{OKINAWA....We are FINALLY here}

Okay, i am going to fill you in on our experience, step by step, so you can visualize our experience. :)

DAY ONE:

We left Wednesday, August 10th from Wichita Falls airport. We turned in our Prius the day before and rented a car. We had a really HARD time fitting all of our luggage in this car. We had six LARGE luggage bags, and five carry-on bags and a carseat. We had to put down one of the seats in the back so that we could fit it. That means that one of the boys would have to sit on the floor. Tanner got stuck on the floor right at Jaydon's feet. You can imagine how much fun Jaydon had kicking Tanner in the head. I had a few bags at my feet and on my lap. I couldn't see anything. Anyway, we rushed to the airport which took only about five minutes. We flew in one of those propeller planes to Dallas. It was a thirty minute flight and thank goodness it was that short. It was the bumpiest ride i have ever experienced on a flight. I was on the verge of vomitting. It was so terrible. We had a layover in Dallas of about 3 hours. After that we headed for SEATTLE!!! We arrived in Seattle at about 8:45 p.m. Now begins the NiGhTmArE!!! haha! So, we get all our luggage after waiting for about 45 minutes. We try fitting most of it on a smart cart, which didn't work so well. About three times, on our way to the pick-up area for the shuttle, the smart cart fell over on its side with all the luggage all over the floor. These bags are all heavy, so it wasn't fun picking all the luggage up over and over again. We called the shuttle guy and he made it about 20 minutes after we called. BUT he picked up about 2-3 people right before us. He came over to us and said "i am sorry, i will have to come back to get you." Apparently he thought we wouldn't fit. We would have fit. I got ticked. I was mad b/c i was tired and the boys were tired. Jaydon was crying and crying. Gavin stepped in puke that was all over the ground. Jaydon was still crying. :) I was mad. The guy came back 15 minutes later. He brought us to our hotel. We pulled all our 500 bags of luggage into the lobby. Waited in line forever. The guy told us that around the corner was one of those luggage carriers. Well, there wasn't one. So, we had to make a few trips to get all our luggage upstairs. The hallways and elevator were really small and tight and narrow. So, that wasn't fun. We get in our room, get everyone all ready for bed. We are all in bed with the lights out at 11:00 p.m.

Now, you must realize, i am not giving every single detail. I am leaving out all the whining and crying the kids did when they weren't playing their video games. That means there was lots of whining. Whining for food, whining about wanting to get on the plane, whining about feeling sick, whining about wanting to play their games, etc. The constants "gavin catch up!" , "tanner, hurry up," "gavin stop whining," " tanner quit doing that," "i promise we are almost there".... At the same time, for as little sleep as they received i would say they did really well considering their age, sleep schedule, and chaos.

DAY TWO:

We had to wake up 3 1/2 hours later. We woke at 2:45 a.m. The boys were not happy. They were grumpy, naturally. We have to make a few trips to get our luggage downstairs again. We get a shuttle to the airport. We get dropped off and have to get a smart cart again. We load our 500 bags on the smart cart. We go inside the airport and the luggage all spills over again. We pick it all up. We go wait in line for a little while. Get all checked in. Now we are just down to our carry-ons which is a big relief. We head to our gate. I am excited. I can't wait. We sit down at our gate at about 4:30 a.m. The boys are starving so shane and gavin and tanner walk a ways to get some mcdonalds for breakfast. They bring it back and we eat. It's after 5 p.m. Our flight is scheduled to leave at 8:30. At around 7:00 we find out that our flight is delayed two hours. We leave and find a kids playground in the airport. We head back to our gate around 9:30. Get back to our spot and start to realize we aren't boarding and it's 10:45. Eventually, around 11:30 they tell us that the flight is cancelled. And then they tell us to go down and get our luggage, and then to go by the baggage claim to get a voucher for hotel and food. We go and stand in line for the voucher. We are standing there for maybe an hour. Finally the line starts moving. We load our 500 bags back onto a smart cart again. Haul our smart cart , the kids, our carry-ons outside to catch the shuttle to our hotel. We quickly realize that the hotel all the military families were put into is the same place. And because of that we all had to catch a ride on the same shuttle. I was thinking we would have one of those big shuttles that can fit a lot of people since there are probably 150 of us. NOPE. They had two vans. Every family and person has TONS of luggage. We quickly realize this is going to take hours upon hours. We said "screw this!" And we rented a van. We rented a nissan quest. Those are nice vans! I really liked it. So, we start walking and head towards the rental place. I see the end in sight(as in, getting in the car kind of end). We make it. We head to the hotel, wait in a long line at the hotel with our voucher. By the time we get to our room it was about 2 in the afternoon. We had been going for 12 hours already. We decided, even though we were tired, to take advantage of this and head to Pike Place Market. We went there and watched the guys throw the fish and looked at all the yummy fresh fruits and veggies. I LOVE the atmosphere there. I had been to Seattle before, but i was only in the downtown area and didn't explore much. We left and got a milkshake. We headed back to our room and decided to go to bed EARLY. We went to bed at 7:00 p.m. We had a check-in time between 3:00am and 6:30am. For families we should be there at about 4:30.

DAY TWO:

We wake up at 4:00 a.m. We carry our 500 bags out to the car and load it in the van. I drop off shane and the boys at the front. We load our 500 bags onto the smart cart AGAIN. No falls this time! :) I drive the car around to the rental place to turn it back in. Our cell phones are now shut off b/c i told at&t a month ago to shut them off the morning of the 12th. We were supposed to be gone the 11th. In the meantime, shane is trying to get a hold of me, but quickly realizes our phones were shut off already. I get the car turned in, walk upstairs and meet up with the boys. as soon as i get there shane said "our flight is delayed again. Instead of leaving at 9:00 a.m. we are leaving at noon. WHAT?!?!?! I just turned the car in!!!!! Yeah, we were mad. So, we sat around and waited. At about 8:00 a.m. they tell us to go back to the hotel until further notice. SOOOOO, we grab our 500 bags and load them on the smart cart for the 500th time. We head to the rental place and rent another car. This time shane called someone he has an IN with. haha....he gave us a better deal on a mid-size suv. We get the car, load our 500 bags in the back. Head back to the hotel. We lay around a bit and decide to go do some more fun things. We head over to Bellevue and go to the mall. SUCH A PRETTY AREA!!! Heaven. They had a fun kids area playground inside the mall. They played for awhile. Right next to the pay area was one of those cute little cupcake shops that i always see online , but have never seen in person. It was called pinkabella cupcakes. I had to try one. I got shane and i both a mini-cupcake. It was good. After that we drove around to see what the area was like....mainly the housing. OH. MY. GOSH. I sooooooooooo fell in love. I was dying. :) I told shane we HAVE to find a job there when we are done in 3 yrs. with the air force. We are so moving there, mark my words. :) We headed back to the hotel. Went and ate a free lunch. Went to the room to relax. We decided to head back out again. We get to the car and Tanner started to panic b/c his belly hurt. I rushed him back to the room and he puked. Of course my thoughts were "oh great. seriously this happens every single time we travel. never FAILS!!!!" Just one more thing to add to our plate!!! gggrrrrrrr! We find out around dinner time that we have to check into the airport at midnight and that our flight leaves at 4 a.m. Great. I had been feeling off in my stomach that whole day and so i was nervous about getting sick. We all are getting ready for bed around 7 p.m. again. This time gavin says he needs to puke. great. We are going to be traveling at midnight with puking kids. We all went to bed. I hear gavin moaning just as i am slipping into beautiful sleep. We made a bed for him by the bathroom just in case he got sick. Well, he did. i get up and go over there. I tell him, "get up and get over the toilet gavin." He doesn't move. I say it again, but he still doesn't move. I say it louder. Then he vomits all over the sham on the floor. Everywhere. Shane rushes over, picks him up, and puts him over the toilet. Somehow vomit got sprayed all over the floor in there. I tell him to wash his arms and hands off in the sink. He just stands there staring at me. I tell him again. He still stands there staring. I am starting to wonder what world he is in. I say it again and he looks at the sink and then walks out of the bathroom and says "but where is the other one."....like there is another sink somewhere. I had to direct him to the sink and turn the water on and wash his arms. In the meantime i am stepping on puke. I rinsed his blnket off in the toilet. We made him a new bed. We went to sleep at about 8pm and woke up at 11:30 p.m. The boys were NOT happy. They looked like they were dying. We load our 500 bags in the car and head to the airport. I drop them all off at the front, help shane unload our 500 bags onto the smart cart again. Then gavin and tanner both start saying "i need to puke"....oh dear. I told them to puke on the ground behind the garbage can(we are still outside).....shane wants them to stick there head inside the garbage can to puke. I thought he was crazy, honestly. They would be sticking there face right into garbage. eewwww. It was the kind of garbage can with a lid and an opening on the side. And it was nearly full. I give the boys words of encouragement and rush to the rental return again. Turn the car in. Rush upstairs. shane is already checked in. We stand in the security line. Tanner says "i am gonna puke!!" I grab one of those plastic bins that are used for putting bags in in the security line and let him puke in that. Better than puking on the floor!!! haha... We make it through the line. Go find a seat by the gate and wait for 3 hours. When they said we will start boarding, i was so excited! Oh my gosh, its actually happening!!! Seriously?!?! We board. We sit on the plane for about 45 minutes before we actually take off. Before the plane started taxiing, jaydon starts screaming and crying. He is wailing!!!!! Not kidding. AND NOTHING IS CALMING THE BEAST...not even food!!!! He woudn't stop. The lady told me to buckle him in, but that is when he started screaming. He didn't want to be buckled. He kept fighting me. He kept slithering his way out of his belt buckle. The more i tried to force him into his seat to buckle him, the louder he got. BUT he had to be buckled. He screamed bloody murder for about 10 minutes, but that felt like an hour. He is still screaming as we pull out from the gate. THEN gavin and tanner tell me they have to pee really bad. we had pulled off from the gate, but were just sitting there. Nothing was happening. SO i told them to hurry and go pee. I won't have them pee their pants. THe stewardess's bring them back and tell me they have to buckle up. We are still just sitting there. I said" but my boys will pee their pants!" they didn't care. at that point, i couldn't take it anymore. i STARTED crying. I was so tired, so exhausted, i hit my end. Suddenly jaydon stops crying and falls asleep. The other two boys fall asleep, but i am nervous they will pee their pants. As soon as we make it to altitude i wake them up so they can pee. After that we were on the plane for 9 1/2 hours. It actually wasn't bad though. They played movies the whole time. Fed us. The boys played their video games. It was decent. We landed in Yukota at 6 a.m. japan time, but it was noon seattle time. Our schedules are way off now. They told us we can get off the plane and that we would load again in two hours. We get in this tiny terminal and as soon as we are all sitting they say "hey folks, we have a ground time of 7 hours." I thought he was talking about something else. huh? Yeah, we have a layover of SEVEN hours in this tiny terminal with nothing to do. GREAT. I am in shock. Luckily they had a kids cove and all the kids went and played in there. It was really humid and sticky and by the end the kids were all wet. It was gross. Jaydon sure was showing wear and tear by this point. His skin under his eyes were red and swollen and he had goopy stuff coming out of his eyes. His eyes were just sagging. He looked beyond tired. They fed us all pizza and chicken and chips for lunch. We all loaded the plane after 6 hours of sitting. He headed to a base in Hiroshima. That place is beautiful. Little islands all over the place, everywhere.... beautiful scenery, beautiful blue water....just beautiful. We let people off there. Took off about an hour later. We saw Mount Fuji from up in the air. We had a little over an hour flight to okinawa. As we came in, i couldn't believe this is where we woud be living for the next three years. It looks like Hawaii. Mountainous, green with trees, beaches and blue water. I can't wait. I am so glad we are here but all i can think about is getting in bed. My body is craving it. It takes awhile to get all our luggage. We walk out to find our sponsor. He drives us to our temporary living. His wife bought food for us and made us some chili(the best chili i have ever eaten) and cornbread. It was so nice. We talked about what we need to do the next day , he left, and we went to bed. Bed was wonderful. We all woke up at about 4 a.m. wide awake. I couldn't go back to sleep.

Now, it's monday morning here. Our ordeal started on wed. and ended on sunday evening(back in the states it was sunday a.m. in the middle of the night) It was an UNFORGETTABLE experience and one we hope to NEVER EVER have to go through ever again. All i can say is this....i can't imagine a traveling experience worse than this....so from here on out, any traveling we do will seem like pieces of pie compared to this one. :)

We met a family who knew of us while we were at our seven hour layover in yukota. Our sponsor told them about us b/c this family was trying to catch the hop back to japan(our flight). This family was nice. They were in japan and they hiked the fuji mountain, which i can tell you about when we do it. It sounded so cool! She told us how much we will love it here and how there is sooooooo much to do for the kids. I just can't wait. I am excited to get our own car and get out and explore. I must say, our drive to our tlf was trippy. I was like a zombie, and having him drive on the opposite side of the road was creepy. I kept thinking "we are gonna wreck"!!!! That's our experience so far. I will post more later on . :)