From Kaukauna, WI to Chesterton, U.K.

          It was a SAD farewell at the Green Bay airport as the kids waved good-bye to the grandparents.  Lots of hugs, but lots of tears as well.  We didn't expect anything else.  The kids adore their grandparents and all their relatives so it was difficult to wave good-bye (for now).  Fortunately for all of us the internet will be a real blessing.  Skype, Face Time, email & blogging will become a part of our everyday life here in England.

          When we finally boarded the plane the kids started to focus on their first ever plane ride.  Alex watched out the window almost the whole way (except over Lake Michigan...that made him bury his face in my shoulder).  Owen and Emily enjoyed watching out the window as well.  Eli discovered the air vents overhead and was quite content pointing that at himself and blowing his hair all over.  It was supposed to be a 50 minute flight, but we sat on the runway for a while and then when we landed in Detroit the airport staff couldn't get the jetway to connect properly so we sat on the airplane for another 45 minutes.  We were struggling to entertain Eli, but he didn't cry so we were thankful.

          Spent a couple of hours in the Detroit airport (Mike kept Emily from seeing the Pandora shop).  Nice airport.  The next flight was about to take off when we had to turn around and go back to the gate (for an hour!).  There were about 50 high school choir members on our flight and one of them got sick before we even took off!  The airport staff had to come on and clean it up.  Oh, and he did it just a few feet from us.  We had the last rows on the plane.  One woman said she takes this flight every month and that was the first time it was that full (thanks to the back-ups from the weather in the northeast).  We were expecting to let the kids have a couple of seats to spread out.  Not at all.  The only empty seat was Eli's.  He sat on Mike's lap and slept the entire trip.  The other 3 were almost silent.  They each had their backpacks full of things to do and they had their own screens to watch movies on.  Emily & Alex slept for a couple of hours, but Owen liked the idea of staying up and playing on the ipad, watching movies, etc.  He didn't sleep until about an hour before we landed.  I'm glad he was asleep for the landing.  It was the roughest landing either Mike or I have ever seen.  The winds were horrible and the entire flight was rather turbulent, but the last hour was incredibly turbulent.  The plane did the usual rocking, but as we were approaching the runway (and even on the runway) the plane rocked left and right as well.  That scared a lot of people and when we were safely taxiing everyone clapped.  I had to look away from the kids...I was scared too and I didn't want them to see me! :)  The kids just thought that's the way it always is.  As they say, "it's like a roller coaster ride."  Plane rides can only look up from here!  (At least 6 more choir members got sick and threw up during the flight too...and we were only 3 feet from the bathrooms...fun place to sit!)

          Anyway here's a photo of the kids after we landed at Heathrow.  We were all glad to be done with the plane trips.