Flights

All checked in and ready to board that plane for our long flight back to the US. We checked 9 bags - all of which were jam-packed full! (Why do we have so much stuff??) We took one last photo in the Frankfurt airport - not sure when we'll be back again.


Flight to the US went well - although in the beginning the kids were cranky and fighting over who got to sit where. We had a whole row (except for one window seat) and yet it seemed like each kid wanted to sit by mommy (I'm so loved) or by a window, or in the middle and not on the end...good grief! We finally got the seating figured out and then I realize that the two video screens in front of my seat and Silas's seat aren't working - GREAT! It will be a long flight not being able to watch a movie (or two or three). Soon after takeoff they served us breakfast - the person in front of Shane decided right off the bat to recline his seat ALL the way back - and drift off to sleep. Shane couldn't barely eat his breakfast due to having NO room. I'm surprised Shane could even watch a movie because the seat was reclined so far back. Fortunately things started looking up about 3 hours into the flight. Shelby drifted off to sleep - as did Silas. While looking at the broken video screens I realized that I could see some things faintly on the screen in front of Silas and so tried some buttons to see if any channel was better - I then figured out that the brightness button was all the way on low - therefore causing a black screen. And on the screen in front of me the brightness was all the way turned up - therefore causing the screen to be almost white. Apparently when Silas first sat down he messed with all the buttons and I didn't realize what he had done. Easily fixable - we now could watch some movies! The rest of the flight went fine without further incidents - just a lot of trips to the bathroom (must be all the ice and pop the kids were drinking) - fortunately we were in the 3rd to last row - so had easy access to the toilets!

Claiming our luggage, going through customs, and rechecking our luggage in Chicago went well - having to wait in line for about 40 minutes to go through security again wasn't so much fun. But we made our connecting flight and had no delays - so of this we were grateful. We were so ready to be done with this long trip! Here are the kids and daddy on our small flight (we had the whole back of the plane to ourselves)!

Its good to be back in the US - and we are glad we don't have to make that long trip again - at least for awhile :)