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!!!
