We arrived safely in Brisbane on Tuesday, July 7th. It was a day later than planned but we are, nevertheless, so happy to be in Australia! We are busy getting settled and preparing for school for the kids, but let me start from the beginning of our saga to get here.
Saturday: We left home around 12:30 pm, with the help of the Prusts who drove the rest of our luggage that didn't fit into our rented minivan. We got to the airport and checked in and through security by 1:30 pm. Our flight to Dallas was to leave at 3:15 pm. We got to the gate and waited, and waited... The flight was first delayed an hour because it was late getting in, and then an undetermined amount of time due to mechanical issues. We were scheduled to catch a connecting flight to LA out of Dallas at 6:30 pm. Needless to say, we didn't make that flight. We finally left Des Moines around 5 pm and got into Dallas around 6:30 pm. The later flight to LA were booked and we didn't make it on that either. We had to leave the airport and catch a shuttle to the Marriott, after we spend some time trying to get rerouted with an agent. We got to the hotel around 9 pm and we ate dinner in the hotel lobby. By this point, Mike has lost all patience, and we're all tired. We went upstairs after that and went to bed. Of course, we couldn't go to bed without some more drama. Lucas realizes he no longer has his case for his Nintendo with all his games and charger in it. We try to call the airport where we were sitting with no luck. We don't find it the next morning when we go back either.
Sunday: We get to the Dallas airport around 9:15 am for our flight to Tokyo, Japan at noon. Yes, Japan... It's a 13 hour flight there. Then we have a 6 hour layover, then another 9 hour flight to Brisbane. It's a long-ass 28 hours! This route added about 4 to 5 hours of flying time to our original plan.
Tuesday: We arrived in Brisbane at 7:00 am. Yes, there was no Monday for us. Just when we thought nothing else could go wrong, we can't find our luggage... and by "we," I mean us and the airline folks. So we had to leave the airport with just our carry-ons and the dirty clothes on our backs. (Luckily we had one change of clothes and was able to change in Dallas.)
All in all, the kids traveled great considering all the drama. They slept a total of about 6 hours during that 28 hour period. They stayed up until 7:30 pm on Tues. night and woke up around 5am on Wed. Wed, they went to bed around 8 pm and got up around 5:30. Last night they went to bed around 8 and got up this morning at 6:30. They are now just about on track.
It was nice to be able to drive straight to the house when we arrived. The rental furniture was already delivered, as well as the stuff Mike brought over on his previous trips. When we got out of the cab in our driveway, the first thing that Jonah noticed was the lorikeets chirping in the tree. We walked into the house and opened the sliding doors and looked out at the view and finally relaxed. We were home.
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