I was not planning on posting so soon, but hey.... We have been in England for for 15 hours so far.
The journey to Charlotte airport was ok. We got checked in quickly, despite it being one of the busiest weekends for holiday travel. Got through security quickly also. Was asked no questions about diabetic supplies (yay!), so we settled into departures and had some food. Typically we all wanted different things to eat. Oliver and Seb had Papa Johns, Isaac and Paul had Burger King, and I had a Salseritas. A good meal to start an epic journey
We headed to our departure area, where there was 4 flights leaving within 30 minutes of each other. The boys had fun playing iPods and watching the planes. Paul even bumped into a gentleman from his department who was travelling back to Germany for the holidays. Because of our seats on the plane, we were one of the last to board. Here are our seats
We had 4 in a row, then one the other side of the aisle. The flight was not pleasant. There was an electrical issue with something in the cockpit, so we took off 45 minutes late. The service on US Airways is not great. It felt like the passengers were a burden, they had set times for everything, and if you did not fall in the times, tough. So we had out food and drinks (yuck to the food, yay to the complimentary wine. No one said in advance we had to order kids meals on line). Then they shut down the lights and we tried to get some sleep. Oliver was sitting on the end of the row, so he managed to get some. Paul was in the lonely aisle seat. And I was miles away next to Seb and Isaac. I managed about 3 hours before he insisted on taking over. Admittedly I was in tears by now as the boys were being pains in the butt, being overtired and generally very silly (as was I). So I moved to the aisle seat, and paul (best husband ever) managed to get Isaac and Seb to get to sleep. Thing is it is only a 7 hour flight. By the time we had eaten etc, they already warned us they would be waking us 1.5 hours before scheduled landing time. That left about 4 hours for sleeping. The lights in the cabin were turned off for this time. Isaac and Seb got about 3 hours sleep, Oliver a little more. Paul and I reckon we got about 3 hours tops.
We landed at heathrow, it was very bumpy due to the weather. We picked up the buggy and went through immigration relatively quickly. This was down to the staff looking out for familys and fast tracking them. Thank you UK Borders and Customs. We went and picked up our baggage, most of it was on the carousel when we got there. Then to the car hire. BMW use Sixt in the UK. Paul had a chap at a desk in the airport trying to get him to upgrade to a BMW 5 series. He politely refused. Once we had been transported the xxxx. miles to their pick up garage, he had the same thing again, but for a cheaper price. We drive these cars all the time, so I said I thought it was not a good idea....in the mean time, Isaac had fallen and hit his head on a metal post, so he had a nice big egg on the back of his head.
We ended up with a Ford Galaxy. It is new, and very spacious. The drive to my dads took less than 45 minutes. I had to keep Isaac awake for the last 10 minutes. We arrived here about 9.20 with 3 very tired boys, and 2 tired parents...
Luckily my dad was expecting us. The joys of having mobiles for the UK and the US. He fixed us coffee before having to pop out. Paul went for a sleep. I woke him after an hour and a half. I gave the boys an early lunch, and Seb was down for a sleep by 12.45. Oliver and Isaac amused themselves by playing with the items we had purchased for the plane originally. I went to bed while Seb was sleeping. Paul woke me, just before he got Seb.
Seb was brought downstairs, and was placed on the sofa, leading to this beautiful photo.
We are all so tired. After Isaac and Seb had woken up, Oliver started looking very tired. We have literally let them watch tv and play all day. Their body clocks are 5 hours behind. Oliver and grandad fell asleep on the soda about 4pm.
We ordered a curry for delivery for dinner. The adults thoroughly enjoyed theirs, only Sebastian and Oliver ate any of theirs. Naan bread for Oliver and the chicken for Seb. Oliver was back asleep on the sofa straight after dinner, so I thought it best to get them all to bed. Oppps. Oliver went straight to sleep, but Isaac and Seb were having none of it, to the point that they woke Oliver. We put the older 2 back to bed, to be told 5 minutes later that Seb was getting out of his cot. We all went in their room to watch Seb climb put of the cot, and land on the bed. Cue nightmares about our sleeping arrangements for the next 2 weeks. We tried him in the boys bed but that is never going to work.... Currently the travel cot is up in our room, but Seb is too big for it. We need to put him in a bed when we get home... Once Seb was on his own, with his musical lamb (thanks Katherine, I know this was for Isaac initially, but it has been a life saver) he fell asleep quite quickly. The other 2 have taken a bit longer to settle. We are still hoping they will sleep a bit longer tomorrow
We all need it....
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