366 Project: Week Twenty-Four

We have been back in the States for a week now, and it has already been a wild ride. Car broke down. Renters won't leave. Baby doesn't sleep. To say we're in survival mode is an understatement. We're trying to figure out how we'll get to Texas in a few short weeks. Where we'll live once we arrive. What (specific) jobs we'll have when we get there. How we'll sell our house. When we'll work on it. When the renters will be ousted by the sheriff. All of this with little sleep and a kid who is struggling with all of the changes in his life. It ain't pretty. Nonetheless, here's a recap...

162/366: The "luggage shuffle" took us nearly an hour, but we made it to the bus stop with all 12 bags and 4 backpacks with 6 minutes to spare! And except for our grouchy bus driver who assumed we had other options for getting all of our bags to the airport, this was been one of the easiest airport trips ever. Our check-in was easier than ever, and we had plenty of time to run around and get energy out since our flight was delayed an hour. It was a pretty good flight, too, since we took off at bedtime and the kids slept for most of it!

163/366: Of course, we re-lived the 10th, which meant we had time for dinner with my family before we headed to Eric's mom's on the 11th. The drive was pretty stressful in our car that was barely running and without working phones, but we made it, and we enjoyed the blue skies!

164/366: Good riddance to this thing. It served its purpose by getting us and all of our stuff around last summer, but now it's time to go.

165/366: Poor Cade went much of the year with tennis shoes that were falling apart. It was bad. And embarrassing. We were all pretty excited to get the kids some new shoes!

166/366: This kid is still barely sleeping. Not sleeping by himself. Not napping well. Screaming when we try to put him down. Waking for hours in the middle of the night. So, it's been important to keep him moving outside in the evenings to get him a little closer to a reasonable bedtime. Especially if it means I have to go to bed with him. I'll be glad when this phase is over!

167/366: Eric, Reece, and I spent a long day driving up north to get Dad's truck so that we have something to drive for awhile. The day was full of extreme ups (a fun lunch and afternoon with Travis and Tasha!) and downs (showing up at our house to discover we're locked out). It ended with a drive (by myself!) under cotton candy clouds that I couldn't keep my eyes off and another night cuddled up with my toddler (who no longer sleeps unless he's touching me). Every day has its challenges, but we survived another one.

168/366: Thursday morning was spent stressing about my interview, only to find out that they were going to have to re-schedule. As it turned out, I was able to just take a call from the department head while everyone else headed down to Tolmie Beach. It was a good conversation, and now, aside from trying to get rid of the Expedition, we have a couple of days to relax before really getting to work on Monday. So, an afternoon at the beach was the perfect way to unwind. Followed by a growler from the local brewery, of course!

This week, we're fitting in some family time, as well as getting to work on the outside of the house, so some fun followed by a lot of work! We will certainly appreciate your continued prayers as we deal with everything!

Things We're Not Going to Miss

So, at this point in the year, with roughly six weeks left here in Korea, it's safe to say that emotions are running high. Kennedy had many, many breakdowns over the weekend--some more easily explained than others--and as Eric and I watched the calendar fill up, it got real for us, too. Suddenly, I feel like every conversation is more nostalgic than the last. Everything has a bit more of a "last" feeling than it did a month ago. One day it feels like six weeks will fly by in a blink, and the next day it feels like time is standing still. Of course, we all feel like this at some point, but this year it feels like it's on a grand scale. And so, it felt like it was time to put together a little post on some of the things from this life that we're not going to miss...(in no particular order)

1. Apartment life: there is no getting around it. We do not love apartment life. And to be honest, we've had it pretty good. We lived for four years on the first floor--praise God! Because the last year of living with upstairs and downstairs neighbors? It hasn't helped my graying hair any. Trying to keep the kids semi-quiet in the mornings is torture. Listening to construction, and couples fighting, and kids screaming at all hours from upstairs is miserable. Just as we make our downstairs neighbors miserable (minus the construction). The in-apartment announcements are more rare in this complex, thankfully, but they still wake Reece up every time they happen, and since I can't understand what's being said anyway, it's just annoying. Having to go up ten flights every time you need to get something out of the car can be infuriating. When you forget something minor, trust me, you just leave it.

2. Cars and driving: I could probably break this up into about four categories of their own, but instead I'll just make it one long one. I'm so sick of incredibly tiny parking spaces and not being able to open car doors. I go out of my way to find spots where we can open the doors on the driver's side (and therefore Reece's car seat is on that side, too), only to get out and discover that there's a post blocking Reece's door! Agh! Parking lots in general are annoying because whatever the floor is coated in, makes for extremely loud noises when cars are backing in to spaces (because that's what you do--always); it's just one of those noises that grates on your nerves. Secondly, The fact that streets are intended to be two way, but they are lined with parked cars on either side, leaving space for only one direction of traffic are infuriating! The way I weave in and out of parked cars is enough to make me carsick! And then there are the intersections with no rules. What would be a four way stop in the States is just an intersection with no stop signs. You just inch forward until there's space to make a break for it. And if you don't do it quickly enough? You'll get honked at, of course. Whatever you do--don't yield! Lastly, there are the motorcycles that use sidewalks as a street, and the cars parked on the sidewalks, so that there isn't room for any pedestrians at all, let alone those pushing a stroller!

3. Air quality: I gripe about this one all.the.time, so I won't go into it, but I'm really excited to live in a place where I don't have to check the air quality before sending the kids outside, opening a window, or figuring out our plans for the day. Sure, weather affects all of those things, but I'm pretty accepting of that. What I can't stand is when you have the perfect weather (for whatever activity you're hoping for--namely biking at this point), and have to alter your plans because it's not healthy to be doing any sort of athletic activity outside. Yuck.

4. The smells: I'm pretty sure this one pertains to any foreign place you visit; they're just not the smells you're used to. Here, it tends to smell like sewage from time to time (where I grew up, it smelled like manure quite often!), garbage is another regular smell (see #6), and another one of the perks of apartment life is smelling what everyone else is cooking. So I could be baking cookies, but the neighbor is caramelizing onions. There are several Indian families who live here, and if you're not already aware, Indian food has a strong smell! (Though I'll admit it comes from our place about once a month, too.) Koreans smell like kimchi, cigarette smoke, or perfume (which seems to always be flowery--not one of my favorites), and so the elevator often smells like one of those or all of them, combined with some food garbage. Lovely. (ps: Koreans think Americans smell like butter and cheese--and apparently that's a problem for them! Can you imagine?)

5. City noise: Another given. And also not exclusive to Korea, of course, but I am just so sick of living in the city and being overstimulated by noise noise noise all the time. Sirens, honking, traffic, singing, music, dogs barking, babies crying, noise in the hallways, the noise from the elevator/stairwell (though it's a million times better in this apartment!), neighbors arguing. Give me all the cows and chickens. I'm so done with city life!

6. Garbage: This is one of those things that we've gotten used to, but we definitely won't miss! All of the trash sorting, the special garbage bags, having a closet full of recycle (at least you can't see through the doors in this apartment)...we are not going to miss this! Give me a garbage can and a garage (of my own), please! The lack of garbage cans in public--so I feel like I'm always holding onto some piece of trash, or more likely, throwing it in the diaper bag. I won't miss that! In fact, it was one of the first things I wrote about when we got here. (Remember when my posts had no pictures? Sad.)

7. Messy closets: Okay. I'll admit this one is really stupid. But I'm so sick of Korean closets. There are no shelves (though again, our new apartment is vastly superior to the last in the area of closets!), and they're usually not built in. So, Kennedy has this huge wardrobe with one shelf. Our closets are a mess all the time! We've tried various ways to organize them (especially Kennedy's), but nothing works very well for long. I just can't wait for normal bedroom furniture!

8. Celebrity status: The good news is that as the kids have aged, this has become less and less of a problem. The bad news is we had another kid just as the big kids were outgrowing this. I will say that no one has handed Reece hard candy yet (knock on wood), and no one has taken their picture with him yet. Everyone still comments on how cute he is and they do like to touch him, but he's cute in any country, right?

9. Spitting, coughing, and chewing: I really probably shouldn't comment on this one. Actually, I probably shouldn't put it out there at all because it's a cultural thing, and it's their thing, and who am I to say there's something wrong with it? Yet, here I go. It just grosses me out. Koreans show their appreciation for and enjoyment of food by chewing it loudly, slurping it loudly, just plain eating loudly. It's such a part of their culture that you'll even see it on Korean dramas. It's just what they do. And it also translates to gum chewing--loud, smacky, bubbly. It gives me the chills just to think about it. I have (an older adult) friend who admitted that if her taxi driver is smacking his gum, she'll pay the 3,000 won (about 3 dollars) and get out of the cab and wait for another one because she hates it so much! And she's cheap! Spitting is also a constant among Korean men, and it's disgusting.

10. Grocery shopping: This is another one that we have just gotten used to over the course of the last five years, but I'm still not going to miss grocery shopping here. Whether it's Costco (still stressful!), E-Mart (just inconvenient), or the neighborhood store (that never has everything you need and always includes a walk uphill both ways), I'm just not going to miss it. There's always this mental battle--can I get everything I need and still be able to carry it all home? What are the rules for buying produce? What needs a sticker and what doesn't? What day/time is it? How packed is the store going to be? Do they have the international ingredients I need? Do they have the kinds of milk I need? Just this past Sunday, I drove to two different stores that were both closed before finding one that was open, but they didn't have everything I needed, and I had to park a ways away and juggle heavy bags. Nope. Not gonna miss it.

I don't really know whether or not writing out this kind of stuff is healthy at this point. As much as I have been reading about repatriation, I am confident that I'm not doing all of the prep work "right"; we're still going to have a mess of a family to put back together in the coming year. But, I know that this article cracked me up (as poorly as it was written...poor guy writing in a second language), and I know that there are going to be days when it seemed like life in Korea was easy--way easier than life in Texas is at the moment--and I'm going to need things like this to look back on. I'm going to need that validation that life was not always easy here, just as life will not always be easy there. Life just isn't easy. Anywhere. But, boy, the grass is always greener, isn't it?

(I thought these pictures of the beautiful sunset in Guam might calm me as I wrote all of this out, but it didn't really work. Or maybe it's the yelling and honking outside the window. Maybe they'll calm me when I look back on this six months from now!)

366 Project: Week Thirteen

Since I don't have time for editing and blogging these days, I'll try to provide a tad more detail on my picture descriptions this week. This was a crazy one for sure! Our good friends and neighbors asked me to help them with their kids this week because grandma, who usually watches them, is out of town. Their preschooler spends most of the day at school, so it's pretty much just their 8 month old that I have to worry about. Unfortunately, he has been hit hard by the separation anxiety bug (Reece still hasn't encountered that!), as well as a cold, and is in general not the happiest baby on the block. It has ended up being harder than I expected, but it's almost over now!

85/366: The face of a child who napped for three hours, but could have kept going. He'd fallen asleep around bedtime-ish on the plane the night before, but then had to sleep through landing, the world's longest line at Immigration, a quick trip to baggage claim and Customs, a ride on the shuttle to the long-term parking lot, a long cold walk across the parking lot, a transition into the car seat, the car ride home, and finally the transition into his bed. So, while he probably slept about 11-12 hours, it was not the same quality of sleep one would normally get! What a trooper!

86/366: One of the expat blogs that I read is called Velvet Ashes, and one of the things they're known for is their connection groups. They give women overseas who may not have a way to connect in person an opportunity to do so with other women in similar situations. Obviously, we have a huge expat community here, and so I'd never felt too much push to join, but this time around, with transition looming, I thought it might be a good way to force myself to process it, rather than ignore it. My friend, Malia (left), suggested it, and I happened to be put in a group with Emily (center) who was in Malia's group the last time she participated. As it happened, Emily made a quick trip to Seoul last weekend, so we all had dinner together.

87/366: My focus is way off on this one, but I haven't had time to edit photos, so, here it is. We had a nice quiet Easter, and Reece thoroughly enjoyed his first Easter egg hunt, in spite of Cade stealing most of the eggs that were within his reach.

88/366: It turned out to be a rough week to have another baby around. Both boys are sick, and Reece hasn't really eaten since before we left for Guam. At this point, he's down to grapes and cheese. In this picture, he wouldn't even eat grapes. And he wouldn't let go of that dog, either. Just wanted his mommy. Probably because she was holding a crying 8 month old with separation anxiety. Oof.

89/366: Day two of two babies didn't go much better. At this point, if one started crying, then the other one started crying. Reece couldn't stay awake past 9:30 in the morning, which meant they were both awake at the same time most of the day, too, which is a problem when everyone is crying. Reece spent a fair amount of time getting as close to the front door as possible without actually turning his back on the "evil" baby.

90/366: There's a story behind this mug, but at this point, I was simply documenting the fact that I only had to reheat my coffee three times before I actually got to drink it. And that was a sign of how much better our day was going. Success in my book.

91/366: This was--by far--our best day of the week. Both boys were in pretty good moods, even though Elliot didn't nap as much as he normally would. And, even though Owen's bus broke down and we stood outside waiting for it for quite a while before his dad called to say he would have to come get him and take him to school. The day wasn't perfect, but a huge improvement over the first couple of days!

I'm sad that I didn't the monthly collage done, since it would have been perfect with the month ending at the end of my thirteenth week, but considering there were probably only about 10 pictures taken with the real camera this month, it was more labor than I was up for tonight.

This weekend, I am off to a retreat with about 20 other women from school at one of nastiest retreat centers in Seoul. Oh, does that sound negative? Well, it has been almost five years since I've been there, so maybe it's improved. Or maybe it will just look a lot better since I don't have kids in tow. Either way, I'm going to try to get some editing done during our "craft" time because editing is about as crafty as I get these days, but without internet, the blog will remain quiet for just a bit longer. (I know. I keep saying that. One of these days!) And now, I must get some sleep, because I still have one more day with these two, and they keep me busy!

5 Signs that You're the Mother of a Toddler who Doesn't STTN

In honor of my dear son's nearly 15 months of life, I thought I would share these fun thoughts that have been with me as I continue to get up several times a night with our sweet Reece. (she writes with a hint of sarcasm)

If you are the mother of a toddler who doesn't sleep through the night...

5. You keep a sweatshirt by your bed for all of your late night wakeups when the house is freezing. On a really bad night, you don't even bother to take it off between trips into the baby's room because you know that you won't get a chance to get warm in bed.

4. You still "sleep when the baby sleeps," though you used to be of the belief that rule expired around baby's 6th month. Now, you know that rule doesn't expire until the "baby" sleeps through the night regularly.

3. You know that in the middle of the night, your refrigerator makes noises that sound like the baby when he first starts to stir. Yet, every time you hear it, your heart skips a beat because it's fooled you yet again.

2. On the rare occasion that the baby does sleep all night, you still don't sleep well because you're worried that maybe he's not breathing. There has to be a reason that he hasn't woken you up yet!

1. You don't allow your husband to actually go into the baby's room at night, for fear that he might mess up your "system" (though it is already obviously a failure), but you won't allow him to sleep as long as you're up, either.

I'm sure you have thoughts of your own to add! And, I hope you enjoyed these shots from the Museum of Flight in Seattle last winter that in no way relate to sleep!

National Museum...revisited

Oh man. I swear, I just blogged. It might take me awhile to get back to blogging twice a week! I sit down and feel like I have nothing to say. And then, I get to the end and realize I'd better stop writing or I'm going to have to go find more pictures. #bloggerproblems

I'm also struggling a bit with re-structuring my day with Reece only napping once now. I haven't given up entirely yet. I did get him to take a short afternoon nap a couple of days ago, but it's not consistent, and I'm struggling with when and how to get things done now. As soon as I sit down and try to figure out something reliable, he'll change something in the routine, so we're just gonna wing it for a bit longer.

By the third week of winter break, we were on our third round of sickness. Reece was healthy for five days maybe before another nasty cold got him down. There was a lot of snot, a lot of crying, and very little sleep (either at night or during the day).

On one particularly bad day, following one particularly bad night (Reece "sleeping" with me in our bed while Eric "slept" on the couch; I may have gotten about 3 hours of sleep throughout the entire night!), Eric decided to take all of the kids on a drive so that I could take a nap. It was only about 10:00 in the morning and Reece had taken about a 15 minute nap after screaming for nearly 30 minutes. I had no patience left. Reece had a sore throat, and I think his congestion was preventing him from sleeping comfortably laying on his back. A nap in the car turned out to be perfect for him.

And it did wonders for me, too. I slept for nearly 3 hours (the equivalent of my nighttime sleep!) and was showered and dressed when they returned. So, after a quick lunch, we headed out. After all, an afternoon nap for Reece in his crib was out of the question. The stroller was the way to go.

I had been wanting to re-create a picture that I had taken of the kids on our first trip to the National Museum during our winter break of 2011-2012, and it seemed like a good afternoon for it. For some reason, that picture of the two of them looking out over the reflecting pond (top of post) has been one that's stood out in my mind. Of course, my assumption that it would be simple to reproduce four years later, now that my children are older, more mature, and follow directions well, was a little off the mark.

Simple directions like "stand in front of that wall" and "move to the left a little" were too much for two kids who were on a mission to find rocks to try and crack the ice. And then, reminiscent of the first trip, Cade suddenly had to go to the bathroom, Reece woke up cranky, and the moment was over. Nonetheless, it's evident they've grown when looking at the two pictures side by side, right? Okay. That was the goal.

After we explored a little, got a few pictures, and found a geocache outside, we headed inside for a little scavenger hunt. The children's museum was already at capacity for the day, and while Eric tried, the look-at-my-cute-white-kids routine didn't work this time around. We were forced to hang in the adult portion of the museum. However, iPhone scavenger hunts always make the mundane seem a little more exciting.

And then, because I'm that mom, I made them take a few silhouette shots on the stairs outside the museum. I'd been thinking about taking this shot for well over a year, and I'm kind of proud of myself for actually making it happen. They may not be exactly what I was picturing in my mind, but they'll do.

Now, I must finish that laundry, and do some dishes, and maybe clean the house a little, and work on the pantry, and feed Reece lunch, and...oh, we have an exciting afternoon planned! haha!

Merry Christmas!

Phew. This past week has flown by in a blur of events, crying, puking, and lack of sleep! Reece, Cade, and I have all had the flu for the past 24 hours. Reece got a cold about a week ago that's still making him a snotty mess, not to mention the fact that he's had two teeth pop through. Ack. At least that's one good reason to not be traveling in the next few days like everyone.else.we.know.

And since I have not had time to edit any other pictures, I will leave you with this. (We'd hoped to actually print and mail them this year, but alas, envelopes were not to be found! This will have to do!)

And we're back!

Well, people, we've been home a week now, and what a week it has been! You would think that after doing this for four years, we'd have things figured out by now...or that at the very least it wouldn't be this difficult. But no, it's still hard. Made harder by the fact that we expect it to be easier.

At any rate, our flight home was uneventful aside from the 17-month-old on his first transpacific flight who screamed the.entire.time. So did his mom, for that matter. I felt for them, especially when thinking about the fact that Reece will be about that age the next time we do that flight. Yikes. Our kids were troopers, though.

We were all feeling (relatively) good as we boarded the airport bus...okay, that's not actually true. Cade had a stomachache, so he and Eric raced to the bathroom as Kennedy and I (one-handed of course) tried to get all of our bags, stroller, and car seat to the bus. It wasn't pretty, but eventually everything got loaded and we took the last four seats on the bus.

You may remember that after school got out, and after our trip to Jeju, but before our flight to the States...we moved! Oh boy, was that crazy! Anyway, the point is that from our new apartment, there is a very conveniently located airport bus stop. We were all excited about how much shorter the bus ride to our new apartment would be! I figured we'd have time to grab some dinner and maybe play a quick game to keep the kids up until their regular bedtime after the naps they'd had on the bus. I knew that we were going to have to pass our stop and come back around to it because of which side of the road it was on, and Kennedy and I kept discussing where the bus would turn around after it entered our neighborhood. Unfortunately, it never turned around. Because I can't read in the car (or bus), we were nearly to the end of the route before I discovered that the bus only stops at our stop when it's on the return to the airport. Not on the way from the airport. I swear, it's always something!

Because of our neighborhood bus, I'm pretty familiar with the fact that when a bus has run it's route, the driver takes a break, so I was not surprised when he started unloading all of our stuff, even as I was trying to ask him about the stop for the Hyperion. Eric was fuming as he was trying to figure out how we were all going to get home with all.of.this.stuff from Wangsimni station. Eventually, we discovered there was a man standing there who spoke English and Korean and pretty soon the driver was loading our stuff up again and we were hopping back onto the bus for the return trip to the airport. After about a 2 1/2 hour trip, we were finally back in our neighborhood.

Now, the other fun part of getting home is the luggage/people shuttle that we do. Oh, it's fun. The first step is Eric running up the hill (there's always a hill!) with one small bag to get the car. Then, he loads the car with bags, takes them home, unloads, and returns for the people and the rest of the bags. By this point, it was after nine Korea time, about six hours since we'd landed. We were all exhausted, of course (I hadn't slept a wink on the flight...grrr), and our first step to the shuttle--a most essential step--failed. The car wouldn't start. (You can ask Eric about that one personally.) So, up we went (in shifts, of course). Hauling suitcases stacked with Rubbermaid bins, pushing a stroller, and dragging groggy kids. Oh, the joys.

To be honest, things have kind of stayed on that track...everything has been a bit of a struggle up to this point even. We knew before we left that our air conditioning wasn't working, but as of today, after three different visits from people to fix it, our apartment is now down to a cool 80 degrees. We lost our Korean SIM cards somewhere along the way and had to wait three days to have them replaced (for a nominal fee). We accidentally went to Costco on a Saturday (we could have sworn it was Friday!). Reece got sick for a day--would barely eat, just cried and whined--while it was 90 degrees both inside and outside. Cade also got sick for a day--the day after getting his dTap and MMR vaccines, so we're chalking it up to that.

But now, things should be on the upswing. Everyone slept past 7:00 this morning, so the worst of the jet lag is over. Eric and I both have plans with friends over the weekend. It's only taken me 12 hours to get this post written and published (though I only got a couple of pictures edited...that's another story!). And, it's the weekend, so things are looking up! Maybe I'll even get around to taking 9 month photos of Reece soon...just don't hold your breath!

To Cebu and Back

Things are busy around here right now, but here's a few pictures from our trip to Cebu and proof that we survived.

As always, the flight there was great. Four hours. Direct from Seoul to Cebu. Sure, we had to get up at 4 am to leave for the airport, but it was okay; we were going on vacation! They bumped us up to business class (not too impressive on Philippine Air). We had lots of leg room and we were in the curtained off area up front (that always reminds me of the movie Jerry McGuire when the closing of the curtain is such a significant event for her watching from coach).

Then, they informed me that I had to move across the aisle and trade places with Eric because we had 2 infants in our row and there weren't enough masks. Eesh. The kids didn't nap, so I didn't either, but it was uneventful. Reece tried his best to sleep with all of the crying babies around us, and he remained in a good mood.

The flight back was a different story, though. Our flight left Cebu at 11 pm, so both boys were asleep within minutes of leaving the resort for the airport. Thankfully, I had Reece in the Ergo, so Cade was able to utilize the stroller for our wait at the airport. (That stroller is ridiculously big, heavy, and inconvenient, but it sure was nice that it supported the weight and size of a 6 year old!)

Kennedy also fell asleep during our uncomfortable wait in the airport, so that by the time we were ready to board, Eric had to carry Cade while I carried Reece and pulled the suitcase and Kennedy. Good times.

Our flight was only an hour because we had a layover in Manila. As it turns out, the Manila airport is large, not well-signed, and really makes no sense at all (especially in the middle of the night). We had already been warned that a one hour layover in the Manila airport was going to be challenge. We had to wake up the big kids, so they could walk/run themselves, and then we had to book it from the moment the plane touched down.

It turned out that we really couldn't move at any normal speed because we couldn't figure anything out on our own. We had to ask directions around every corner. We kept going in and out of buildings. One person would send us to an elevator, only to discover that the elevator was shut down. We couldn't find the entrance to the building. Then we got in and paid our immigration fee (?), and then had to run to the other side of the building to actually go through immigration.

The icing on the cake was when we finally arrive at our last security checkpoint (we'd probably been through about 6 already by then!), and Eric dashes through with his backpack still on while the rest of us manage to wake up the security agents who decide they need to inspect Kennedy's backpack. What a pain! All the while, we've been hearing the calls for our flight as it is boarding, and I had read the time incorrectly and thought we were missing the flight entirely. In the end, we made it onto the flight.

Reece promptly woke up, so I fed him. He then peed all over me. I had Eric get out a change of clothes for Reece and me and we head back to the bathroom. Reece then proceeds to throw up everything that he'd just eaten as the plane hits turbulence moments after I laid him down. Once we were finally cleaned up, Eric, in his half-asleep state, couldn't figure out how to put on the baby carrier.

So, I ended up wearing Reece in the carrier that causes my shoulders and back great pain, right in between the two big kids who were sleep on either side of me and kept falling over onto my arms, which were holding up Reece's head. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night...and then had to drive home from the airport. The things we do for our family, a vacation, and a little warm weather! Realistically, though, this flight was much better than our last, and this was the hardest part of the whole week, so I can't complain too much. Hopefully, I'll be back soon with real pictures from our trip!