We're home!!

We FINALLY made it home! You can see in the pictures here that we did actually make the successful 29 hour journey from Vietnam via Tokyo and Chicago. The first picture is Logan is his OWN crib, not a hotel crib for the first time and the second picture is him LOVING his excersaucer.

I'll try to summarize the trip without using too many expletives. We'll just say that we had 3 flights and Logan did great on two of them. He slept from Hanoi to Tokyo and generally had a decent trip. We got to Tokyo around 7:00am local time and had a 7 (yes, SEVEN) hour layover. It was made worse by the fact that Tokyo Narita airport SUCKS. Nothing was open and there were almost no people there except for Dallas, Logan, the Hicks family, and me. We wandered around for a while and eventually McDonald's opened and we had a little breakfast. We had no idea which gate we were supposed to go to because it wasn't listed on the big boards and United's Customer Service desk didn't open until NOON! So we ended up paying $50 each to spend the day in United's Red Carpet lounge. We were able to catch a bit of sleep and I guess compared to what was to come, it wasn't too bad of a day. We boarded the flight for Chicago, got to our bulkhead row in the "Economy" section (Economy Plus was full but the Hicks were lucky enough to get the bulkhead up there). They gave us a bassinet but it was really just a bag that was too small for Logan. He was MISERABLE on the flight! It was an 11-hour flight and he cried, hard, for about 8 of those hours. The people around us were very supportive and no one complained at all (at least not that we know of). It was without a doubt the longest flight EVER. We just thought it would never end, but it eventually did and we landed in Chicago. As soon as we landed, Logan calmed down and we headed for Immigration and Customs. We went through Immigration without a hitch and we went to get our bags from baggage claim so we could enter Customs and then get the luggage rechecked for our flight home. It took about 50 minutes for the luggage to come out! We only had a 2-hour window until our flight to Pittsburgh was leaving so we were getting anxious. We eventually got the bags, went through Customs pretty quickly (thanks to some skillful line maneuvering by Dallas and Michael). By this time it was 12:50ish - keep in mind that our flight to PIT was leaving at 1:30 and the Hicks' flight to Philly was leaving at 1:15. We got to the area where we were to recheck our bags and the agent told the Hicks that they'll need to get in another line because they didn't have time to get to their plane. We said our goodbyes and hightailed it off to Concourse C, Gate 31. We went the wrong way and ended up in the security area where all the people entering the airport from Chicago were going through check-in. We found a quick security line, got through without much fuss and entered Concourse B. If you're familiar with O'Hare, you know that the only way to get from B to C is to go down a big escalator, walk through a long hall and go back up another big escalator. We did this but we ran through the hall. Of course our gate was the FARTHEST one and we again ran, pushing Logan quickly in his stroller and dragging our carry-ons. We made it just in time but when we got to the gate, they told us that the agent in Tokyo gave us seat assignments for a row that doesn't exist on the 737 we were trying to board. (We had 3D and 3E but first class was row 1 and 2 and the first row of Coach was 4.) She gave us 12B and 12C which was upsetting because I had paid for Economy Plus. I have to get in touch with United for a refund. So after all this, we sat down, I gave Logan a bottle and he proceeded to sleep the whole way to Pittsburgh. It was a wonderful feeling to be home AND to have had an hour's peace.

The Grandparents and Aunt Ronda were waiting at the airport for us and it was great to see them. They immediately fell in love with Logan because he was back to his old, lovable self (not the demon we traveled with from Tokyo). We made it to baggage claim but only got 2 out of 3 of our bags. I filled out a claim for the 3rd (it was the one that contained all the presents for everyone) and we headed for home. Logan enjoyed the car ride, played for a while when we got home and then went to sleep around 7:00. He slept until 2:30am. Luckily for us, his Grandma Linda was there to take care of him and give us a bit more sleep. He went back to sleep around 4:00 and slept until 9:00 when we woke him up. He's sleeping now again and it's almost 10:00pm. From what I've heard from the other families, we've been lucky because their kids are having a harder time adjusting to the time difference. I think he's sleeping so well now because he totally wore himself out on the Tokyo trip and is just now recovering.

We took him on his first trip to Costco and for burritos tonight and he did OK. We're not sure how he's going to do with sleeping tonight but we're hopeful. We were zombies yesterday and still are kinda that way. I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep in 29 hours and Dallas got less than that. We slept last night and I took a 2 hour nap this afternoon so we're almost back to normal. We're going to take Logan to the softball fields tomorrow for our doubleheader but we're not sure if we'll be able to stay for both games. We may be tired and he may get bored. We'll see.

So that was our journey home. We're THRILLED to be back in good old Pittsburgh, PA and are looking forward to having lots of visitors. Take care everyone and see you soon!