After what felt like a relatively short flight, we made it to Seattle. The flight was only 8 hours because we had wind on our side which was nice. Abby watched several movies and slept for a portion of the flight, as did Connor. Brayden on the other hand, he didn't sleep at all!!! It was exhausting taking turns with Kyle wrestling Brayden during those 8 hours. He of course finally fell asleep once we were 30 minutes from landing.
Once we hit the ground and got off the plane, we went straight to the USO at the SeaTac airport to wait and hopefully rest before our connecting flight to Las Vegas which was scheduled for later that afternoon. The USO is nice and very large. They have a great kids room which my kids loved. They played for about an hour and then crashed hard! They were so tired that they fell asleep on the floor with Kyle and Brayden and I slept in a reclining chair together. We were all out for a good three hours before we woke up, freshened up, got some food, then headed to our connecting flight. Jet lag is a beast!
That little cat nap really helped out because by the time we landed in Vegas and got our rental car it was 9 at night and we still had a two hour drive ahead of us to get to grandma and grandpa Benham's place. The kids slept in the car and Kyle and I loaded up on caffeinated drinks to stay awake for the drive. We were exhausted and our body clocks were all messed up with the time change. Once we made it to St. George we went straight to bed.
Kyle and I stayed a day in St. George to visit with his parents a bit, to go over the kids schedules before leaving, and to recoup from our trip. It was fun to see Abby and Connor play with their cousin Carter, and to see their grandma and grandpa. Being overseas these past three years our family time has been limited and precious to us. I was starting to get mom guilt for leaving them with their grandma and grandpa for the next three weeks while Kyle and I take care of moving details and go on a vacation, but Kaye eased my mind when she told me she had a bunch of activities planned for the kids such as swim lessons, preschool, dance lessons, park outings, and The Children's Museum. I realized that the kids would have way more fun with grandma Kaye and wouldn't even miss me, even though I knew I was going to miss them terrible. I knew deep down that it was better for them that we do this as well because taking three little kids back and forth through time zone changes and having no home base would be even harder on them then having them stay with grandma for that time.
I have never been away from them, especially this long of a time! My kids are my whole world and I had to talk to myself the past couple weeks to convince myself that I wasn't the worst mother in the world for ditching them for a trip with Kyle. Kyle and I are going on 9 years of marriage and these past three years in Misawa have really been hard on us. We have had separations due to TDY that have caused strain on our marriage, and I knew that this trip without kids was just what we needed to relax, spend some quality one on one time together, and start making plans for our future assignment in Arizona. So as tough as it was to say goodbye to my babies I knew they were in the best hands, that they would have a blast, and that this would not only make me a better wife but a better mother when I come back.
Kyle and I first made a stop down in Arizona for two days to walk through the house, and go to the Honda dealer to officially purchase the Honda Pilot we have been eyeing for some time now. When the house and the car where taken care of we made arrangements with a pool company to start the paperwork and design of a pool for the backyard. Moving back to the States gets pricey especially when you are buying a house, car, pool, and other necessity items such as appliances and phones. We just had to take a deep breath as we signed for all these big purchases. It's a lot all at once, but we have been saving these past three years for these big purchases and it will all be ok, breathe in and breathe out. It was definitely the most expensive 2 days we have ever had, but we got a lot accomplished and before we knew it we were flying back to Seattle.
While we were in Arizona we also checked out some land in Verrado and fell in love! It is a quaint little town that is nestled right up against the White Tank mountains. It has amazing schools, the community is highly sought after, and the land was beautiful. I think it's safe to say we may have found the place where we want to settle down at when this wild Air Force journey is over. Now all we have to do is save up these next three years in Arizona and buy some land out in Verrado so that it's all ready for us to build on down the road when we can officially call Arizona our home for good.
It's only been a couple of days since we left the kids but I still cry every night missing them. Kaye has been so great with sending me pictures of them. They are having such a wonderful time and I am so grateful for such amazing in laws. They have already been to the movies, Abby started preschool, swim lessons are in full swing, and they are regulars at the Children's Museum in St. George. I know this is a huge burden to ask them to watch three very active kids, and not many in laws would be willing to do so. I am just so grateful for their help and support. They will never know how much we appreciate their help and how much their willingness to watch our kids is helping Kyle and myself concentrate on our marriage by giving us some much needed time together.
When we landed in Seattle Saturday night we met up with some long time friends, Joel and Melissa. They have been such close friends for over 10 years now. I taught t ballet with Melissa at Center Stage in Utah, and I worked with Joel at Linx the summer before Kyle and I got married. We spent a lot of time over at their place hanging out the whole summer prior to our wedding and the couple years we were in Utah together before we went off to Oklahoma for pilot training. It was almost the same time that we moved to Oklahoma that they moved up to the Seattle area for a new job. We have always stayed in touch so it was fun to meet up on our one night in Seattle before our flight out to Japan the following morning.
We ate at a fun Argentina BBQ place and stayed up late laughing, talking, and catching up. It's so nice to have such great friends that you can pick up right where you left off from the last time we were together. Sadly time came for us to say goodbye again, and Kyle and I spent the night at the USO in the airport so we could catch our super early fight out to Misawa.
That 9 hour flight to Misawa was wonderful! It was the first time we had flown without kids in years and I didn't know what to do with myself. I took a nap, ate my food, read a book, watched movies, took another nap... it was amazing! Anyone who says traveling is so stressful and doesn't have kids I want to just slap them cause that was hands down the most relaxing experience of my life!
When we got off the plane Misawa greeted us with it's bitter cold winds and layers upon layers of snow. We were back home, but it didn't feel like home anymore with our babies gone. We had two days to wrap up all our loose ends, get the house prepped and ready for the movers, do as much out processing as possible, and then we have nothing but Southeast Asia to look forward to!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment