Travel days (06.29 & 06.30)

We had lotsa family come over to Julie's on Tuesday morning. Matthew, my mom, Marie and her kids, Dan's parents & Rebecca came over for one last time. Matt was on his honeymoon. I think we still had some last minute things to do. Dan had to go back to our old house b/c the pet people were picking up Molly and Redford. He left in such a hurry that he forgot the frozen ice chips for them, so I had to also met him there. And then we were packing the stuff we brought over to Julie's and realized we needed one more dish barrel box. Gail went out and got us another one, thank goodness! We bathe the kids after their lunch and then started loading everything in the cars.

We had all our luggage/boxes and the triple stroller in people's car, thank goodness we all drive big SUVs! Everyone went to the airport w/us except for Marie and her kids. Marie was afraid it might be too much for Anne. The kids took a quick nap on the way to the airport, but they were woken up and it was not pretty at the airport. Who could blame them? My kids love their nap! We unloaded our luggage and strapped their carseats onto the gogobaby travelmates that I bought. It allows you to push the kids through the airport w/o having to use a stroller and it's narrow enough for the airplane. I'm so glad we invested in them! Me, Julie, Rebecca, and my mom waited w/the (screaming & tired) kids and our hand carry luggage while Dan checked all of our other luggages. We also had to wait for the other folks since they went to park their cars. I went to check the Runabout stroller in and the guy wasn't sure what to do w/it, he'd never seen one before, but eventually we figured out how to put it on the conveyor belt so it would not hit anything down the luggage shoot. We had so much luggage that once we were done, boarding had already begun, so we rushed to the gate with the crying/screaming kids. My poor babies!!!

We did not get a chance to say long goodbyes to our families as we had intended, but with everything happening so fast, our goodbyes were quite short and rushed! Anyhow, no one could come w/us beyond the gate so that was it. We got in line for security check and we had to take everyone's shoes off and unstrapped them from the carseats. They checked our luggage all the while w/screaming crying kids. By the end of this blog, you will get tired of me saying screaming/crying kids. The thought of those words together makes me very tired!

When we boarded the plane, they had mixed our seats up, we were supposed to be downstairs and not upstairs, but that's where we ended up being. Dan had to carry each kid in their carseats up the stairs. The flight attendent couldn't do it, or should I say, wouldn't do it. She finally asked a guy, not sure if he was a flight attendent or pilot, but he did help w/one of the kid. They are not very friendly considering we're flying first class with paid seats for each of the kids! After this trip, Dan said KLM's first class is nothing compared to other first class planes he's been on. He was so disappointed I didn't get to experience the "real" first class experience. But we picked KLM b/c they have the best pet facility in Amsterdam, our first stop. Anyhow, back to the flight...when I went upstairs, the flight attendent assigned to our area was just so rude, she wouldn't put any of our luggage on the overhead bins. She kept saying it's too heavy for her. HELLO??? You're a flight attendant, that's part of your job. I just wanted to chew her out, but you know I'm a mom now and I can't exactly use those words around the kids. Calm down Anna, I kept telling myself. Anyhow, kids were still crying/screaming, they were just so tired and all of this commotion was too much for them. We basically held them the whole time, they wouldn't stop. The "lovely" flight attendent then started going to everyone around us and asked them if they would like to move to other seats downstairs. Only a few people moved. I, of course just looked right at her and gave her my evil eyes and silently cursed at her. I was so worried about their ears popping and stuff during take off, I had crackers and water for them, luckily everyone was OK. Then we fed them dinner but they really didn't eat anything and everyone was still kinda uneasy. I finally broke out the benadryl and gave everyone a small dose. I think Dan was holding Tobin and Skyler and I was holding Hudson. They finally dozed off and we tried putting them back in their carseats, but it was a no go for Skyler and Hudson. Tobin slept in his carseat the whole time until we landed in Amsterdam. With three, I'm ALWAYS happy when one is cooperating! Dan held Skyler and I held Hudson and we both tried to put them down once they were asleep but they woke back up crying, so we just held them the entire time, even eating our meals, watching a movie, and sleeping.

Because of the time difference, we landed in Amsterdam 8am Wednesday morning, but really it's 1 am Wednesday for the kids, so technically it's still sleep time for them. They were groggy, but OK and we un-boarded the plane. Once again, not much help from the flight attendants. Do not fly KLM unless you have too!!! It was tricky wheeling 3 kids on the travel mates, wheeling 2 luggage and we're both strapped w/backpacks and had one more hand bag. One of the wheeled luggage carried our important documents, everything from our diplomas, kids birth certificate to our RE files. And the other one was really heavy, it contained all of our music CDs, kinda silly, but we didn't want the risk of losing them should they be confiscated for whatever reasons. Saudi Arabia is very strict about things that are considered "pornography" or "religious" connotations...not that our stuff had them, but someone could mis-interpret the CDs jacket covers or whatever. So we made our way to the biz class lounge and one look at it, we knew it was not the place for us. It was just that, biz people reading or on their laptop. I'm sure they wouldn't want (3) almost 2 year old, lack of sleep kids running around. And of course their kids lounge was under construction, so we found the Mercur Hotel, an airport hotel and checked into that. It was small, but did the job, it allowed the kids to stretch their legs and roam free. The tv was out and the A/C took forever to cool so we stripped the kids down to their diapers and they loved it! They were jumping up and down on the bed. I even took out the new toys I bought them and they were loving this! So nice to see smiling faces for a change instead of screaming crying kids! Dan brought some food back from the biz lounge, but they didn't let him bring the water so he had to pay for them...$30 for 3 bottles of water. I was hoping it would have some majical powers in them to make the next flight less stressful! Wishful thinking! This was the first time they ate some food since we left that morning, not much, but atleast something. We all took a nap since our layover was 6 hours, it was so nice to have everyone sleeping w/us considering we never get to sleep w/our kids. It was my favorite part of the trip!

Time to board the flight for Damman, Saudi Arabia...they did fine being wheeled in the travelmates...until we got to the gate, then the screaming crying begin! We waited a while before they let us board and I could feel EVERYONE looking at us. I felt so horrible, I couldn't do anything, it's not like we can unstrapped them and hold them, we are already outnumbered with them and add the luggage on top of that! And I knew if we unstrapped them, it would be hell getting them back in! Finally boarding begins and they let us go first, this time the crew was A LOT nicer and helpful. Everyone helped us, it was like night and day from the first flight. I think they were more used to this flight having families. Kids had had their limits by this time, the lack of sleep and prolly hungryness (is that a word) caught up to them. Skyler and Hudson would constantly scream cry during this flight. They couldn't settled down. Tobin was the only one who was OK, I think it's b/c he had the most decent sleep from the night flight. I couldn't wait for this to end! I was holding Hudson and he kept jutting backwards, it was really difficult to make him happy. I even walked around w/him but nothing could consoled him. When we took off, Skyler was sitting next to a guy named Jim, he was really helpful to us. He has 8 year old twin boys and he told us when they came over to Saudi, his boys were these guys age so he knew our challenges. I don't think anyone slept on this flight, I was just ready for it to be over!

We arrived in Damman at 9 pm. The flight attendant had a security guard help us with our luggage and he guided us to customs. This airport is so surreal, it's so quiet and when we got to customs, there was a line for women and one for men, I think they are the domestic help. Westerners were in another line and Saudis had their own line. The security guard brought us to the Saudi line, I guess b/c we had 3 screaming crying kids and that line was the shortest. When we got to the front, the custom official said we had to go to the Westerner line. Go figure! Jim, the guy on the flight w/us, came and helped us with our luggage. He even let us borrow some Saudi Riyals (money) since we arrived on the weekends, the banks are close. Saudi weekends are Thursday and Friday and we came Wednesday night, it's like Friday night for them in US. We were almost to the front when Dan sees his co-worker, Majed, who was coming to pick us up. Majed came w/another Saudi guy dressed in the traditional robe and that guy said something to the customs official and we ended up back in the Saudi line. After taking pictures and fingerprinting us, they let us pass. We then met up w/a bunch of other guys that Majed hired to help w/the luggage. We made our way to baggage claim and then finally to the car. They had one huge suburban looking thing and two taxis. I rode in one taxi w/the boys and Dan, Jim and Skyler in the other taxi. Majed stayed with the suburban b/c he had to find out where they were keeping Molly and Redford. I was a little uneasy being split up in different cars, so I kept looking back to make sure he was behind me. We came to our new home at 11 pm. Let the kids roam and explore the new place. They loved the stairs! I feed them pb&j sandwiches and they sat in the 70's looking metal high chairs. That was the last time they ever sat in them. Aramco supplied us with some basic food, linens, and toiletries. While I was feeding them, Dan had to move the cribs so they were all in one room, even though we had requested that. After the exhausting flight, the last thing he wanted to do was move furniture, but he did it. Then I got out their sheets, lovies, CD player and sleep music. We put them to bed about midnight and it took awhile since I'm sure they were aware of their new surroundings. But the music really eased them...there was about maybe 10 minutes of crying from the boys and then quiet...aaaaahhhhhh that's the best part!

We couldn't go to bed until the dogs came here. Apparently there were some issues with Majed finding out where the dogs were or something, by the time they came to our house it was about 3 am. We had unpacked their dog beds and headed upstairs for some much needed sleep!!!

Stay tuned for bloggings from Saudi! Thanks for your patience!!!