Sorry it has taken me so long to write this. Just busy seeing Japan and enjoying Matt. It is a long one so seat back and enjoy.

Few background notes:

· In the two months Matt was gone Reagan and I travelled to see all of the grandparents and my best friends. I think we put about 4,000 miles on our car in those two months. A lot of quality time in the car but worth every minute.

· In the last weekend of being in the states we went to Lubbock for my sister’s graduation with her PhD, then back to Artesia for fajitas with the Haines’s, then church and Kite Day with my parents, then to Ruidoso for Steve’s 80th birthday.

We were two very busy girls but we had to get as much time with our family as we could. We love all of you guys and miss you all so much already.

Getting it all packed up

Let’s set the stage for my packing situation. I could have four fifty pound bags and two carry-on bags since I bought Reagan a seat. In those bags it included clothes for a whole year from very hot and humid to quiet chilly, some things for the house maybe not necessary but it is so nice to have some bits that feel like home, we all know how Reagan and I both love shoes so of course shoes, 24 cans of green chili, some spices, and other random odds and ends I was sure I needed.

It took me like three days to finish packing. One day just for sorting, another day for packing, and the last day for arranging stuff just right. If one bag was over but another was under I would just switch things around until they all equaled 50 lbs on the dot. It was quite the puzzle and my poor Mom’s house got the bad end of the deal. (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting me live with you and destroy your house.)

The tricky part came with the carry-ons. It was all of the loose ends plus Matt decided on a new computer thing for the house like four days before so that totally threw everything off. It came down to his stupid computer or my red plaid heels. The computer won because I figured I could get some new heels here. Debbie insisted that we at least take them to the airport and see what happens. Well magically they made it. The first flight said no to them in one of the bags because it was over weight but then let us throw them in the bag with the car seat. Also one of my other bags ended up being over so I had a random tennis shoe that I just carried on the flight. The next flight we had to have the car seat so my tennis shoes went in the stroller that folded down and went under the plane and after some rearranging the heels went in my carry on. I have already worn the heels and am glad Debbie insisted on carrying them and hoping for the best because they looked so cute the other night for dinner.

Getting to LA

Debbie was my traveling buddy to LA. She had agreed months ago to help me get that far. Katie was flying with me from LA to Tokyo so that is as far as I beg her to take me. So the first leg of the trip was getting to Albuquerque to fly out. You would think this was the easy part but Reagan must have known something was up. She was just in a mood and wouldn’t get over it. We ended up pulling over to get her some chips just to keep her from crying the whole three hours to Albuquerque. Once we got to Albuquerque we had some lunch and headed to the airport. Of course this is when Reagan choose to crash on us. So Debbie dropped Reagan and I off by the outside check in and went to park. So I just sat and waited while Reagan napped. Then I hear “Chelsae”, great someone is going to see me with all of this stuff. Did I mention I had four big bags, a stroller, a car seat, a rolling carry on, a backpack, and my diaper bag? Well it ended up being Katie and her mom and dad. So Katie and her dad helped me carry everything in while her mom waited with Reagan and we started the check-in process.
Debbie came around the corner right as we stepped up to the counter. After a little rearranging, a little bit of sitting on bags to make them zip, and a lot of laughing, they pretty much took all of my stuff excluding the random tennis shoe Debbie shoved in a pocket of my backpack. Off to the flight. The flight was two hours long and it felt two hours long. Reagan woke up as we were going through security and didn’t want to go back to sleep. This is the one part of the trip she didn’t have her own seat so she just bounced from me to Debbie to Katie and then back. We were just glad to get her off the plane and I am sure the people around us were too. After a long day of traveling we got to our hotel had some dinner and were in bed by 9 pm.

Getting to Tokyo

The next day started nice and slow. We started our day with some breakfast followed by a little swim, and then got everything back together and off to the airport 3.5 hours early. Seems like we would have time to spare. Nope. We stood in an 1.5 hour line just to get checked into the Singapore Air flight. The check-in guy was great, he took all the bags without a problem and had us all three sitting together. Debbie tried to get us in bulkhead seating but the guy said there were eight other infants on the flight without their own seats. It was kind of comforting knowing I wouldn’t be the only with a little one screaming.

So we headed to security. This is where my second set of hands had to leave us and handed it all over to Katie and me. (Thank you Debbie for getting me this far.) I hooked the car seat to the rolling bag, put Reagan in the backpack, and put the diaper bag over my shoulder. Katie helped me with unloading my bags for security. This was a task. There were my shoes, Reagan’s shoes, her bow, the three computers, and trying to get all of the bags on the conveyor belt. When we got to the other side and started to put everything back in its place I realized the computers didn’t make it.
Of course I started stressing out a bit and called over the nearest TSA. They called the supervisor and she started lecturing me about watching my stuff go through. So she went to the other side and lucky that was what had happened. I hadn’t pushed it through. She continued to lecture me about watching my stuff. Here Katie and I stood with all of our bags and my two year old. She obviously had never travelled with a toddler. I just thanked her and went on.

 We headed to our gate and got there with about 15 minutes before boarding. Long enough to use the restroom and run Reagan around a bit. We wanted to let her run as long as she could before putting her on an 11-hour flight.
They started with the family boarding first but Katie and I thought it would be better if we just waited for our number since that would be longer for Reagan to be out and about running around. Once our number came up we boarded the plane. Katie had my diaper bag and Reagan’s toy bag when we loaded the plane. I went first and as she was boarding behind me they stopped her because she had too many bags. They pulled her and I aside and we tried to explain why we had so many bags. I think the biggest catch was the girl didn’t know Reagan had her own seat. I nicely explained that the two extra bags Katie was carrying were my two personal items. The bags I was carrying were my two carry-ons and the other two bags were Katie’s carry-on and personal item. She finally let it go saying our personal items were too big but that it was okay. We laughed to ourselves because has she not seen the handbags ladies carry these days. You could carry a body in them but whatever. She did make us check Katie’s carry-on saying it was too heavy. So like thirty minutes later we finally loaded the plane. By then all of the overhead compartments were full and they ended up taking my carry-on and Reagan’s backpack. As they were taking them away they ask, is there anything you will need or of value in these? Of course there is, they are my carry-ons. This is where you put your valuables. So we pulled the computers, money, and jewelry and a few of the toys I had put in there for Reagan. I was so glad I had the diaper bag and Reagan had a toy bag because everything else got taken away. Some how we bought three tickets and got no carry-ons with us. We did see later that was because the row ahead of us each had both of their bags shoved in the overhead. I just don’t see how they decided to pick on the two girls with the kid. Everyone else had way too much stuff too. Guess we were just an easy target.

We finally got settled in and we took off. It ended up being a great flight. Reagan did so good. I am so glad we got her a seat of her own. She played with toys, watched movies, and snacked most of the flight. She even slept for 3.5 hours. We only had one breakdown right before she crashed.
All together, not too bad of a flight. Eleven hours later we were in Japan. We got all of our stuff rounded back up and got off. We made it right through immigration and headed to baggage claim. It had taken us long enough to get our carry-ons back that by the time we got to baggage claim our bags were pulled off and set to the side. So we put them in carts and headed downstairs. As soon as we came around the corner there were our husbands. It was so cute Reagan must have seen Seth first because she was just yelling “Seth, Seth, Seth” she didn’t even notice Matt walking toward us. Finally I pointed and she yelled “DADDY”. It was cute.

Matt’s boss had brought the boys so they didn’t have to take the train but his car wasn’t big enough for all of us. Seth and Katie were really sweet and let us go with their boss and the bags and they took the bus. We got here about 8 pm. That is 5 am in the states. We had been up for 21 hours. Let’s just say a very LONG day but a great ending. Matt had bought Reagan some hot dogs so we had some dinner and headed to bed. More about the first couple days in Japan in the next blog.

~Chelsae