Let's see... where was I... Oh, yeah... the trip here. I've kinda been trying to block it out. Our flight from Seattle left at 4 am Thursday. We could check in no earlier than 6 hours prior, so we were there feeling pretty proud of ourselves just before the 6 hour window. Well, guess what? We weren't alone in our thinking. There were people everywhere... the line was... oh, it was long. All of them lined up for our flight. So we waited... filled out some papers... waited... (remember, we had a 3 1/2 year old and a 16 month old in tow)... and waited. The line moved little by little. Finally, it was our turn. Only then did we find out that Devin was given misinformation not just once but three times. We were told that we needed only to check in with our checked bags. (We had 8!!!!) Now we find out that we need our 6 carry-0n bags and our dog as well. Those things were back at the hotel across the street. We were told (three times) that we could bring the dog and carry-on bags later after the initial check-in. They weren't too pleased about it, but they let us check in part-way, go back and get other bags and dog, and go straight back to the front of the line to finish. What a hassle! We were rushing and rushing. It's going on midnight or so... the kids were doing amazingly great. Looking back, it was a blessing to have been given such misinformation. Could you imagine the loooooooong line and wait with the other baggage plus Doris in her crate... all of us trying to get through that maze of people. A rare thing to be thankful for being given the wrong instruction.
Anyway, so we made it onto the plane. Boarded around 3:15 or so. The kids did great -- another blessing!!! Emerie slept much more of the flight than I suspected she might, and Noah was occupied with a video game, movie, or snack. They were super! Then the bad news. We had to divert to Misawa Air Base. The headwinds over the Pacific slowed us way down and now we had to stop to refuel or we wouldn't make it to Yokota AB which was to have been our first stop in Japan. Long story short, this all added about 3 hours to the trip.
So, we end up on Kadena AB 3 hours late. Exhausted. Wearing the same clothes for the past 30 hours. Nasty teeth. Greasy hair. You get the picture. It's not pretty. I only lost it once. At around hour 26 when we were awaiting takeoff from Iwakuni Marine Air Base... our last stop before Kadena. My Noah finally decided to sleep. But he couldn't get comfortable in his seat. His head kept falling forward. I had to leave him buckled in, because we were supposedly about to take off. (The sitting and waiting was almost unbearable.) Noah started crying. And crying. He said over and over, "Mommy, can you make me happy?" Oh, my poor, sweet boy. There's was nothing I could do for him... nothing I could do to make it better... so I cried right along with him. I had already told Devin back at the Seattle airport... after the checking-in debacle... that I wasn't going to do this again. After hour 26, I was sure of it.
Never again.
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