Japan 21

 

Our trip home was hectic.  We knew it would be long, but between returning the rental car, uber problems, out of service trains, finding an airport shuttle, mechanical problems, with our first plane, having to rebook 7 people on transatlantic flights because of missed connections, etc... kids fighting and us trying to switch seats for everyone's sanity... The first 5 hours of the day were difficult. But we all made it, our luggage made it and Jer still has a few hairs that aren't grey.  We flew over Mt Fuji.  That was fun.

My wonderful parents picked us up at the airport, even though our whole schedule had changed.  It was fun to chat and tell them about our trip on the drive home.  The cats were happy to see us home too.

We wanted to share the different flavored kit kats so we bought bags, opened them and shared the tastes around.  It was fun.

We were waiting for a very long time while they tried to get our bags checked in and print our new passes.  They had us standing in this little box.  We started quoting, "Stay in the pocket, stay in the pocket!"  The kids discovered the joy of pokemon Go again too while we were there.

We had a 6 hour layover in Tokyo.  They had some fun toy stores which included this little electric race car track... and a donut store.

We tried to get a picture with Mt Fuji behind us, I'm not sure you can see it, but it's there.

Seth getting eaten by Godzilla.

Japan 18

Our next day was flying to Okinawa.  That was time intensive but we made it and slept really well when we got there.

We found a Korean/Ramen place for dinner

There was a really neat park/boardwalk next to our hotel. Jer and Jim took a morning run and the kids loved the playground and beach.

We found these consume chips.  They tasted just like soup.  They weren't bad.  Seth rather liked them, but he's always liked soup.

Getting to the airport was a bit of a mess, but between Jer's fast thinking and ready ubers we made it with enough time.  Our first ubers came and left without messages or phone calls.  We were not outside on time which was on us but it would have been nice for a reminder.  We had to call two more ubers. The first one got there and we loaded it up.  The second one got there and thought that we didn't need them and started to drive away but Jer flagged them down and showed that we had 3 more people in need of a ride.  Security and airport was easy, but emotions were high between being tired and the stress of the morning.

New York trip Day #1

Seth said, "Mom!  It's Calvin's ship!" (from Calvin and Hobbes)

I've been wanting to take our family to Palmyra, NY for years.  We finally made it happen.  There were all the things trying to keep us from going, but we made it.

Ada and I went airplane food shopping and found this.  We had to buy one.  I was laughing so hard!  Seth actually ate it.  Not his favorite, but it got eaten.  It was basically noodles in hot chocolate with little mini marshmallows.

We flew from SLC to Denver.  Then on to Buffalo, NY. 

It was the beginning of the Paris 2024 Olympics, so we thought it was appropriate to eat at the Olympic restaurant with a pink buffalo outside. 

Sam decided to make pickle water.  Ummmm. Not for me thanks. The lady sitting behind Sam bought us a couple of brownie desserts to share.  It was very sweet.

 

Big trip

 So we've been saving for a big family trip for years now.  We decided that we wanted to take our kids some places before any of them left the house and now that they're all old enough to remember some of it.  We had put together a list of places that we wanted to go as a family and then watched prices of tickets on some sites.  That coupled with the fact that my Aunt and Uncle are serving a mission in Lisbon, Portugal we ended up going to Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco.  

When we left Utah, we got this picture... we were glad to go.  But now that we're back... 45 degree weather is freezing compared to the 95 degrees that we left.  One of the things that was nice about being out of the country was being away from the politics going on right now. We saw one gay pride flag the entire 3 weeks... we didn't hear a peep about how horrible the right or left wing people are... and most of the men that we saw are real men... none of the dying your hair and painting your nails kind of thing. It was mentally refreshing.

My amazing parents got up early to drive us to the airport.  First we flew through Houston, TX... then to Paris, France and into Madrid, Spain. The kids took turns doing their online and paper worksheets for school.  Overall, everyone was able to stay up on their schoolwork except for Ada's math class.  She has 4 tests to make up and he has yet to send her any materials to review for the tests. Frustrating.  

Houston was lots of walking, but they saw that we might miss our connecting flight in Paris because our plane was late so they helped us get a new flight that would give us time to get there.  They also noticed that Jer was walking with a cane and offered him a wheelchair.  They put it in their notes for all the other flights that he needed some assistance.  That was nice because they streamlined us getting through lines and customs quickly.  Jer was not up for standing the whole day.  We didn't have enough time to leave the Paris airport and with all the riots going on, we had little inclination to leave it as well. In Paris, the assistant was all business and didn't care that Jer had a whole family following him through the airport. I had to work hard to help Seth and Evelyn with their bags and walk as fast as I could to stay within eyesight distance of them.  Jer had to remind the guy to wait for us several times. We got to our next flight with 3 hours to spare, so we took turns wandering the shops and looking at the food.  We did get some yummy chocolate pastries and some macaroons while we were there. In Madrid it was a different story.  The guy paused at the bathroom to let us take a break before taking us all the way across the airport and talking to several people to find out where our rental car company was located at.  He was amazing and kind.  He was tickled pink when I asked what we should see and eat while in Madrid. 

Houston

Paris

Paris

The flight from Paris to Madrid was smaller, so they bussed us from the terminal out to the plane.  We did the whole climb the stairs into the little plane on the tarmac thing.