Part 1 of Coming Home: Here we go, we're at it again...

As I stated before, we have been away on vacation (loosely termed) for over a month now and we have been home for only 1 week-so far. It is definitely a life stressor—vacation. Maybe not for others, but for this family of six, traveling overseas (1st with all four children under the age 12), multiple plane adventures, one 12 hour road trip, to two extend families to visit in two states; Texas and Ohio.

Some might even say---four kids, no problem…yeah right! Did your blood pressure just raise thinking about that trip or was it just me? So on 5th of November we flew out from Frankfurt, Germany to Dallas, TX. A plane ride was an eleven hour non-stop flight. Again, the pros and cons are numerous to a long non-stop flight which are:

PROS

Getting on plane and off plane only once
Don’t have to carry luggage to make next flight
Don’t have to carry children to make next flight
One time check-in, one time security line
One time customs line

CONS

Children.


Not to say that having children is a bad thing…hey, I have four of them. I am saying 11 hours on a plane with four children is a mad house. Considering it was the first flight with all four, it was also my baby’s (13 months old) first flight as well. Needless-to-say, he was NOT a happy camper nor were the immediate passengers.

Lufthansa personnel were excellent and very helpful to our family. I am most appreciating their customer service that day. The first time around (for meals) they did not ask us what we wanted—so by the time they came to us (we sat and the tail end of the plane) they only had what no one else wanted; to definitely include our children.

Second time around they served us first. I was so grateful! Good thing we had plenty of water and snacks along the way—we definitely needed it.

Entertainment wise—each seat had a touch T.V. screen. We had numerous choices of movies, T.V. serious, Movies, Cartoons for kids and radio of course. Awesome! It definitely kept my older three entertained…whereas my Roman had other plans.

That boy did not sleep—I mean at all!! O.K maybe one hour combined the entire trip vs. his daily three hour nap. Good thing this flight was not a overnight flight…or else we would have had a miserable time.

Being the worry-wort (I know I should not be), I had apologized and thanked the crew numerous times for our family. Even though it wasn’t as horrible as I thought we were being…the flight crew reassured us that we were a ‘wonderful family’ ---my goodness I thought—does it get worse than a crying baby here and there?? I suppose so. He could have been crying the entire time, our three-year old could have been hopping seats, and my other two could have been loud and obnoxious. I suppose.

Well, as you can imagine, we made it through the flight and arrived in Dallas safely and sanely—almost. Next week, I’ll describe our trip to Texas, people and places there.