Outr trek to Germany was a long one...

I found a space-a flight to Germany on Saturday night out of Washington DC, and it was the ONLY flight to Germany I had seen in over 10 days.  I had no other option but to make it work.  This flight was going to be a commercial flight, contracted by the military, through a commercial airline, that would have flight attendants, movies, food, etc.  YAY!!!  Although, I had packed for a flight on a C-17; lots of food, drinks, blankets, movies, etc.  I was also going to be able to carry much more on the C-17 than a commercial flight, so Thursday night I went to bed late after repacking our suitcases for this new flight.

Upon waking up Friday morning, I tried my best to “hop to” and get everything done and packed in the car for our six hour drive to DC.  My goal was to leave by 9am.  By 8:30, there was a knock on the door.  I was nowhere near ready to go, let alone have a visitor.  I peeked out the window.  It was my adorable, sweet friend and neighbor, Beth.  I opened the door as she walked in, kicked off her shoes and said to me “all right, what still needs to be done?  I’m ready.”  It took a few minutes for me to get over the weird asking-her-to-do-something-for-me feeling, but I did.  I could not have made it out the door by 9:30, like we did, without her help.  Seconds before she had arrived, I had considered just waiting until the afternoon to take off.  So glad I didn’t.  (thank you, Beth – I can’t say that enough)

I had been Negative Nancy the whole day prior, trying to be “realistic” about how the drive and flight were going to go. Emerson is a horrible traveler, Lorelai was bound to have to stop for a potty break the second Emerson fell asleep.  The weather would be bad, and so on and so on.  It wasn’t until I stopped thinking of all the real-world possible scenarios, and started praying that I’d have a flexible attitude and happy heart that it all calmed down for me.  The drive to DC was actually pleasant.  The girls got along, for the most part, and watched movies or we rolled down the windows and sang loudly.  Upon arriving in DC, the girls were definitely ready to get out and shake off the sillies.  Good thing we were at Shannon’s and Jeff’s house.  They have three daughters; 5, 3 and 4 months. We haven’t seen them since right after Charlotte was born, but Lorelai and Emerson acted as though they saw them yesterday.  They quickly got down to princess business and started dressing up and destroying their toy room. 

Shannon made cupcakes and had little presents for Emerson’s birthday.  We had a little birthday party, and that was SO appreciated.  Jeff grilled us some bratwursts for dinner, and the girls played until we had to force them to go to bed.  I am still not sure how Natalie, Amelia and Lorelai slept in the same bedroom that night without a peep.  Must have been worn out!  The next morning, we did a little Easter egg hunt at their church and had lunch before nap time.  We ordered pizza and finished packing the car back up just in time for us to take off to the airport.

Shannon and Jeff live about an hour from the airport, Shannon rode with us so she could take the van back to her house while we’re gone.  My bad attitude resumed as I thought of all the things that could go wrong.  Shannon was quick to put me in my place and bring my blood pressure back down.

I’ll cover all my space-a  experiences in a separate blog, but just as packing the day before with Beth, I couldn’t have gotten through the lines and into security without Shannon’s help.  I’m so grateful!  Although, she’d probably tell you that I was more of a handful than the girls were!

Sure, there were lines, delays and hiccups along the way, but those had nothing to do with the fact that I was flying space-a, it was because we flew internationally.  It was, by no means, my favorite trip, but we got here for $48.03.  How often can you say that!?  I bet no couponer has ever boasted an estimated savings of $3,950!

The egg hunt was separated by ages, so I had to stay with Emerson, therefore only got pictures of her.  She barely collected any eggs.  She would open them, take the candy and drop the egg.  Smart kid!

 Cupcakes that our friend, Shannon, made for Emerson's birthday - she did more than I did!  whoops

 In the car, on the way to DC - she was so excited, thought we were in Germany already .... that gave me a clue as to how hard the next 48 hours were going to be!  ha ha

Minus Charlotte, here are the youngest to oldest; Emerson, Amelia, Lorelai and Natalie.