A Trip and a Day

WE'RE HOME! I LOVE BEING HOME!!! What a great feeling it is to walk into your house after a long absence (or even a short one for that matter)! Such a feeling of peace. It's not that I didn't enjoy our stay in the US. We will always be grateful for our families who let us stay with them and who cared for us during our time out there. THANK YOU! WE LOVE YOU!! But I think you all know what I mean when I say, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! :)

With that said, I think I'll do a quick overview of our trip home which was brought to you courtesy of some nice people at the visa/passport office and the Cameroonian embassy... :)

So, we started our trip off with a bang. We all got up and groggily left my parent's house by almost 5:30am in Idaho. We thought we had arrived with plenty of time. Think again, Hendriksen's!! We started to check in and everything was pretty messed up. Apparently, we had 3 itineraries. Josh and Devin, Peter, and Claire, Andrew and myself. Hunh? And, I guess someone decided to list Peter and Andrew as having been issued paper tickets. What is that supposed to mean? Does anyone actually DO paper tickets anymore? I have no idea what that meant, but supposedly it was a problem. So, the lady at the front desk typed away as she tried to get us through (because it appeared that Andrew didn't have a seat???) as Celeste walked the 'dog' (Andrew on a leash), Josh and Claire ran 'amock', Peter cried, and I rolled my eyes while standing with my bro and mom and dad! :) I ran the checked bags over to the screening area, and luckily they didn't have me stay to watch as they picked through all the dumb things we brought with us. The lady was still typing away as they called out our first boarding call! Yikes! Hello, people, this is the IDAHO FALLS AIRPORT!! It's not like it was some huge international airport where there are millions of people running all over to hundreds of gates and flights. There are TWO gates, and there were TWO flights leaving that morning.

Anyway, I ran over to start us going through security and then came Devin running and we rushed ourselves through security to get to our flight. The lady at security announced that there were still passengers going through screening (or 'screaming' as I like to call it, as the kids DO NOT like to take off their shoes) and I have to admit that I thought that was kind of funny. Then about 4 security people helped us drag our bags and kids up the escalators (because Josh was heading back down as we were heading up to our flight..."I didn't see you guys!!") and the lady at the ticket counter didn't even glance at our boarding passes--she just shooed us through. We rushed on pretty breathless and looked for our seats and lots of people were SUPER nice trying to make sure we were all sitting together (I actually think it was because they didn't want to be stuck sitting by any of our kids!!), so that was a really good start to our journey! :)

The flight was short and sweet. My favorite was listening to Josh and Claire's conversation behind me as the plane took off:

J: "Claire, my favorite part is coming up!!"

C: "Huh?"

J: "My favorite part is coming! We're going to go FAST and then go up in the air!"

C: "Oh."

(Plane speeds up for take off)

J: Wahoo!! This is my FAVORITE!!!

C: WHEEEEEEE!!!!

The trip was uneventful, and I'm grateful. We landed on time in SLC for our silly 5 hour layover. That wasn't so bad, though. They have a couple of little play places where the kids played for a few hours. We ate some beef jerky and Burger King. Some really nice airport people offered us some help, which we took! Have you ever seen those little white electric cars that zoom around the airport? Yep! We got to ride on one! I always thought it was for either people in wheelchairs or the frequent flyer business people who got to ride on those. But, I suppose they saw us with our 40 kids and took pity. :) The kids loved it, and got pretty mad when we told them we couldn't ride on it again.

The kids waiting at the gate for our boarding call:





We got to our gate, and had to get the ticket stuff sorted out again. This time, though, we knew about it, and it only took them 1/2 an hour to get our seats all assigned and put Andrew back in. It was another uneventful trip. Claire was upset, though, that she only got one glass of juice and that they weren't giving us any food!

We landed in Chicago and had a very interesting time trying to find the stinking gate where we were supposed to board the plane. Then, once we found it, we started checking in again to make sure Andrew and Peter had a ticket to get through to Zurich. This got really interesting. Note to self: ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU GET ELECTRONIC TICKETS FOR EVERYONE! I think it would pay to double check with the booking agent...and then check again a few more times after that. I have no idea how any of that happened. It wasn't me! We spent well over an hour there--Claire had to go 'potty', Josh was skipping about and running into people, Andrew kept escaping and running, giggling, through the crowds as I chased him down (then screaming as I towed him back and sat him in the stroller) and Peter screamed himself silly because he was hungry and needed a new diaper. This was going on the whole time they were trying to rearrange everything. Sorry everyone! But, they did manage to get it fixed, and even put us all in a row together! Nice!

At that point, we had to make a break for the gate! So, off we ran. First, down an elevator, where the kids refused to move in so I could get in and the door actually closed on Andrew's head! poor kid!! Next, through security again. Oh, joy of joys!! More screaming ensues as Peter is STILL hungry and STILL needs a new diaper, Andrew and Claire are REFUSING to take off their shoes, Josh WILL NOT put his carry on on the belt for screening...Yah, it's so fun! So, Devin takes the kids through, and I hoist all the bags and strollers and coats and shoes and car seats and whatever other junk we had with us onto the belt and walk through. And, lo and behold, a bag gets stopped for extra screening. Ooops, we forgot to take the mini DVD player out of the bag. We finally get everything together and realize that we're missing a bag. Doh! In all the craziness, I forgot one of the bags at the front. So, the security person goes and gets it and puts it on the belt for us. That was nice.

Then we were off! We got to our gate, I sat down to feed Peter, and FIVE MINUTES LATER we loaded the plane! Just in time! I guess I should be grateful for all of the hold-ups since it made us not have to 'wait' at the gate for too long...

This flight was SO NICE! I can tell you right now that I LOVE business class! It is so fantastic! We sit down, and the flight attendants come and help us and the kids and give us water and juice to drink while everyone boards and the plane gets ready to take off... They give the kids toys and us newspapers and magazines, and they do all this with a smile! :) And they keep smiling through the whole entire trip! We get lots of food and the kids get to watch their own t.v. screens. There's SO much room and it feels so happy! :) Makes me a bit tear-y just thinking about it! *sigh*





By 8:30 Mountain Standard Time, we were ALL sleeping! yea!! And we all got to sleep for a whole 4 or 5 hours! It was wonderful! Then we woke up and ate croissants and fruit and juice for breakfast before landing in Zurich.

We've decided Zurich is our favorite place. We got through the airport without any problems--and our luggage actually made it before we did! We were wondering why we couldn't find our carousel. So, Devin asked a guy, and he took us over to the baggage claims (the lost ones...) and there they were!

So, we got out, jumped on the airport shuttle, and checked into this sweet little hotel! Our room was awesome! It had 4 twin beds AND a futon! So fun!

The view from the window of our room:

Our room:



We all showered and refreshed ourselves, then took ourselves out for a tour of a city. We took a train downtown, then walked down the road with our little 'doggies' (Andrew and Claire both on leashes--we had people laughing and barking at us! It wasn't meant in a mean way, I don't think...) Peter was in the Baby Bjorn, and Josh was in his own little world. It was actually quite nice. A little chilly... Then we took a trolley down to a big lake. We got off and we were FREEZING!!!! Whew!!! So, we jumped back on a trolley to the train station, found a place to eat (where we spent $70 on FAST FOOD!!! Yikes!!), then took the train back to our hotel. We all got our pj's on, had story time, then all the kids were in bed by 7pm, local time!

Riding on the train in Zurich:


A quick view from the train. It was such a pretty city!!!


Freezing in front of the lake in Zurich:

Eating at the Zurich Bistro in the train station...the lunch/dinner that cost us $70 dollars. Who thinks up these prices?????

A really cool fountain in the Zurich train station. It's too bad you really can't see it. It was super cool!!


Devin and I decided we didn't want to go to sleep yet. So we stayed up reading for a while. I wanted to last until 9 to help myself get used to the time better. Well, I went to bed at 9, Peter woke up at 10, Andrew woke up at 11, Peter got up again at 12, Claire and Josh woke up at 1, Peter got up again at 2, Andrew finally fell asleep again (from the first time he got up at 11...) around 2-ish, so I got to go to sleep then...then Peter got up again at 4am, and I couldn't go back to sleep again. Nice.

We left the hotel by 8am, because we wanted to give ourselves a good cushion of time just in case we had more ticket issues. We got to the airport by 8:30am, went up to check our bags and get our tickets arranged, and it took FIVE MINUTES!!! Well, that was nice!!! We got ourselves through the security check--which I LOVED because they didn't make us take off our shoes or even take the stroller down or take Peter out of his car seat! So wonderful! We found the AWESOME play area and hunkered down for some fun and games! :)





The kids enjoyed themselves for 3 hours, and then we went through another security check at our gate (which still wasn't bad because they didn't make us take off our shoes...Claire was very happy about that). There was even a little play area next to our gate!




AND when they started boarding, they let us go through very first, got us all through and in and seated before anyone else. It was SO NICE!!! *sigh* Just love that!

The last leg was also very nice. The kids behaved fairly well, we ate a lot, and just enjoyed the space.

We landed in Yaounde on time and our favorite expeditor (Dairu) was there to greet us! We got our bags and found the car and enjoyed the exciting ride back home...

Really, I'm super impressed at how much these kids have improved in their traveling skills. They did a tremendous job and we had a truly enjoyable trip for being so long!!! :)

Today, we got to unpack our bags (including our layette shipment which got here a few days ago! yea!!!) and do some organizing. That was fun. Then, the kids had swimming lessons. We went out to get in the car, and the battery was dead. Oh well. We can walk. But I couldn't find my badge anywhere. Well, they usually let me in since we're just going swimming and Devin's there with me. So, we used both of our double strollers and set off.

Whew! It's hot here! :) There are a lot of hills between here and the embassy... But, I digress. We got to the embassy, and they wouldn't let me in! Apparently, we've been gone long enough that we don't know all the guards now. Doh! So, they made us go ask the Marines. He said he needed some I.D. so he could give me a temp badge. I didn't bring any I.D.! I was just going swimming! So, I told him that, and he said, "Oh! In that case, go ahead!" Thanks. We got down to the pool just as Claire and Andrew's class ended. Sorry kiddos! So I stood and chatted with my long-lost friends while Josh and Claire had a class and Andrew swam with Devin. Then I jumped in, but it only lasted for like 5 minutes, since Peter decided to go bonkers. Then we walked home--my goodness I'm out of shape! But, in my defense, they really are crazy steep hills! I was seriously going backwards while trying to push the stroller up on of them!! Good exercise, though.

We came home, I put Peter down for a nap, Devin and Claire went grocery shopping, Josh and Andrew played outside...it was a nice relaxing day!

And now, it's time for me to go to sleep. Or at least brush me teeth!!!

Silly Day

Here are some funny kid quotes from the day:

I told Andrew we needed to go out to the car to go to church and he asked me, "Where's my coat?" He hee!

Josh turned to me during church today with a profound thought. Here was our conversation (verbatim!!):

J: Mom, Do you want to know why I think we have families?

M: Why?

J: To get us started on the right path to Heavenly Father. Then we can make our own decisions...after awhile.

Smart kid.


Claire turned to me during church today and said, "Mommy, I need to go potty!" Ok. So, I handed her a couple of baby wipes (they never have toilet paper in the church) and told her to go the back way so she wouldn't walk in front of everyone. Well, she took the baby wipes, and walked right down the aisle and in front of everyone...with her finger up her nose the whole time!!

Josh entertained himself in an unusual way today during church...he picked the paint off the wall next to him! Doh! Whatever.

Just so all of you know, I have written about our exciting trip back to Yaounde...it's in the works right now. All I have to do is add the pictures. So, as soon as I find my camera, and then find a moment when the power wants to cooperate, I'll post it! Hopefully within the next few days! So, keep checking back for another fun installment of life for the first time on Mars! :)

Saga Part 2

For all of you who have been wondering about our departure status, I thought I'd fill you in with The Rest Of The Story:

Yesterday morning, early, Devin calls the visa office. Is it done yet? Have you seen it? Will it be there today? Sadly, they weren't overly helpful. No, it's not here yet. The guy who drops off/picks up the visas was out doing his rounds, and that we were to call back after noon to see if he brought it in. So, Devin called back around 2pm to see. Was it there? Nope. It wasn't ready yet! WHAT?!?!?!?!?

So, somehow, Devin finds the number for the Cameroonian Embassy and actually calls them! (What a guy!) After about ten tries, he talks with some lady there and asks her about the visa. Were they working on it? Was it ready yet? She said that they would finish it up, and send it off tomorrow (meaning today). So, Devin started to beg (without really sounding like begging). He told the lady that we really needed it done today so we could get it tomorrow because we were leaving at 6am Wednesday morning for Cameroon! Otherwise we'd have to rearrange SIX people's flights! (not to mention Devin has NO MORE time off--obviously since he took off 2 1/2 months-- and Josh needs to get back to school.) So, the lady said, "Oh! Well, then, call the visa office and tell them to come and pick it up after 3pm!" YES!!!!

So, Devin calls the visa office just as the guy who picks up/drops off the visas had come in and was leaving on his rounds once more! So, they were able to relay the message (for some reason, the pick up guy doesn't carry a cell phone!) just in time, and off he went! So, they said to call back later and see if he got it ok and get a tracking number. Devin called and the guy still had not come back. He called again later, and the guy still had not come back. He called right before 4:30 (they don't pick up the phones anymore after 4:30) and talked to the supervisor because the guy still hadn't come back yet. The supervisor said to call his (the supervisors) personal extension and find out what was up within the next half hour or so. Devin called and called around 5pm, and NO ONE picked up.

Quite honestly, by that point we were trying to think up alternate plans. Could they send it to the Chicago airport and have us pick it up there? Could they send it to Zurich? It was so disheartening, since it was SOOOOOO close! But, once it comes to the end of the business day, well, there's nothing you can do. People stop what they're doing and go home.

So, Devin sat down, and began writing a message to the visa pick up guy, explaining the need to have the visa by Tuesday. Just as he was about to send it, the phone rang (it was well after 5pm!!!!!!) and it was the visa pick up guy calling to comfirm our address so he could send it off!!! Tears of joy!!!! Prayers of Thanks!!!! How can anyone not believe in miracles after that??? We got the visa this morning at 11am. Talk about the last minute!

We will be leaving tomorrow morning as planned and finally get to be home!

I want to go swimming every day. I think I will...I think I will.

Hot Dogs, Marshmallows and Other Winter Things

Since it is Sunday, I figure there's nothing I can do over the visa thing, so I thought I would do some fun updates on what's going on. Obviously, we're not ALL sitting around stressing over whether we can leave on Wednesday or not...

We've had lots of fun swimming up at the college. The kids are all little fishies! :) We've even taken these guys to movies at the theater! We took them to see Bedtime Stories. Fun show! I highly recommend it. I still liked it the second time around, so that usually means that it's a good one.

We had a 'picnic' in the living room--we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows! So fun!

The kids roasting or waiting to roast...



The rest of us sitting around and chatting.




My parents have this super cute little child sized park bench. Devin put it together, then did a photo shoot with the kids:






We had a little photo shoot (yes, another one) before church. The kids wanted pics taken with Peter, then we just added Mom and Dad and Voila! Another fun family photo!





And then, my personal favorite, Josh has become more helpful of late. He now helps Andrew not only get on his diaper, but dresses him for bed! It's hilarious!!



We've had such a nice time being with so many members of our family. Thank you, Everyone!

Saga

Still no visa. I think I'm developing an ulcer.

3 HOURS?!?!?!?

So, here's a quick update on the passport, since I know everyone is just waiting with bated breath... Devin called this morning, and--surprise, surprise--they still hadn't even OPENED the application! BUT, he just happened (and I know as well as the next person that there ARE no coincidences) to talk to a responsible person who actually does their job and realized that we really did need it done fast! She told Devin to call back around 12 our time and check up. He called back, and it had already been done AND been shipped out! Yes, my friends, they did the ENTIRE passport in THREE HOURS!!! Wow. I was rather shocked myself. But, I'm grateful! Now, we should get the passport here tomorrow as the passport office is full of smarter people who use FedEx Express (whom actually do overnight it...) and now here's hoping that it actually gets here tomorrow, we sign it, then turn around and FedEx Express the signed passport along with the visa application and hope that they give Peter a visa by Friday and overnight it back to us so we get it Saturday...or at least Monday or Tuesday at the VERY VERY VERY latest, as we have to leave Rexburg at 3 or 4 am on Wednesday to catch our various flights out. I'll keep you all posted if you'll all keep praying for us!!!!!

Panic Attack

Well, we've started our downward 'spiral' heading toward our trip home. Technically, we have less than 2 weeks left. We have done almost everything that needs to be done. Our layette shipment is off and running...we've sent multiple packages to ourselves...both Peter and I are now medically cleared to go back...Peter is officially on the orders...Peter has his ticket to return to Cameroon...Devin and I have done everything that needs to be done to be official Idaho residents (Driver's license, bank account...even a library card!). There is only one thing left to do, and quite frankly I am going CRAZY over this!!

The last thing left, is Peter's passport and visa. Ok, so on our 'checklist' for returning, it talks about not delaying starting the process for your passport and visa as that could delay your return to post. BUT, before you can start applying for the passport, the baby has to have his FOUR WEEK appointment. We then have to send in the results to have him cleared to return to post. THEN after he's cleared, we have to send those results to someone else to have him added to Devin's orders. Once he's added on, THEN we can send in the passport application.

Well, Peter's 4 week appointment was on the 9th of Feb. Right immediately after his appointment, we faxed the info in to get him cleared. Luckily, he was cleared that afternoon! Then, we contacted the person to add Peter to the orders. We had to call a few times. FINALLY on Tuesday afternoon, Devin went and checked online to see if the orders had been updated, and thankfully they had! So, since we had everything already filled out for the application, we printed off the orders and our flight itinerary (so they could see that we really need this ASAP...well, sooner than possible, actually) and ran over the the county clerk's office to have everything made official and send it off. We finally convinced the people there that what we were doing was really legit (umm, they don't get many diplomatic passport applications in there...yah, it took well over an hour just to fill out the papers...duh...but at least they were really nice people even if they had no clue). Then, Devin had to go over to the post office to get an envelope and pay for an express mail so we could overnight the application. We got everything into the envelope and left it there with them to send off. Whew.

Then we ran into a few more snags. We called on Wednesday to make sure they'd gotten the application and were looking into doing it. Nope. Hadn't gotten there yet. Apparently, if you send off an overnight express mail envelope after 1pm in the afternoon, it's NOT overnight. Stupid. Wish they used FedEx. So, we called on Thursday. Is it there yet. Nope. Ummmm, could you look up the tracking number and see if it's at least close? It's in D.C., at least. How retarded can you get??? So, we call yesterday (Friday). Is it there yet? What do you mean you haven't seen it??? So, they look up the tracking number... 'Oh, it's here! We'll have someone try to find it and start looking at it, then we'll call you back.' (One of those "Don't call us, we'll call you" things...blah.) They never called us back (I'm so surprised). AND to make things even better, Monday is a holiday. Oh goody. One less day to work on our way home...one more day for me to lie on the floor in a little purple puddle!

Now, dip passports can usually be done in a week or less, depending on the speed of the people working on it. That's not too terrible, considering that if they started on it, we might get it back by the 23rd or 24th. BUT, there's another catch. Peter still needs a visa. But, to apply for a visa, they have to send us the passport, we have to sign it for him, then we have to send it BACK with the visa application and wait for the approval (which can take a week or MORE) THEN they'll send it back and we're ready to go...only we don't have that much time. This is absolutely ridiculous!!! It's not physically possible!!! Who thought up these rules??????

So, my question is, why do they make us wait until the FOUR WEEK appointment for the baby (which, by most standards, they make a point to see the baby at 2 WEEKS and then again at 2 MONTHS...not 4 WEEKS)? How are you supposed to get all the paperwork done and all the passport/visa stuff done in less than 2 weeks? All the other stuff, we've been able to do. But the passport and visa, we have no control over! I WANT TO GO HOME!!!! I'm about this close \\ to calling up the passport office and screaming hysterically at them and then breaking down into a sobbing madwoman and seeing if that does any good.

Seriously, folks, this is silly. We've done everything the INSTANT that we were able to do it, and it still is just not enough. I've enjoyed my stay in the US...seeing family and friends, eating my daily dose of crumb donuts, seeing lots of snow... But quite frankly, I'm more than ready to be back in my house again. To be in the sun and let the kids outside to play on the swings or ride bikes...to take walks without 40 layers on...to go to playgroups and see other moms and my friends...to cook!!! *sigh* This is so frustrating! Anyone out there have any experience with this--and any advice or ideas?

I suppose it has been awhile since I've had lots of overwhelming things happen, so it's time again. I'm sure it'll all work out in the end....right?