Flying to Japan

Our son, sleeping through the chaos, moments before
the airport shuttle whisked us away

We only had a few days before we left to prepare things that we wanted my mother to send to us after we settled. Naturally we needed to handle the final packing while working around our daughter's ear infection and my torn shoulder muscle (thankfully just the muscle and not the rotator cuff)! We pulled another all-nighter, had my mom buy a new set of luggage for us at the last minute, and got everything stuffed in that we could possibly cram. 

Somehow we balanced it so that we had all the essentials plus a few extras, and with each bag under the weight limit listed by the airlines. My husband convinced me that we should take as much as we could with us on the plane so that we could avoid shipping fees. I worried that two kids and that much luggage would be hard to handle, but it wasn't, really. We piggybacked the luggage until we both still had a free hand, and everything fit well into the bus that we took after our flight.

Hour 18 and counting, final leg

Oh, the flight. Where we flew from Salt Lake to Texas, and then to Japan. Going backwards to go forwards, since we lacked a direct flight. 16 hours on the plane, only to get off and take a bus for an hour and a half.

Would you believe me if I told you that the kids were amazing? It's true. They slept, they watched the in-flight movie (Finding Nemo), they enjoyed the food, and really just enjoyed the whole experience. The hubby and I were even able to catch a few naps ourselves, though I wouldn't say it made up for the lack of sleep from the night before. There was no screaming, very little whining, and none of our luggage was lost. If there is a guardian angel for travelers, we had one with us that day ;-)