The Kassebaum Four: Even Cokes Not Working

So it is Thursday morning (10:31) in Okinawa and I am drinking a huge coke and nursing a head ache. Levi woke us up at 4:30 in the morning ready to go after we went to bed a little after midnight this time, which is like 5 am my time. Anyways, the flight,

We arrived at the airport on time and in realitivly good spirits. Katie had a meltdown in the parking lot which was very scary and then fell down trying to get on the escalator and cried again. Not the most reassuring start. The ticket people moved us to a bulkhead seat (good and bad) but wouldn't let my mom have a gate pass though security. When I flew to DC with the kids my mom and Dan got one on both sides. IT was wonderful, but this time we had to say goodbye to grandma :( They did have an agent escort us through security so we didn't have to wait in line. The security people we very nice since I had 97 squishies, benadryl, epi pens, and tyloenl. The guy was like, "are you going to give this to your kid on the flight?" I guess he thought I wanted them to sleep. May have been a good idea in hindsight. We squished everything back into my bags and headed over to buy some milk and toys. Katie picked out a mermaid, Atina, and Levi got a penguin. Katie named him Founder before I could make a suggestion. We ventured over to our gate to check it out an immediately they said they needed our stroller. So much for gate checking it. So we had my purse, diaper bag, 3 sweat shirts, a blanket and Katie's backpack on the ground while they ran around like banshees.

I took pictures of both kids before the flight in case I lost one of them

We waited until everyone had boarded the flight and hoped aboard. The bulk head seats were really nice. We had a ton of legroom but had to store everything above for takeoff which was tough for me. The plane was amazing. We flew on a Dreamliner. The windows didn't have pull down shades, but had tinting options for how dark you wanted it (you could still see out) Every seat had USB plugs and regular outlets (and converters). The bathroom had a cool changing table, bench seat, tooth brushed, automatic flushing toilet when the lid closed and two full length mirrors. The aisles were wide enough that the food cart could go down and a person could squeeze by if they had to. The Japanese stewardesses are so nice though that they always move the cart back to let people pass- not like the grumpy American ones. We had allergen free meals. Fish for both. Katie and Levi both loved the food. I wish I has taken a picture. We had three little salads lined up in little boxes. Our lunch didnt come with dessert though. Luckily someone didnt want their ice cream so Katie got one. I could see that ended badly if she had to watch everyone else eat ice cream.

The flight was long! After 2 hours, Katie asked if we were almost there. Nope- another 10 1/2 to go..... The ipad that we just bought was a Godsend. Katie watched Frozen, Tangled, a Tinkerbell movie with the fairy in it that she got from the Christmas party (score for Mommy) Sofia the First, and played games the whole way. She was perfect. Levi was charming and adorable and very well behaved, but did not want to sleep even though he was puffy eyed and exhausted. I finally got him to sleep and laid him in the bassinet and he slept for 30 minutes, which was just long enough for me to fill out the customs forms. The bassinet was a great place to store stuff.

After the flight I had to carry Katie, Levi, the diaper bag, my purse, Katie's backpack, 3 sweatshirts, and a blanket down the stairs and onto the bus. Katie had one small meltdown at this point where she said she couldnt stand for me to pick her up. When I told her if she stayed on the plane shoudl would be stuck on it all the way back to San Diego she got up long enough for me to pick her up. It was freezing cold and of course our stroller was not gate checked.... They gave me a loaner strolled eventually since I had to drag everyone through immigration and then collect all of our bags to go through customs. Then I had no idea what my next fight was or even what airline I was on. I booked everything through Japan Airlines and figured they would give me everything in San Diego. So I was frantically messaging my mom and Dan for info and rushing around Tokyo airport pushing a huge cart with two huge suitcases, and two car seats and pulling a stroller with all my crap and kids. Katie fell asleep sitting above Levi so I had to hold her up as I pulled them so she wouldn't fall over.

on the bus. they woke up for about five minutes and conveniently fell asleep when it was time to walk :) I wanted to join them

Eventually I found out my flight and went to check in. Again I had to give up my stroller. Does no one understand that gate check means I get to take it to the gate?!?! Katie fell asleep on the floor as I had to watch them put my bags on and Levi was asleep in my arms. So again I had to carry two sleeping children and all that junk through security (que removing 53 squishes, and medicines) Katie slept on the floor at security while I did that. Drag them onto another bus and up more stairs. Thankfully the women next to us moved so the kids could lay down. Katie fell asleep first and I was so delirious that I kept twitching and waking Levi up so eventually I laid him down next to her and seat belted them in. They slept the whole way. Katie even slept through the windy landing in a seated position. I lugged them all off the plane and to baggage claim. My arms were aching. In Japan you can't meet people at baggage claim so I sent the kids through to Dan and collected all of our stuff. We got back to his room late and went to bed around midnight. Levi woke us up at 4:30 :)

My adorable sleepy kids

Now he is napping and Dan and Katie are off buying me more coke :) Then I want to visit a park or beach or something to make this journey all worthwhile. I can not believe how amazing my kids were for the entire trip. It was long and exhausting, but they were perfect angels. I am so lucky that they travel so well. Hopefully we figure out how to live on this strange base and I am brave enough to drive off base. (I drove off base twice in the three years that we lived in Iwakuni)

We have taken over Dan's neat room. Que Chaos!!!