Going over the ocean!

Surprisingly flying over the ocean was not as terrible as I thought it was going to be.  The number 1 factor was that I kept Maya on the pacifier, which helped her calm down on the airplane and probably helped her ears as well.  I was a little worried about flying Aer Lingus since it was so inexpensive, but even Brian was impressed with the legroom and the on board entertainment situation.  Not to mention our lovely conversations with the flight attendants.  They were so confused why we would want to leave Las Vegas to see Ireland.  Especially since our layover was in Shannon.  They said there's nothing to see there but sheep!  We just had a short layover in Shannon to get to London.

We made it over without too much trouble, and landed at a small airport in Shannon, Ireland.  We decided to get a little something to eat since we had a little time.  Over the course of the trip we would discover little things that were different and a lot of things they did better in other airports!  Like the trays on an automatic roller.  Awesome.  

We sat down and Brian got us some pastries, coffee, and the boys hot chocolate.  I noticed the couple next to us enjoying their morning Guiness.  Nothing like a dark beer in the morning!  

Aaron was lounging in the stroller pushed up to the table.  Connor was so overjoyed to see the hot chocolate he pushed one over to Aaron exclaiming, "HOT CHOCOLATE AARON!!!!" and as quick as he pushed it was as quick as it toppled over and spilled.  The hot chocolate had no safety lid so it ran all over the table and off the edge, right onto Aaron.  Then the immediate SCREAM and CRYING from Aaron in your first foreign country is not the experience you'd want to have.  Thankfully it wasn't too hot, but I had to get Aaron up, and unfortunately we didn't have our bags to get him a change of clothes.

He calmed down about 10 minutes later and was able to enjoy some of Connor's hot chocolate and some pastries.

We got onto our next flight and headed to our next destination...LONDON where we were excited to see my Brother and sister in law, who we had not seen in about a year.  We had been dreaming of visiting them, and I couldn't believe that we were actually doing it with all three kids.  It really was a dream come true.

The flight was short, and we landed in London as scheduled.  After getting our bags we headed to the nearest waiting area.  Tired after 12 hours of travelling with small children we were ready to get to Thomas and Courtney's house.  We didn't see them anywhere, and we didn't have their phone number, so I decided to pay for an internet computer to Facebook them.  Thankfully they responded right away.  

Courtney told me that there was a fatal accident involving large trucks on the freeway heading into London.  So after the long dayof traveling we were stuck in the London airport waiting for them to arrive.  It was terrible for them as well.  Courtney was about 6 months pregnant so stuck in traffic is the last thing you want to be.

Brian ended up getting some cash since he was itching to exchange it, but it turns out he got ripped off pretty good in the airport.  The fees were super high, and he should have waited.  Most people took our VISA card anyway, but you live and learn!!

So I think we waited about 2 hours for them to finally arrive, and that was a sweet moment.  All of our tiredness seemed to float away.  Courtney took the kids and I back to Prickwillow in her car, which she had so nicely prepared with car seats and everything.  

Brian, Thomas and Connor went to go get our rental car.  They had quite the experience from what I've been told.  They had to wait about an hour in a very unorganized office.  So they ended up being quite a ways behind us.  At least Brian was happy with our car when we did get it:

Courtney took us strait to the commissary on base so that I could get the necessities for the kids.  Mainly I didn't want to travel with a bunch of diapers, so it was nice I could go buy things right away.  It was very similar to a US grocery store, and I even paid in US dollars.  We even stopped at Taco Bell for dinner on the way home.  It didn't have all the specials like they do in the United States, but it was still very much the same.  When we got to their home we were so happy to be there.  It was so nice that we were going to be able to spend over a week with them and it was even better that Thomas got a lot of days off to spend it with us!