Around the World (Halfway at Least...) in Sixty Days... (Part 2- The Flight)

Ug.  Just to start off, I hate flying (commercial that is; with B in a little plane is awesome).  Even by myself, even short flights.  I just don't like it.  To get off Guam requires a trip that is almost a full 24 hours, and I had all three girls, AND I was by myself.  Not. Fun.  Oh, and we were flying United, which does NOT have the cool individual touch screen tvs full of the latest movies and fun games.  That would be Delta.

We flew from Gaum to Hawaii.  Here are the girls all ready for takeoff, all excited...

We got to Hawaii at sunset, I think?  Not sure which day.  We ended up having two Fridays and two Saturdays, so it's all a big blur...

We flew from Hawaii to California, and the deal was that we would ALL SLEEP on that whole flight.  I even gave them dramamine.  They all laid nicely down...

Aaaannnd...  didn't sleep a wink.

We had a killer layover in LA, which was killer not because it was long, but because I had time zones mixed up in my head and kept expecting to get on the plane any minute, then kept having to wait another hour...  But a nice man played soccer with the girls while I muddled around in a haze of sleepless confusion.

Another flight to Idaho, and we were done!

I was VERY relieved to be on the ground.  I think from here on out it's all road trips for me until I absolutely have to fly due to crossing an ocean.

Around the World (Halfway at Least...) in Sixty Days... (Part One- Leaving)

We made it!  After two months and an estimated 13,000 miles, we have arrived in Virginia!  Just in time- I'm feeling very ready to be settled.  Here is a rundown of our trip:

First of all, saying goodbye STINKS!  Our church friends threw a party...

The kids got to dance and draw and party, and the grownups visited.  The men, of course, over the grill...

Our squadron had a "hail and bail", a navy tradition to welcome and say goodbye to people coming and going, and the officer spouses club had a bail for me as well.  My friend C even made us a book.  In general, lots of wonderful people said how much they love us and would miss us and it was all terribly depressing...

The girls said goodbye to lots of friends, like Miss S...

And Miss K...

And Mr. J...

I wish I would have taken pictures of everyone...

Then the mover guys came and packed everything up...

I like the way stuff gets packed for overseas moves.  They pack for space and don't worry about how heavy things are.  Instead of taking everything out of dresser drawers for instance, they leave it all where it belongs and stuff it with packing paper.  So when you unpack, you just pull out the paper and everything is where it should be!  (Of course, when we unpacked from the move to Guam, everything smelled pretty funky, so I ended up washing all clothes, bedding, and everything anyway...)  They tetris everything into big crates, caulk around all the edges- except one, which they leave open so if a crate goes in the ocean they can "drain" it, and yes, they say this does happen fairly often...- and load it into a container and then onto a ship.  Crazy, huh?

Then the "boonie furniture" arrived, allowing us to live in relative comfort for our last few days on Guam...

We used our last week to visit some of our favorite spots.
We had to say goodbye to the glorious Guam skies...

To the lovely tropical flowers, like these heliconia outside our front door...

And to our friends the anoles.  We will so miss these...

And, of course, the ocean...