We Made It!

After having been at the Seattle airport for 8 hours, we were notified as we were nearing our boarding time that the plane was broken and our flight would be delayed 4 hours. While I'm grateful we ended up with a safely functioning plane, I had to fight back tears of frustration. We had already had a restless night with the kids crashing on metal plates and dirty terminal floors to have to endure another 4 hours in the airport. We spent just over 12 hours total there and were beyond thrilled to finally board the plane.

The flight itself was tolerable and all things considered, the kids were very well behaved. They definitely had moments, like every other kid that was on the flight. Every one of us slept on and off except Quinn. Somehow she stayed up the entire duration of flight and then was passed out cold on the descent into Yokoto AFB. It was nearly impossible to wake her up. We had to deboard so they could clean and refuel. Some passengers were ending there and the rest of us got back on the plane for another hour to Iwakuni. We were the only family ending our journey in Iwakuni and the remaining families were headed to Okinawa. All of us were out for the flight to Iwakuni and debarring was miserable. Quinn and Rylan didn't want to get up and Finley wanted to be held. All were crying loudly and whining. Chris and I had to carry all of the bags along with Chris carrying Finley out into the rain to get on a shuttle to the gate on base. The crying didn't stop until we got into the cars of our sponsors to get a ride to our hotel. I definitely don't want to be on a plane again for a long time after that experience. 

It worked out nicely that our flight plans were so delayed because we got back to the hotel after 8pm our time and put the kids right to bed after showers. They woke up about 5am so we still have a little work to do but overall, because we got here about normal bedtime, I'm hoping the time change and jet lag won't be an issue.

This morning we got out with our sponsor, Kevin, to see the base a bit and get cell phones and groceries. It's very industrial and a bit dreary so I'm hoping that when we explore off base a little bit it will be a little better. It doesn't help that it's rainy today, I suppose. I'm anxious to see the Japanese marketplaces and houses. We have our "Welcome Aboard" meeting on Monday followed by our SOFA driving test and hopefully, if we pass, we'll be able to get a car. On Tuesday we have a meeting with housing.