we made it!!!

our family is finally back together!

here is a little rundown of our trip:

we loaded 3 extremely full hockey bags, a huge double stroller, 3 carry-ons, my dad's big suitcase, 2 carseats, 2 babies, and 2 adults into a driver service's SUV and headed to JFK airport on friday night. our plane was on time. both the babies were tired, so we hoped for a restful night on the plane. my dad flew over with us and was either very nice or very smart (as he wanted the extra space)-he upgraded us to business c

lass for the long flight. so, we assumed we could all sleep the flight away. we took our seats up in the silent bubble of the 747 and there were 2 empty seats, which happened to be next to me and next to my dad. lucky us! that meant ruby would be able to have her own seat if needed. the flight started out very stressful for me. for anyone that has ever been on an airplane with me, this will not be a surprise! the flight attendant warned us that due to severe tail winds the flight would be extremely turbulent. she said that the girls both needed to be buckled up in a harness that attached to our seatbelts. seriously? calla weighs 9 pounds. how are we supposed to buckle her in? we did our best. my hands were so sweaty. i was thinking that this was going to be a very long flight. the turbulence ended up being much less than expected. thank goodness! ruby fell asleep right after we took off...

i made the mistake of saying to my dad, "i bet she will sleep the entire flight!" no more than 30 minutes later, she was wide awake and ready to play. we were up the rest of the flight. she made me laugh with the tvs. they are the individual ones tucked into the armrests of the seats. by the end of the flight, she knew how to open the armrest and pull the tv out to watch. but, she wouldn't wear the headphones so she watched in silence the whole time. i made the mistake of trying to change her diaper on the vacant seat next to me. the flight attendant immediately told me that was not allowed and that i needed to use the changing table in the bathroom. so, we tried it. the changing table is not even long enough for calla to lay on!! needless to say, ruby was WAY too big for it. i had to change her with her legs straight in the air. she looked at me like i was crazy the entire time. after countless snacks, bottles, songs, walks through the aisles, and silent tv shows, we were finally about to land in amsterdam when the pilot told us we were put into a holding pattern in the sky due to weather in amsterdam. sweaty hands again. after a few circles, we landed! the babies were absolute troopers. we had a scare that our flight to munich was canceled, but false alarm! we got through customs with no problems. got through security AGAIN with no problems. by this point, ruby knew her boots had to come off, she had to get out of the stroller, and she had to walk through the doorway. we finally got to munich. wyatt was "impatiently waiting" as he put it. the look on ruby's (+ wyatt's) face when they saw eachother was beyond priceless. 6 weeks is way too long for a family to be apart, but getting here made it all worth it.

i'm feeling a little bad that this post is mostly about ruby. calla was an angel the entire trip. slept, ate, and slept some more. my dad spent the majority of the trip with her, as i was doing my best keeping ruby busy. wyatt only got to spend a few days with calla before he left, so it's so fun to see him actually get to know her now too :)

my mom and dad couldn't have been more helpful during this huge transition for us. we never would have gotten moved out of providence and moved to another country without all the help! thank goodness for parents. especially mine :)

i will keep updating. that's all for now...