We made it to the USA!

We started our journey with two kids, and 3 suitcases, one set of gold clubs and a pack 'n play in a van for a three hour ride to the Shanghai airport.  Our flight was to leave at 6pm, we ate lunch in the car and had two pretty happy kiddos!  Blake was very excited to be going on an airplane even though he really didn't know what that meant, he really just wanted to see the airplanes at the airport!

On our way!  The Chinese style rest area off the freeway!

We got to the airport, checked in.....taking at least 30 minutes to check in because Grace was a lap infant and they couldn't figure our her ticket, then up to the gate to wait for our flight.  We boarded on-time, found our seats, were given the on-boarding orange juice, water and champagne.....and then we sat.  We sat for at least an hour before they came on to tell us there was a delay....then we sat.  We asked the flight attendant what was going on, she said that often they don't get clearance priority to leave and are delayed an hour or hour and a half, ok so we are entertaining the kids, feeding Blake snacks because they won't serve dinner and we continued to sit.  After 2.5 hours of sitting, the captain came on to say the flight was going to be cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow, we would have to all get off the plane and come back tomorrow because after sitting for so long, and a 13.5 hour flight to Dallas ahead of us, one of the crew would be over their flight time.  Seriously, i just sat here with a 2 year old and a 3 month old that need to eat and sleep for almost 3 hours on a plane and now you aren't feeding us or taking us anywhere tonight!  I was NOT happy!

We get off the plane and have no idea what to do or where to go, there is no one from American Airlines there to greet us as we exit the plane and there is very little direction from anyone.  As we move through the airport the full flight is asking people what to do, staying in groups and eventually we find our way back through customs, get all our luggage, with a stroller and two tired kids, and then are finally directed to buses outside that will take us to a hotel for the night,  The buses did not have a lot of storage so we had to take half out luggage on the bus with us, with two kids and a stroller,  At this point it is 10pm and we are on our way to what we thought would be a nearby hotel, 40 minutes later we show up at a hotel, get checked in, still no dinner and get the kids to bed.  They offered a buffet dinner until midnight, Brian went down to get us some food, it was terrible, we did not eat.  We slept until 6am when we had to rise to go back to the airport and do this all over again, with two kids, 3 suitcases, golf clubs, pack 'n play and a stroller :(  When we asked for milk from the hotel restaurant they informed us we would have to buy a buffet breakfast, so Brian took Blake down to eat, I fed Grace, and we went on to the airport, loaded back up in the bus with all the other passengers on our flight (multiple buses).  Still we have no eaten, we arrive at the airport to wait 1.5 hours to check in since everyone arrived at the same time and with all our bags we were the last to make it into the airport.  The good news here is once we got back on the plane it took off!  We were on out way to the States!  They finally served a meal, the first thing we had eaten since lunch the day before, don't worry Blake did eat.  The kids were troopers and did great, Blake insisted on taking his own Cars bag and pulling it through the airport.

Once on the plane, again the kids did great!  It is 13.5 hours to Dallas, then a short layover, then 2 hours to Phoenix and we would be there!  The only issue we had on the flight was with Blake, I had packed a spare pair of pajamas for him, but they were footie pajamas.  We had a bit of a diaper leak and had to change him, when we realized his feet were too big for the pajamas!  So we asked the flight attendant for scissors, which of course they aren't allowed to have very sharp ones due to regulations, so we sawed off the feet of these pajamas, only to find that she also sawed off the bottom of the zipper!!! So now we have a child with a cape on that has arm holes!  The poor kid was so tired, he was not happy about the wardrobe change.  We covered him up with his blanket and got him to sleep trying to make sure he was covered while he slept so he wouldn't get cold with his frontal side exposed (diaper on of course).

Grace mostly hung our in the Ergobaby Carrier attached to me.

Once we arrived in Phoenix, it was around 8pm....Brian's parents were there to greet us and Blake was happy to see some familiar faces.  We introduced them to Grace for the first time and proceeded on to collect our luggage!  Luckily we still have our minivan in Phoenix, so when they picked us up there was plenty of room for all of our luggage!  We were able to order an American pizza and actually eat some food from home!  Then off to bed!

Stay tuned for most posts about our trip, I'm catching up!