The Trip

I'm so behind on my blogging. I figured I should post about our trip while I still could remember the details. It went well. Better than I expected. A few funny things happened a long the way, but we rolled with the punches and made it just fine.

Brandon took Jackson and I to the airport. It's a 2 hour drive. No different than driving from Aberdeen to Sea-Tac though. He went with us to get all of our luggage checked in. I had 1 suitcase. But when I got to the counter and put it on the scale it was over the weight limit by 10 pounds. So the lady handed Brandon a box and some tape and told him to help me put the extra weight into the box. Apparently you can't have 1 suitcase that's over the limit. But you can have one suitcase and a box. I'm not sure what the difference is, it's all going on the same plane. And it will eventually all weigh the same when it gets on the plane. Oh well. Brandon helped build the box the filled the box. Everything was good. Luggage got checked. He walked us over to security where we had to say our goodbyes. It was a normal goodbye for us. We've had to say a lot of them and we are used to it by now. It felt different because Brandon was the one saying goodbye to us this time. We were the ones leaving and he had to go back home to the empty house. He would only be staying there for a few days until he went back out to sea again. After we did our thing and he kissed his son and wife goodbye for the third time in Jackson's very short life, we headed through security.

We made it to our gate just in time. We walked right on the plane. The stewardess carried my diaper bag for me and got me all set up in my seat. I put Jackson to sleep right away. He slept through the whole take off. When he woke up I fed him a bottle and we played for a little bit. Our flight to Korea wasn't very long. I put him back to sleep right before we were about to land. His ears never bothered him on the entire trip.

When we got to Korea, it was a long wait. I had a 6 hour layover. I took Jackson to change his diaper in the restroom. Instantly we were surrounded by tiny Asian women young and old gooing and gawing at Jackson. He of course hammed it up because he loves the attention. Which made it hard for me to change his diaper as he was wiggling all over the place. We finally made it out alive. I thought the ladies were going to swallow us whole. I went to get my second boarding pass for my next flight. Mission accomplished. Jackson and I went and sat to eat lunch. He had bananas and I had chicken and rice from a little cafe in the airport. We sat and chatted as we ate. I figured he would be ready for his nap soon. The airport in Seoul Korea is fabulous. Shopping galore, they also have restaurants, a spa, sleeping areas with big lounging chairs, a kid area with a padded floor, and a million other amenities for the traveler in transit. It was great. So I took Jackson to the sleeping are so that we could sprawl out and take a nap. I laid him on his blanket and dialed my mom's number to tell her that we were safe and on our way to the states soon. As soon as I hung up with her, Jackson projectile vomited his bananas into the air, and of course since he was on his back what goes up must come down right onto his face. He was pretty ticked. All of the sleeping people were awakened by his frantic screaming. I scooped him up right away, along with all of our gear, and took him to the kids area. I laid him on his blanket on the padded floor and began to wipe him down. I stripped his clothes off and let him roll around on the floor. You've never seen a happier kid.We were alone in the room so I let him play for a good hour. He kicked and rolled and had a grand time with his toys.

He eventually got tired and I put him to sleep. I set him in his stroller and gave him his blanket. I rolled him into the spa and right up to a massage table. He slept the whole time I got a massage. It was great. I figured I'd need one after what I would soon be going through. The 6 hours came and went and it was soon time to board our next plane. I put him to sleep again right away and we took off. We tried to stick to Jackson's evening routine. He had his dinner and playtime. And when it was his bed time I asked the stewardess to bring out the bassinet that I had pre arranged. I put him in his little bed and he was sleeping soundly. I figured he would have slept for the entire flight since it was his night time. Unfortunately the Korean couple next to me didn't want their 10 month old son to sleep. They were very loud and quite obnoxious. Their boy woke Jackson up on several occasions. I put him back to sleep after every wake up. He was becoming more and more frustrated with the kid next to us. At about 1:30 in the morning the mother handed her son a metal spoon and pulled out the tray table for him to play the drums on. What a racket. I understand that she had a child, but mine was trying ever so hard to sleep peacefully. Half way through our flight I was begging God to make time go faster. But eventually we made it. The full almost 10 hours across the Pacific ocean. When we touched down in Seattle I got a little choked up. It had been a year since I was on foreign soil and here I was finally home.

It was a long trip through customs. I didn't get out to baggage claim to see my Dad for about 2 hours. The entire time I carried Jackson around my neck in a carrier. I was pretty sore for the few days after. On the way to the car I went to get in on the wrong side, and then I spoke Japanese to the cart attendant telling him to take my luggage cart. Poor guy had no idea what I said. I think I was over there to long. We made the drive from Seattle to Hoquiam and Jackson slept most of the way. He's such a good baby. I feel like I can take him anywhere, including on International traveling sprees.

Everyone was so excited to see us and thrilled to have us home. It's take a good week for us to be able to sleep at night and be awake during the day. Jackson has had a harder time than I have. But we are feeling better now and are glad to be home.