Part 4 ...Our Last Flight

Josh had to do some briefings after lunch so the kids and I took a nap at the hotel ....4-5hr nap! The jet lag plus mother nature caught up with me. I tried so hard to get up after 1hr when Josh returned but my eyes wouldn't stay open.
The next day we had our flight at noon to Chiang Mai and was taken directly to our new house. I couldn't wait to be there and not living out of the suitcase. There were things everywhere! It's so hard to be organized when living out of suitcases.

 The signs all around were in Thai but sometimes they would have English to make it easy on some people.

Cameron got a Minute Maid Orange with Mango Juice.
Emma also got a Minute Maid.

 Emma came down with a fever the morning of our flight and was Daddy's little girl most of the day.

While we waited for our plane to arrive, the kids had fun viewing all the different size airplanes.  Kyle has learned the word "airplane".  He has also started to talk more words during our trip to Asia and signs words.  It's cute.  I love this age!

The 1hr flight to Chiang Mai was a breeze. When we landed for the last time, we collected all our luggage and was greeted with warm welcomes and smoke in the air by Josh's coworkers. Burning of the rice fields all over Asia has settled in Chiang Mai. It's not as bad as the smoke we get in Paradise, CA.  As we were driven to our new home, we were able to view some of the Thai culture.  Cameron kept asking about the "tuk-tuks" and Emma was excited to see Elephants.  I was surprised of the large home that was rented for us and the kids were running around finding their rooms while I locked a couple of the bathrooms.  Did I mention that we have 6?!

 Me and my boys on the Chiang Mai flight.  They don't call it an airplane.  It's an airbus :-)

 The view of Chiang Mai as we landed.

 One of our downstairs bathrooms and the entrance into the house with Emma in the entryway.

 This is Cameron's room and he has decided to decorate it with dragons we will get here in Thailand.

 This is Emma's room.  It was Kyle's for a couple weeks but know he is in the room with double twins because of the darker curtains.  We have also put his mattress on the floor until his crib/toddler bed is delivered at the end of April.

Bangkok, Thailand

We landed into the tropical new land late in the night and was welcomed by Josh's coworker. We were so turned around from our heads to our toes with the flying and time changes. I was surprised that we could walk. After getting our bags, going through customs with pictures of our tired faces, changing currency, and then meeting up with our driver we were on our way through the city to the hotel and the call of soft beds.
After giving the kids some herbs to help them sleep, we headed to bed not awaiting the early rise in about 4hrs to head to the American Embassy. Oh the fun of traveling. I did sleep well and was surprised when I didn't need to use the energy drink that I purchased at the airport. The processing into the country and the Embassy was a breeze because of my husband's wonderful organizational skills.
The kids and I returned to our wonderful hotel to eat breakfast and entertain ourselves with much need naps and TV. Yes, that is a picture of the entrance into our hotel. It diffidently was not a Motel 6. :-) You needed to use your room key to push your floor in the elevator. The kids loved taking turns. The hotel helped remind us to drink lots of complimentary water, not the tap water.
After a little tour of the local mall and some lunch by his coworker, we returned again to the hotel for more sleep.

Part 3 ... Asia

Most of the pictures that I took on the flight are on my dead phone. I will upload those soon. Before I continue our story of flying half way around the world, I wanted to post pictures of our moving week in Florida. Enjoy!

The landing into Tokyo was good and uneventful until we went all the way through security and to our connecting flight to Bangkok. I went to get some toys our of our backpack only to realized that it was no where to be found! With all the kids, carry-ons and carseat, we left a backpack in the overhang of the DC flight. :-( It had the laptop, Scentsy Buddies, new kid headphones, sippy cups (not sure if they had anything in them), and toys. All in a brand new iKEA backpack. Josh went back through security to find that they already cleaned the plane. We waited until the last person boarded our connecting flight, in hopes that the bag would be found and brought to our flight only to be disappointed. To make it worse, Kyle got so worked up on take off that he threw up on me. I was glad when he fell asleep in my lap.

Part 2 ...The Flights

The kids and I had gone over the flight schedule a couple times and had even drawn a map of the world with the numerous planes we would fly on. We started the LONG flight adventure with the 2 carts of stacked luggage, 3 children in pajamas, 2 car seats, and 3 carry-ons. We pretended to look like pros with our passports in hand 3 hours before our flight to DC and no crying children. After about 45min in line (that's getting military priority), we were able to make it to the counter. We tagged every piece of luggage and verified our tickets prior to going through security. Our flight from Orlando to DC was nice and uneventful. Now the 14hr flight from DC to Toyko is a different story. Let's start with the good and work from there. We were planning to pay for the movies and TV or have the children watch movies on our laptop. We had prepared with child headphones, but were surprised to find out that the movies and TV was endless and at no cost. Awesome! The children, mostly the 2 little ones, slept half of the time. Our flight took us over Canada and the snow covered ice. (I have a couple pictures through the windows that I will post later). Per advice from my good friend, Jill Pierce, we walked and drank lots of water during the flight. It helped. While flying over Alaska and walking Kyle around, he got sick in the aisle infront of the bathrooms. Luckly the person in the seat next to it was asleep and I was able to clean up most of it with the club soda the attendent gave me.
I'm surprised the children have let me type this long and are very quiet which means that I will need to continue our flight adventure another time. Until then.....

The Start of Our Move ...part 1

Because of the transition to a new country and whole new time zone, I've been delayed (prolonging) updating our blog. I've finally decided to sit myself down while the banana bread is in the oven and share as much as I can before the timer dings, the kids interupt, or I run out of things to say about our adventure. :-) Pictures to follow later.
To start, we were able to hire cleaners prior to our house inspection. It was a blessing that I recommend to everyone. No stress of cleaning the toliets (which I truely hate), fogging up your kitchen with oven cleaner, or on your hands and knees getting out the small stains in the carpets. I got word that the base child development center would be willing to watch all my three children for 3 days while we got paperwork and packers together. I was able to do lunch with friends, shop, and relax ...I mean, organize the packing of boxes and work my tushie off getting things ready for Thailand ;-).
With the keys handed over and our very clean vehicle in the hands of the shipping company ...oh, that's a whole story to tell, too. The day before driving our Explorer to Orlando for the shipping our wonderful friend and neighbor told us a personal story of their vehicle shipping experience. In all, they had to get the car detailed twice. We were just going to run ours through the car wash and vacuum here and there. Glad she said something. I made some calls and was able to drop off the car that night with a promise that it would be dry and ready for pickup the next afternoon "shipment ready". I dropped off Josh to the detailers and noticed that our vehicle was still not ready with all the doors open. We were curious to why this was and asked. They said that they shampooed the carpets that morning and it was still wet! Word to the wise, vehicle shipping companys do not allow carpets to be dirty let alone wet at drop off. The detailers went to work drying the carpets by turning on our car engine and blasting the heaters! When Josh saw this he notified them that he could do that himself while driving the 1hr drive to Orlando. This is just what he did, in the 95* Florida weather. ...Back to the main story.
With that minor drama behind us, we said our goodbyes... more than once with tears of joy and sadness. This has been our longest station and we have grown very attached to some very special people. Continue in part 2!

Last American Valentines

My sweet husband surprised me with a full day at the local spa the day after Valentine's. I was in heaven! He took the day off to watch the kids and dropped me off at the spa at 9:30am. I started with a tour of the relaxing place and slipped into a robe for my massage. Everywhere I turned I was being asked if I would like something to eat or drink. It was nice to be waited on without doing a thing.
So, the massage was 60mins. I believe the only part of my body that didn't experience tention releaf was my teeth. I was then excorted to a seating area with little muffins and water with the TV blazing a fireplace ... we're in FLorida, that's the best you will get with the heat we have been experiencing this year. :-) I was called back to get my Euro-facial which was wonderful and included more massaging of the arms, neck, shoulders and, of course, the face. I understand now why celebs hold themselves up for weeks at a time in places like these.
By than my stomach was making noices which I believe the staff heard because I was escorted into a palor room where my chicken salad and water were waiting for me. It was nice to eat quietly and not need to help others with food and clean up for a change. Do they do room and board here, I thought. Just kidding.
I decided to relax in the sauna before my pedi and mani but didn't believe I had time so I relaxed in the shower with no yelling of Mommy at the door and washed all the lotions and oils from my very relaxed body. With more water in my body I was escorted to a bubbling tub of water for my toes and, yes, more massaging while I sat. While my toes soaked, my fingers were massaged and then dotted with pampering and some polish. When was the last time I painted my nails, I wondered. Next was my toes with more massaging up to my knees. Sheer heaven! I didn't want to move afterwards but my hair was screaming for some attention that they would get next.
I have to say I wasn't very impressed with the stylist but I wasn't in a complaining mood. They must have that planned. :-) I did get a good wash and dry with a straightening of my untamed hair. When I finally stepped out of heaven and into my waiting vehicle, my little daughter looked at me and said "Mommy, you are beautiful. I love your hair." What a great way to end the day. Thank you, Honey! You have earned mucho brownie points from this blessed wife.