Loading up the suburban, everything we took fit in it!






We are here, finally! Our trip began at 5:20 pm as we took off from the Gallatin Field Airport. Dan, Clara and Paul loved the first flight.
If only it were that fun the whole trip.


It was a novelty for them. Dan watched out the window almost the whole way to Salt Lake. Clara lasted a little bit longer and Paul was bored in about 5 minutes. They all loved the drink and snack service even though we only let them have water or juice. No soda. They liked landing too and where ready to get off the plane. One of the highlights of airports for them was the moving sidewalk. They loved it and I think only Paul fell down while getting on. It was hard to help him since Josh and I were toting two rolling carry-ons, four backpacks and my purse between the two of us. We were able to find a Burger King and a play area in Salt Lake. So that helped pass the three hours there. Next we got on a 737 to San Francisco. It was quite a bit bigger than our first plane. In both of the first two we have the very last row. That made it easy to go to the lavatory and loud next to the engines. The landing in San Fransisco was on of the bumpiest I have experienced. The kids thought it was fun but Josh and I exchanged a very wide eyed look. In San Francisco we had to exit security and check in at the Cathay Pacific desk. It took a while to find and when we did there was a long line. It was very late Montana time- about 11:30. The kids were doing pretty well. Paul was not able to stay awake on the Salt Lake to San Fran flight, he fell asleep at the very end. When we got up to the desk the man said that our rolling carry-ons and Josh's back back were too heavy. So we started transferring as much as we could into the kids backpacks. It was crazy. Finally he just let us go. We had quite the mess. To add to it he was Chinese and spoke limited English. I guess we needed to get used to that! Then we went back through security and found our gate. It was a long way for the tired kids to walk. I wish that we could have carried Dan and Clara. They were troopers though. Paul got the coveted spot on Josh's shoulders. We gave them suckers at this point to keep them awake. When we got to the gate we had just enough time to put the kids in pull-ups for the long flight. We got on the big plane this time -747 with an upper deck. We were toward the back but not in the back this time.

The flight over the ocean was 14 hours 45 minutes. I think it ended up being slightly shorter though. It started at midnight Pacific time. Whenever I am on a plane that large I am always amazed that it can get off the ground. They are so huge. We were definitely in the minority. Most of the passengers were Asian and Indian. We met a family of six that was moving to the Philippines for 3 years. It looked as though their youngest was Paul's age and then they got older from there. I think that maybe they were Mennonite but I don't know. The wife was very nice, her name was Heather. We only got to speak briefly - I wish we could have had more time. They had to check one of their carry-ons on the long flight because of weight. I guess it had snacks in it for the kids.
Us trying a family portrait in Hong Kong.


Family portarit with some help.





Dan soaking it up with Nana's camera.


We made it to Rehoboth and our house for 6 months!

So Brit had written an hours worth to get all the details up to here but somehow it was lost in cyberspace. So this is the part where we say TO BE CONTINUED...............