last day of 1,000 choices for breakfast. Then we got all our luggage loaded on to two carts and headed downstairs to meet our driver. It was so surreal heading out those hotel doors for the last time, we were finally going home.
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| On the way to the airport |
We got through the airport check-in and customs pretty smoothly and were 2 hours early by time we made it through security and customs. Our bags were WAY too heavy, but thanks to our language barrier, the lady at the check in had pity on us, or just wanted us out of her hair, she waived the $300 overage fee. We called that a blessing and moved on. Getting through customs was not too bad, there was a really nice lady standing at the line that kept telling our driver Igor to stay by us and say goodbye. Though we were never able to speak to Igor, you could just see that look in his eyes that said, Finally, you are on your way. What a great guy, I will always treasure the night we had him drop us off at the wrong hotel and how hard we all laughed he returned 3 hours later. Then he took us past the circus and we got some sweet pictures in the clown car. Very fitting ending for the evening.
After we got through customs we went right to the flight board to see which gate we would board at. We did not like what we saw. We stood there for about 5 minutes reading and re-reading it, making sure we were looking at the right flight. Sadly it was true, our flight to LA was delayed 3 hours. So that meant we had over 4 hours to kill in the airport with two little kids and worst of all, we would miss our connecting flights home in the U.S. Thankfully Wayne was still awake as it was close to midnight at home and he called Delta, figured out new itineraries and booked us a hotel room in LA. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. Since we had no choice we did our best to suck it up and press forward, something we had come quite well at over the past month. It was harder to do with our kids with us though. We were already concerned about how they would do on the 13 hour flight and four hours in an airport seemed like asking too much of them, especially since they were both sick.
We went to our gate to see if anyone could explain to us what was going on. Of course no one was there and once they arrived they told us they didn't speak any English. We set up camp in the corner and Becky went and found us some dinner. She came back with two sandwiches, 3-4 bottles of water and some potato wedges. Our last over-priced meal in Russia and it came to just under $50!! There are a few things I won't be complaining about any time soon and one is the cost of food here in the States. The other is the size of my wardrobe. After wearing the same two pairs of jeans and rotating between two sets of workout clothes for over a month, my closet will feel like a mall when I get home.
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| Oh yea I forgot to mention the time I killed modeling my knit sweat suit. I think it would be a great sale for classy yet comfortable travel attire. Ha ha, totally kidding, it was an accident that I paired these two pieces together, but we got a good laugh out of it. |
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| One of our walks in the airport |
Thankfully Jaymi took a small nap on my lap until I had to stand up because I did not have any feeling left in my backside from sitting on the floor :) We went on a few walks and took many trips to the bathroom.
When it was time to board the aircraft we were pleasantly surprised when the co-captain of the plane spoke english came up to us and told us we could board early with the kids. As we walked down the jetway we kept telling the kids we were going on the airplane home to papa! They were getting so excited. Once we got settled on our row of 4 seats, they were so excited. Jaymi kept waving her arm back and forth saying something in Russian and laughing so hard and loud. We had no idea what she was saying or where she picked that up from but it was sure cute.
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| Watching some cartoons in Russian. I was proud our myself for navigating the entertainment system in Russian to find her a show to watch. |
Thankfully the kids did so well on the flight. Jaymi slept for close to 9 hours! Amazing, I know, especially since she was feeling sick. She did have one time when she woke up with a fever and was so sad. Luckily the medicine kicked in quickly and she was able to get back to sleep. She was on the isle so I was so paranoid that she would stick her leg out in the isle and get hit by the drink cart that I only slept for about 30 minutes total. I did get about 8 hours worth of blogging done though, so that was nice. I was just happy that Jaymi was able to sleep and wasn't miserable on such a long flight and feeling sick. However my lack of sleep would come back to bite me once we arrived in LA.
Along with my blogging marathon, I got lots of shots of everyone's sleeping positions which was fun. At one point I stole the idea of a kid a few isles up and made Jaymi a tent to block the lights when they turned them back on. When the flight attendant she practically let out a squeal from her surprise, which I thought was a little strange. The kid a few isles up was doing it for quite a while, but his blanket wasn't quite as wild I guess.
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| The bent in half position, this one is popular with our flexible children with Ds. Yes that me holding on to her so she doesn't face plant. Luckily this one didn't last too long, it was making me nervous. |
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| The tent sleeper |
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| The sprawled out over everyone |
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| The face in the isle |
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| The good old fashion desk sleep, I'm sure we've all used this one a time or two in our school years. |
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| The mom pillow |
When we landed down in LA I was sooooo excited to finally be home. I was just ready to jump off the airplane and be welcomed with open arms back into the United States. I'll write more on our experience in the next post because its a whole separate story of its own and I learned a very valuable lesson that I don't want to forget. Well part of it I want to forget, but its all about learning lessons in life, right?
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