I've never had to wake him up before and if I've gone into his room and he was still sleeping he has always just woken up at the first noise. This was hard to do!
The last link on the chain.
Busan to Tokyo!
Ice cream at Narita.
Stretching out in Narita before the long flight to Minneapolis.
This didn't last very long (maybe 30-40 minutes?) and he never slept in his seat the rest of the trip: always in my arms after this.
Amazingly, Sarah fell asleep watching a show on the PSP.
She slept a few hours and then was up for a while when everyone else was going to sleep but she played quietly by herself in her seat for a long time before she slept again.
Chopstick & Clementine were happy to get out of their carriers but they weren't totally sure about the hotel room, either. The top of the refrigerator seemed the safest place for the first few hours.
Is that enough tags & stickers?
The cats sent us a note each time they got on the plane. (We don't know how they got under Henry's name since Craig was the one who checked them in in Busan.)
What a long, long day this was!
We started out by hauling 3 carseats, 1 stroller, 5 carry-ons, and 9 checked bags up the stairs to the vans. We had one minivan for the luggage and one large van for the people & cats. The girls called our van a "big-shot car" (from Richard Scarry) because it had a TV, neon lights, etc. in it. The driver instantly turned on a Korean cartoon with audio BLASTING for the kids but we had him turn it off. Maybe we're mean but we wanted to have the allure of videos on the PSP for traveling so we didn't want to have the girls bored with TV during the first two hour section of the trip!
In Busan Craig did all the baggage checking & cat checking. The kids & I didn't have to wait around with him so we went to the bathroom and got a snack a Starbucks. Somehow both Craig & I thought the other person was doing more work so I guess we worked that out well!
From Busan to Tokyo I sat with Henry and Anna & Sarah sat across from Craig (it was just two aisles with two seats each). This worked out well until at some point Sarah wanted out of her seatbelt but the flight attendant was nice and helped Craig talk her down. One man across from me said he was also traveling to Houston through Minneapolis and I started trying to think of what I should buy for him in Duty Free if things started getting ugly with the kids...
We had a little time in Tokyo to get some food and stretch out a little. Henry & I sat together on the side and Craig and the girls sat in the middle. I kept waiting for Sarah to freak out but she didn't. All of our children got compliments on this flight. (This is the first time that has happened for Sarah!) Henry was not as challenging as I worried since he was easily placated by nursing him to sleep. He slept so poorly that he was pretty tired the whole time so anytime he got fussy I nursed him and he'd sleep a little more. Not something I'd recommend for every day but it worked for this trip!
We had a longer layover in Minneapolis which was OK since we got to get lunch and stretch our legs a bit. We were all ready to just get to Houston at this point though! We had to collect all of our bags and the cats and go through customs and then re-check our bags and the cats which wasn't as big of a hassle as we worried it would be. There was a skycap there that helped us with the bags and the cats didn't try to make any sudden moves when Craig had to take them out of their carriers for inspection.
Thank goodness the man who was traveling all the way with us announced to the first class cabin that he had been with us since Busan when he got on the flight to Houston because Sarah did end up throwing a fit on this flight (understandably, but if you didn't know her situation you would just think she was a spoiled kid throwing a fit in first class!). She was screaming that she wanted to "GET OFF THE PLANE RIGHT NOW" while we were in the middle of the flight.
Amazingly all of our flights were on time and there were no delays and all of the flight crews were pleasant. Overall it was an excellent trip (although you won't catch me booking any international flights again soon!). We got all of our stuff and the cats again in Houston and loaded it into a full-size van (Craig was smart enough to hire a driver with a giant van!) and went up to the hotel. Craig ran out to get us some dinner and we settled into the hotel for the night. My friend Sara had left a littler box and some dishes for the cats for us at the hotel which was a life-saver. The hotel has two bedrooms, a family room, and a kitchen but we won't last very long here with all of this luggage, people, and animals!
We are all so very glad that this day is over. I was dreading it for so long and now we get to move on to the next phase of house-hunting, car-hunting, and reverse culture-shock.
