Day 1, Sleep Walking

Wes, during his "I don't mind seatbelts" phase of the trip. This lasted about 10 minutes and no longer. It was during our first flight from Omaha to Minneapolis. After this phase, the rest of the time was spent between "I want to climb all over this plane and talk to every person on it" and "leave me the heck alone so I can sleep" phases. The picture below was taken during the "WOW!" phase of the trip where he looked out the window at the earth below passing beneath our feet and kept turning to shout "WOW!" over and over again. We were nearing Minneapolis at this time.

Hello from the UK! We've been here a grand total of 31 hours. We landed yesterday at 7:15 am (UK time) looking like walking zombies and have maintained that look until 2pm today when we finally woke up and got ready for the day. Too bad by the time we got ready (at 3:30 pm) the sun is already going down. It gets dark here fast! Daylight doesn't last too long. From what we've seen of England so far (and it hasnt' been much because we can't seem to stay awake) it's beautiful! Green hills, beautiful deciduous trees that are bright orange, gold, and red, and quaint little farms. I missed the whole drive through London from the airport because I was pretty much asleep as soon as I sat down. And, that happened even though I was actively TRYING to see it all and take it all in. Right now we're living in the temporary living facility (which is like a glorified hotel room with cooking abilities) on Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base. It pretty much feels like I'm still in the United States except for the lovely accents I encounter in the commissary, the base exchange and the Taco Bell??? We start house hunting tomorrow and I can hardly wait to find OUR house and start living there out in the English countryside and out in the culture.

But, there are things to write before that happens, like our adventures while travelling yesterday! We left our hotel room in Nebraska at 6:30 pm, packed the taxi van full to the ceiling with our stuff, and all of the people and pets that had to go with us. We drove first to the storage unit to store some last minute odds and ends (basically everything that couldn't fit into our suitcases that were practically bursting at the seams) and then to the airport, 2 hours before our flight. Good thing too, because it took us an hour to check in. The taxi driver helped us unload that heavy baggage out of his van and a porter helped us take it inside. You could literally hear the three clerks gasp when approached the check in counter. I could picture them calculating in their heads how much our baggage would cost us since airlines now charge you for actually taking luggage with you on your travels. We showed up with 6 bags (over 300 pounds of stuff), several carryons, a cat, a stroller, a car seat...and just 3 people. We were glad to be spared the expense of the baggage by our military orders (which allow you to pack an insane amount of luggage for permanent changes of station). And when I say insane...you know I mean it! I couldn't lift some of the bags! It took the longest to get Cricket ready for the plane. None of the clerks had ever checked a cat before and they stayed on the phone checking regulations for nearly an hour! When it was all done, you could barely see Cricket's carrier for all of the stickers...red, green, yellow and white ones posted all over the place stating that she was a "live animal" and shouldn't be turned upside down. You would have had to be an idiot to not know which way was "up" on that carrier.

After checking everything, we still had about 100 pounds of stuff to haul around in our carry-ons...and that doesn't count Weslee! (I know we're crazy, but we have to live off of whatever we could carry for the next 2 months.) We got to the plane just a few minutes before boarding time.

The actual flights were uneventful. The plane worked wonderfully. Wes was an angel (which I SO appreciated) and cried only a couple of times when he slipped off of the seat into the floor trying to play with the television on the back of the seat. He made friends with everyone on the plane...especially a little boy named Jaylen on our flight to London. Jaylen was nice enough to share Cheetohs with Wes on the ride, which Wes happily ate and then smeared the excess cheese on the back of my shirt (without my knowledge). Yummy! By the end of the trip, I was pretty nasty. Between the usual grossness of traveling for 24 hours, the sweat, bad breath, greasy hair and the feeling that your nose and throat will forever feel like sandpaper is lodged in them...and the added nastiness from Wes (fruit cocktail on my jeans, snot on my shirt, etc...luckily, I missed out on the spaghetti sauce from the airline dinner. Kevin proudly wore that part). He even slept well on the plane. However, Kevin and I pretty much went the entire flight without sleep. Poor Kevin went the entire day without sleep, but I caught a few hours of rest at the USO in Minnesota.

Let me tell you about the USO. It's a place for military personnel to rest and clean up between travels. This one was run by volunteers and it was SO NICE. There was a bunk room for ladies with a pack-n-play for Wes to sleep in and a bunk for me to sleep in. We turned out the lights and slept for a good 2 1/2 hours. I was expecting to have to fight with Wes to sleep out in a busy terminal. Instead, he quietly went to sleep for a good amount of time and I even got some rest. It was so nice. They even fed us hot dogs and ham and cheese sandwiches. They had toys for Wes to play with. I felt so blessed that was had a place to go to for our 8 hour layover!

When we finally arrived in London, we looked so comical trying to steer Weslee's stroller and two huge carts full of luggage around. We had no idea where our cat was and trying to find out was a little bit of an ordeal. The other ordeal was trying to figure out how to get from Heathrow airport in London to the airforce base in Mildenhall, over 2 hours away! Our sponsor (one of Kevin's co-workers at Mildenhall) was unable to show up because a laurie (a semi, basically) had run into his truck recently. But, he told us we could catch the Mildenhall shuttle which left the airport twice a day to Mildenhall. Yeah...we got there in time for that, but they wouldn't take us with a cat. So, we sat in a freezing cold waiting room while Kevin looked for taxis. The hardest part was trying to understand a "foreigner" (Indian, Iranian, etc) speaking poor English in a Brittish accent over the phone. Kevin couldn't tell what their prices were half of the time. Finally, a taxi driver noticed Kevin coming back and forth to the taxi booth for information. His own customer had not shown up and he offered us a ride in his taxi to Mildenhall for a reasonable price. We felt so blessed. He even took us half a mile away to pick up our cat from quarantine. We only had to pay $340 to get there! Yikes! Some of the other taxis were charging like $500 to drive us the 2 1/2 hours!

Needless to say, when we arrived at the front gates of Mildenhall, we looked like we had been run over by a truck a few times. We were so happy to be here, though. A sargeant came and picked us up, helped us get our hotel room, took us to the commissary to get food, to the BX to get a litter box, food and litter for our cat, and to the post office to get our new address. He even showed us the food court where we ate more Taco Bell than any one person really should. It was a happy moment and I understood why the Nephites kissed the ground when they finally landed in the Americas. I wanted to kiss the bed I saw when I entered the hotel room. It has been my good friend these past 31 hours!

We all went to sleep at 7pm last night and mysteriously all woke up at midnight. We stayed up and ate Lucky Charms until 3 am and went back to sleep and all woke up again at noon. It's been such an odd feeling being so off schedule. But, we're adjusting and we're happy to be here! Now, it's time to really go to the commissary and get stuff to make dinner for my family!