The Journey Begins!

The day had come! We were leaving for TWO years! The longest I've ever gone without seeing my family has been 3 months! TWO years? Of course some of them are planing to come for a visit, but I'm sure not every 3 months! I realize that being a military family and still being able to say the longest I've gone not seeing my family is 3 months makes me extremely fortunate! I suppose in some peoples eyes, even wanting to see my family that often makes me fortunate! I am pretty lucky! They are a pretty great bunch of people! We are all going to miss home and everything and everyone that comes with it, A LOT.

Our flight out of Kansas City wasn't until the evening. I was hoping to have everything done so that our last day could be spent relaxing and visiting. But just like the last 3 weeks, it was an extremely busy day. All of our bags were still not packed, I kept finding things that needed to be added. I needed to change our address, notify the bank, turn off our cell phones, pick up the last of our mail from our old address. The list just kept getting longer. But just in time to leave for the airport we got everything done and started our goodbyes. I'm not one to show much emotion, ever, over anything. I don't know why, I just don't. So I really wasn't expecting the tears to start falling, but they did. Non the less, we, and our convoy assisting in luggage transportation, made it to the airport with just enough time to get checked in, say more goodbyes and make it through security just as they were making the last boarding call. More tears fell and I think I told my mom goodbye no less than 20 times!

Getting ready to check in! 

12 checked bags, 6 carry ons, 3 car seats and a stroller!

Yes, that is A LOT of bags! We were authorized two additional bags on top of the number the airline allowed free....which is 5 on Alaskan Air for military traveling on orders. That means we could have checked 35 bags? Trust me when I say, we couldn't have made it with a single additional bag! Our first flight was only to Seattle. We had to claim and recheck all of these, without our families help! And check them again the next morning. 

 

The flight to Seattle was only 4 hours. Normally, a 4 hour flight with three kids would sound like a nightmare to me. But since I knew what was coming the next day....all I could think was shoot, 4 hours, this is going to be a breeze! And luckily it was! It was both Addley and Tracker's first time flying. Addley was pretty excited, of course Tracker is happy with whatever! Tracker had missed his nap, so he passed out pretty quickly after take off. The excitement and people watching was enough to keep Addley content. Carter kept himself busy with the iPad. Greatest gadget ever in my opinion! (Even if I don't get to use it.) I tried to get a nap in while Tracker was napping, but they served drinks and immediately after, dinner. Then of course nap time was over! We just played and snacked the rest of the flight. It wasn't until the last hour or so, the "Are we there yet"s, started. We arrived in Seattle around 7:30 local time, so it was 9:30 for us, which meant an hour and half past bed time. But the 'real' fun was just about to begin!

Where's Carter? (Kind of like 'Where's Waldo?') Not the best picture, but you sort of get the idea. 

Two adults are no match for 18 bags, 3 car seats, 1 stroller and 3 kids! Before we left Kansas City I had called and talked to the USO at the Seattle airport. I was about 60% sure if we could find the USO, we could find someone to help us with our bags. I also knew that they had a storage area where we could leave our bags overnight, so we wouldn't have to take them to the hotel and back to the airport. (The lady on the phone wasn't all that helpful!) By the time we gathered and piled up all our luggage, the only carts around where very small. We would have needed way to many.(And they were $5/ea, CrAzY!) So Austin and Carter watched over the bags and Addley, Tracker and I went and found the USO. They had HUGE, FREE carts and a sweet old woman helped me take the carts to the bags and showed us where we needed to take them to be stored overnight. Even though the carts were HUGE we still piled them to the top and had 3! It was insane! We finally made it to our hotel around 9:30. We ordered room service and grabbed showers, repacked our bags and got to bed around midnight. (2:30 am our time!) WE WERE EXHAUSTED! 

We had to be back at the airport to collect our luggage from the USO storage facility at 2:30 am so we could be checked in for our flight by 3 am. The second flight was not a commercial flight, It was a MAC flight, you know...

.....LOL. I'm kidding, I'm kidding!!!  It was a MAC flight, but not like ^ this! It was a commercial plane, just not commercially ran. The two hours of sleep we got before heading back to the airport was not NEAR enough, but I got the heads up from the USO lady that we could come check in for our flight and return to our hotel until boarding time. (Which was 8 am....that's right 8 am....we had to check in 5 hours early!!! Don't ask, because I don't know why!) 

The boys weren't feeling the 2 am wake up call at all! But we all had to be there in person to check in....I checked!!!

When we got to the airport it was completly empty...until we got to our gate! The line was SUPER long, and Austin and I looked like crazy people. I was pushing one cart and pulling another and carrying Tracker in the ERGO. Austin was pushing another cart and Carter and Addley were doing their best to keep up with LOTS of encouragement! They were troopers though! We were all SO tired! Just as we made our way to the end of the line, a ticketing agent approached us and said that the family line was on the other side of the huge mass of people! We hadn't noticed because there was only one family waiting!!! I was SO happy!!!! It was around 4:30 when we finished checking our bags. We didn't have much time, but even 30 min of sleep sounded good to me! We went straight back to the hotel and right back to sleep! 

Tracker hailing our shuttle back to the hotel!