Unexpected trip

One concern when you live 9,000 miles away from your family is what you will do if you get "the call" and you need to get back ASAP.  On December 20th, I got that call.  I had a little warning that it may be coming, but it was still very unsettling all the same.  I was with the kids at a local mall when the call came.  We were in a busy place, my mind was racing, I was on the verge of tears, and my children were behaving like monkeys because the only words they really heard were "we are going back to the States for Christmas".

I was very thankful that my husband booked us on a flight out of Sydney the very next day.  I was especially thankful because he did this with a lot of faith.  He knew that his contract with Cerner stated that they would cover a plane trip home in the case of emergency, but he did not have the confirmation of this when he booked the flight.  Also, it was a very, very pricey flight as it was on the last Saturday before Christmas.  But, he did it because he knew it just needed to happen.  (I am also thankful that Cerner did as they promised, and reimbursed us for these crazy expensive tickets.)

Friday evening was spent furiously packing and preparing for our trans-Pacific trip that I usually spend at least a week or two mentally preparing for.  We also were taking the opportunity to bring some items to stay back in the States in preparation for our move home in a month.  We were able to take our entire winter wardrobes home since we wouldn't need them in Australia anymore.

We were all set and we headed to the airport on Saturday morning.  Usually, when we go to the airport with all 8 of our checked bags, as well as carry-ons, we book a van in advance to take us.  There would have been an extra fee if we would have done that this time as it was such short notice.  We decided to take our chance and try to grab 2 wagon taxis down to the airport this time.  This really isn't such a huge chance as we live directly across from a taxi stand, but it was a little less convenient than knowing your van will just be sitting outside waiting for you.

It was all going fine, we got our 2 taxis, we got the airport, and then we went to check our bags.  We told the lady at the counter that we had 8 bags to check.  We load all of our bags one by one onto the scale, they get their sticker to say where they are going, and then they go down the conveyor belt until out of sight.  Once we finish our bags, the lady looks up and says "that was only 7".  Sean and I looked at each other and thought "Crap!".  Did we really only have 7?  Did we leave one in a taxi?  Did we leave one at the apartment?  The bags were already out of sight though, so there was nothing we could do.  It left us with a very bad feeling for a few minutes.  Luckily, between the two of us, we were able to talk it out and realized that we were probably counting our largest carry-on as a checked bag when we were at the apartment.  There was no way to be 100% sure until we were reunited with our luggage in Dallas.  (Another thing to be thankful about, we had just miscounted.  We learned our lesson to be more careful when counting our luggage in the future!)

We had no other big bumps along the way on the flight.  Even with the luggage mishap, there is always a sense of relief once the checked bags are gone and we make it through security.  At that point, you have endless hours of waiting, figuring out how to entertain yourself, and keep everyone moderately happy.  With today's modern technology, we really don't have too much to complain about.  Well, except the legroom (or lack of) in economy seating, but that is really it.

As we were getting off the flight in Dallas, we did all the normal stuff we usually do.  We had to take possession of our bags, see that we had all the bags we thought we should have, and re-check them.  It did not occur to us to check our flight to KC before we re-checked our bags.  We knew there was going to be a winter storm hitting KC, but we just didn't think about it too much.   We are not exactly thinking clearly when we stumble off that long flight.  Wouldn't you know, after we had already re-checked our bags, we saw that our flight to KC had been cancelled.  Sean went up to the counter and found out that we could not get on another flight to KC until the NEXT afternoon.  The guy at the counter even got upset with Sean for re-checking his bags already.  Ugh. What a mess.  We didn't even have winter coats; they were in the checked bags.  

Sean, who is never patient to wait for any sort of public transportation when he knows he can drive to his destination, decided he wanted to rent a car and drive up to Kansas City.  I decided to go along with the plan since we would have to rent a car to get around Dallas for the night anyway.  Plus, we were not even guaranteed seats on the flight the next afternoon, so driving the 8 hours to KC seemed to be a better idea.  

Even with all the hassle, it felt good to be back in the States when we rolled out of the airport in our rental SUV.  We stopped by an Old Navy to get some cheap winter gear, grabbed a bite to eat at Whataburger, and headed north.  We knew we were very tired and we were headed into bad weather, so we didn't push it too far that night.  We collapsed in a Springhill Suites in Ardmore, Oklahoma.  It was such a comforting feeling to go into a nice, clean hotel room for under $100 a night.  And, breakfast was included!!  These are the little things we miss.  You will never see a family as excited we were to go down to the continental breakfast the next morning.  It wasn't even a very good one, but we didn't care.  All we really needed was the cook-it-yourself Belgian waffles!  Yum!

Driving up to KC that day was kind of a slow process.  There was a fair amount of snow and ice on the ground.  We finally made it back by early evening.  We found out our luggage made it back before we did.  Sean ran up to the airport that evening and retrieved it.  We were happy to have finally made it back home.  Of course, the kids were still on a high that they were in KC for Christmas and there was even snow on the ground!  They could not be any more thrilled.  The cold does not bother them.  I, on the other hand, could not breathe for a few moments the first time the arctic air hit me in the face.  Australia's moderate temps have definitely spoiled me!

Carter on the ride from Dallas to Kansas City

Aubrey was having fun playing peek-a-boo with her new stocking cap.

We spent 10 days at home.  It felt more like 2 days.  It was a blur.  We really focused on our family time and not much else.  It was good that Sean spent some time preparing the house for the kids and I to move back in January.  For example, we had forgotten that the kids had broken the shower head in their bathroom the day before we went back to Sydney in July.  We came back in December to find the shower head just laying in the bathtub.  So, that became one of Sean's projects.  

Celebrating Christmas with our family with snow outside was very special.  There is no way we can replicate that in Australia.  Even though we were in our KC house for Christmas, it was still not quite like other Christmases.  We were not going to put up our Christmas tree since we did not spend a lot of time at our house and then we would just have to take it back down again.  We did our best to uphold our Christmas traditions....

This is what we left for Santa.  We had no milk or Christmas cookies.  The kids thought that Santa was getting quite a treat with the Cherry Coke Zero.  On Christmas morning, Aubrey noticed that Santa drank the Coke before she noticed her brand new bike sitting in the middle of the living room!

By the end of this trip, I was having a little anxiety about getting back on that plane to Australia.  I had never done that long plane ride twice (and soon to be three times) in such a short time-period.  There was a lot weighing on my mind also.  As we have learned over the past couple of years, we just pick ourselves back up, keep moving, and it generally works out alright.  

We actually flew back to Australia on December 31st.  We never had a January 1st as that was the day we skipped when we crossed back over the international date line.  It was January 2nd when we landed in Australia.  I was a little disappointed that the Qantas flight crew did not take a moment to wish us a Happy New Year at some point of the journey.  They could have made up some "midnight" during the trip to commemorate the moment.  Oh well.  I did happen to look at my watch at what would have been midnight Central Standard Time, caught Sean's attention, and we shared a New Year kiss over the seats of our 2 children.  You know, we had to do all that sappy New Year stuff.  It is good to appreciate how far you have come.  Celebrate the good things.  Take note the bad things so that you can gain a little wisdom.  And, most importantly, look forward to all the awesomeness yet to come.  

Carter and I on the plane before we took off again for Australia on New Years Eve