And so the Disney princess obsession continues. Every day Abby asks if she can wear her Elsa dress. For some reason I swear that dress has magical evil powers that make Abby crazy hyper all. day. long. So as you can imagine, I only bust out the possessed dress every now and then. This week she got so worked up that she bit the head off of her little Cinderella figurine (she has all the princesses in little inch sized plastic figurines that she plays with every day, all day). RIP Cinderella, and goodbye Elsa dress... For now.
Nothing is more sweeter than watching Abby and Connor play together or watch a move together. Sometimes they fight, steal toys from one another, or know just how to push the others buttons, but every now and then they share toys, entertain one another, and snuggle together. This week I was fortunate enough to get a lot of house work done while they watched Beauty and the Beast together. Even though it's hard, it's precious moments like this that make being a mommy to these little rugrats all worth it.
Abby will do anything for ice cream these days. I tell her if she naps then she will get ice cream, and what does she do? She marches right upstairs and puts herself to sleep. Of corse she seems to have the most amazing memory and asks for ice cream the moment she wakes up from her nap. I can't say I don't blame her. I too will do almost anything for delicious ice cream. I am just glad I have found a "reward" that clicks with her when it comes to shaping positive and negative behaviors. Maybe it will work with potty training?
Kyle left for A TDY to Guam on Wednesday and the kids and I were determined to get down there not only to visit him, but to travel around Guam! My friend Tiffany and her two kids were willing to join us on our space A adventures. The next day we saw there was a hop from Misawa to Yokota, then the next day Yokota to Kadena, followed by another hop from Kadena to Andersen base on Guam. We were determined. We were packed. And we were ready for the adventure.
After waiting 2 hours for the flight from Misawa to Yokota (which we made the roll call for and were selected for the flight) we were informed that the flight had been canceled and no seats would be available. At that point my friend Tiffany and her girls decided to back out, but I wasn't willing to throw in the towel that easily. So I decided to take the trains down to Yokota to try for the hop out the next day. My dear friend Rachel drove us to the train station where I was determined to figure out the trains by myself with two whiney kids.
I was nervous, confused, and distracted with changing diapers and running after two toddlers that we boarded the train to Aomori instead of Hachinohe. As soon as the doors closed to the train I realized we were going the wrong way and was so mad at myself. Now, mad and embarrassed, I got off at the next stop in the town just out of Misawa in hopes to catch the train going the other way to Hachinohe. I had no idea that the next station would be so tiny that it literally was only a bus stop with trains stopping by every 2.5 hours!!!! So now we were stuck in this little shelter thing that was exposed to the outside while it started to snow, and had to wait almost 3 hrs for the next train.
At that point I just started crying and realized that I needed to pick up on all the clues and signs and realize the kids and I were not meant to go to Guam. After watching movies on the DVD player and feeding the kids snacks while cuddling together to keep them warm and distracted from the fact that we were freezing in the snow, the train, some three hours later finally came. I decided to call it quits and just went back to Misawa where Rachel came to pick us up and bring us back home.
I was embarrassed, frustrated, and above all felt horrible that I made my sweet babies wait out in the cold for 3 hours waiting for the train. It was apparent we were all starting to get sick from being in the cold for so long and my guilt for making my babies sick hit me hard. We ended up staying home the next couple days recovering from our sickness, and me recovering from disappointment that Guam wasn't going to happen.
Several days later, more flights popped up on Space A to get us to Guam, but that also meant that I would have to figure out the trains again in order for these flights to work. After much prayer and positive self talk, I felt like I should give it one more try to get to Guam. If at first your don't succeed, try, try again.
Misawa train station to Hachinohe, then switched to the shikansen or bullet train to Tokyo. At Tokyo we had to switch lines again to get us to Fussa and finish off with a 5 minute taxi ride to Yokota Air Base. We made it!! I was so proud, and the kids did great. They are my little travel buddies and have learned to just go with it now. The Japanese people are so friendly and helpful, and not once did I feel as though we were in danger.
We spent the night at Yokota and caught the early morning (5:00 roll call) flight to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. Flying space A you never know what kind of airplane you will be on. So they loaded us up on a bus to take us out to the aircraft and low and behold it was a C-130. NNNOOO!!! The slowest, coldest, and loudest airplane in the history of airplanes! I guess beggars can't be choosers. I did my best to keep the kids warm and protect their ears from the loud propellers on the plane for 4 hours! Yes, it was a 4 hour flight when usually it only takes 2.5 hours. That's because we were on a C-130 ... Remember when I said it was super slow?? FINALLY we made it to Kadena just before the kids completely lost it and before my last drop of patience ran out. It was an interesting experience to say the least, and one I hope we don't have to do again. We had to sit in jump seats along the side of the aircraft, and the bathroom situation was... Well there was none. They taped a tarp to the ceiling of the plane and let me pee in a bucket. It was all so glamorous.
The first thing we did was shower and clean up at the lodging on base then of course grab some food. Kadena is HUGE compared to Misawa. We spent over an hour just walking the ailes of the BX drooling. As exciting as it all was we decided to go to bed early and get good sleep cause we had another early flight the next day to Andersen Guam.
We snagged a taxi at 4:00 in the morning for a 4:30 roll call flight, only to find a lovely note taped to the terminal door saying the flight had been canceled. By this point the taxi had already left and the kids and I were stranded outside the terminal at 4:10 in the morning with not a soul in sight. I started to panic. I tried to call the taxi service or even the lodging but my calls were not going through. Kyle couldn't help me either cause he was already in Guam with no phone. After 15 minutes of freaking out, crying and running around trying to find someone I decided it was time to say a prayer. Within a couple minutes I saw a car pull up and an Airman was getting out to report to work. He helped me call a taxi and the kids and I were able to go back to our room and sleep a little more. The power of prayer is real!
Luckily there was another flight out that day for Guam, so we were crossing our fingers we would make that flight. In the mean time we met up with some friends from BYU and from Vance. Kyle was actually their home teacher during UPT. It was fun to catch up with Anna and meet her son, Connor. It was even more fun to watch the two Connors run around together. She took us to eat at a place that serves traditional Okinawa salads, walked around a fun shopping complex and got to see the Ocean. Even though we were still in Japan I didn't feel like I was. Everyone speaks English there, and the tiny island is populated with over 7 bases! So it was like mini America.
It was getting close to time for her to drop us off at the terminal again when I checked the flight info online to make sure the flight wasn't canceled (like the one in the morning). They had bumped up the roll call time by 45 minutes leaving us only 10 minutes to get to the terminal if we were going to make the flight. So basically we chucked all the kids in the car and sped to the terminal. We walked in just as they started doing roll call and made the flight by literally seconds, huge tender mercy. The rest of the afternoon I had so much adrenaline and was all shook up from the whole day that I couldn't stop shaking. I am so grateful for my sweet friend Anna and all her help. There is no way we would have been able to make it without her help. I hope we can return the favor sometime for them.
This time we boarded a C5. The plane is huge, by far the biggest plane I have ever been on. We were expected to land in Guam by 11:30 at night so I was hoping the kids would sleep most of the flight. For the most part the flight went well. We had a couple hiccups at the beginning like Connor falling off a seat and getting a bloody nose, and Abby screaming hysterically due to exhaustion, but they finally passed out for the majority of the flight. There were only 8 passengers with over 65 seats available so we had plenty of space, and thankfully this plane was warm, quiet with no propellers, and goes decently fast.
We were so relieved when we landed in Guam. Kyle was there to pick us up, and we went straight back to hotel to practically collapse on the bed. It was quite the adventure to say the least, but we did it! As hard as it is to travel space A with kids, I know we will never regret it. I Conquered my fear of the trains, traveling alone with kids, and figuring out space A. We made it to Guam, now bring on the sun and beaches.
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