Leaving on a Jet Plane

Sunday July 25th & Monday July 26th

Made it to Germany. Kids did awesome on the plane. Left Tampa 1:30 pm on Sunday. Made it to Munich 6:30 am on Monday morning. 11 ½ hours on a plane with a 5 year old and a 21 month old. They did awesome!

My mom dropped us off at the airport. We managed a mostly tear free goodbye. Caelyn was so distracted by everything else going on that she didn’t really have time to be upset about leaving. She was very excited about going to Germany to see daddy but she did not want to leave her extended family and friends.

We got to the airport, got all of our luggage checked, and ate a quick snack while waiting for the gate agent to get to the gate. They hadn’t assigned our seats because the tickets were ordered so late. They didn’t have three seats available together. They had to ask for volunteers to switch seats. Luckily someone volunteered. I’m thinking it is because they didn’t want to sit next to the kiddos. LOL. Mom had decided it was a good idea to let Eli out of the stroller so that they could “run” off some of their energy.

As we boarded the flight my hands were full carrying stuff so Eli was walking. I told him to follow Caelyn and I was letting Caelyn know where she needed to go. Eli decided to take a tour of the Cockpit. He said hi to all of the pilots. After I finally coxed him out of the cockpit. He turned and started walking down the aisle. We made it to the first row of the first class section. He stopped and looked around then took a few steps backwards and climbed up in one of the first class seats. Not, this time buddy. We finally coaxed him back to our seats.

Flight from Tampa to Washington Dullus Airport was uneventful until we landed. After taxing back to the terminal the plane stopped. It had started raining. Pilot come over the speaker and said that we would have to wait out the “storm”. It was barely drizzling. But it was the airlines policy to wait 10 minutes after the last lightening strike before we could continue to the gate. I think lightening kept striking at the 9 ½ minute mark. We sat there for close to 1 ½ hours and I never saw a single lightening strike. We originally had two hours between the flights.

When we finally got off the plane (no easy feat with two kids, car seat, and three carry on’s) one short bathroom trip. We had to practically run to the next gate. Our connecting gate was on the opposite end of the airport, of course. I kept telling Caelyn that we really had to hurry. About the 10^th time I said that to her she stopped and looked at me and said, “Mommy, I am going as fast as I can. How many times to I have to tell you that?” But she did really good keeping up. We weren’t quite running to the next gate but it was pretty close.

So glad that I decided to switch stroller’s at the last minute. We had a double stroller that Caelyn had out grown but I deiced to take it to help carry the baggage. It worked perfectly.

When we finally made it to the gate they were already boarding the last section of the plane. We had to get our seat assignments switched because they had us all in different rows, no where near each other. We ended up getting moved to economy “plus”. Yay for extra leg room. We boarded the plane. Caelyn carrying her back pack, Eli following her… when he felt like it, and me carrying a diaper bag, my purse, and my carry on all on my back and with my other hand carry the car seat down the aisle trying not to give everyone in an aisle seat a concussion in the process. I barely had time to get the kids in the seat and push the bags under the seats and they were already closing the doors. Eli decided that he had had enough of his car seat. So I ended up holding him most of the flight or he was playing on the floor between my legs. I kept him barricaded in. Somehow playing hide and seek with a one year old on a plane full of sleeping people not really my idea of fun.

They ended up opening the doors again to let some more people on who were delayed because of the weather. I figure if I could make it from the other side of the airport with two kids they should have been able to make it as well. But we still ended up getting to Munich a few minutes early anyway. The kids only slept for about an hour each. The last hour on the plane. They woke up just as we were getting ready to land. I figured with only an hour sleep I would have two cranky kiddos on my hands but they were still great.

Again we were on the opposite side of the airport from where we needed to be. Getting our passports stamped was uneventful except they decided to put metal post every of couple of feet in front of the doors. They were about two inches closer together than the stroller with all the stuff on it was wide. So I had to juggle pushing the stroller and holding the cars seat and bags to get it though the bars. A very nice older couple grabbed the car seat and bags so that I could push Eli though without dropping everything.

We made it to the baggage claim. Since it was an international flight Ryan couldn’t help to get the baggage. On the stroller, Eli was in the front seat. Two car seats, Caelyn’s back pack, diaper bag, and my carry on were all piled on the back. Caelyn wheeled the small suitcase. I pushed the stroller with one hand and wheeled the large suitcase with the duffle bag on top of that. We made it though customs. There was a large crowd waiting as we came out the doors. It took Caelyn a couple of seconds to spot Ryan but she finally did. She was one happy camper.

Got to see a little of the country side as we were driving back to Hohenfels. Stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast. Very interesting. Pretty much nothing the same. Mocha Frappe not exactly what I was hoping for after a long flight. But it wasn’t that bad, just different.

Caelyn made it though both flights without getting motion sick. The same cannot be said about making it though Ryan’s driving on the Autobahn. Maybe it was because she was tired, or maybe the Dramamine had worn off, or maybe…

After getting to Hohenfels we went right to our house. Got the car unpacked. Ryan’s sergeant said that he wanted Ryan to report to work and to bring me with him. By this time I was beyond exhausted. It was all that I could do to keep my eye lids open. We had a few minutes before he had to report for work so we got a tour of the base. Base is pretty small. The training area better known as the “box” is pretty large but the rest of the base seems pretty concentrated. Ryan had to run inside to clear his room in the barracks so we stayed in the car.

I must have dozed off. I vaguely remember hearing Caelyn talk about “soldier’s laughing at me because I was a sleep” Next thing I remember I hear Ryan getting into the car. Yeah, that solider laughing was Ryan’s Company Commander. Oooops! He had wanted to come out and meet us. So Ryan brought him out to the car. But I guess he must have felt bad for me because he told Ryan to take the rest of the day off and take me home so that I could get some sleep.

We didn’t go right home because we had to grab a few groceries. Ryan decided to take me off post to a grocery store “on economy” (basically anywhere but on base). We drove though really old towns, with cobble stone streets. Beautiful!!! There will be pictures to follow another day.

Grocery shopping was an experience. First thing I’ve found that I like better here. Their shopping carts (could have just been at that one store but time will tell) The shopping cart seemed to float across the floor. You could push it with one finger. I can’t even tell you how easy it was to push sideways. Yes, you and push them directly sideways. I don’t even know how to describe it other than AWESOME! Also found a really cheap brand of diapers. It was all they had. Usually don’t buy the cheap ones because I have never had luck with them but they seem to be working great so far.

After than we when home and had lunch and then the much anticipated nap (at least anticipated by me)

We were going to have taco’s for dinner until we realized that we didn’t have a pan to cook the meat in. I was going to be all creative and inventive and crumble the meat on to aluminum foil and bake it in the oven. But Ryan talked me out of it and he ended up getting some pasta from an Italian Restaurant. Yes, I know, first night in Germany and we eat Italian food. But tacos would have been a disaster since we didn’t have table or chairs and the kids were sitting on the floor.

We managed to keep the kids up until their normal bed time. So we basically got them adjusted to the time change in one day.