i am the luckiest: Leaving Nashville

June 2013, Malachi's first flight (6 months old,) with daddy

Well the big trip that we have been looking forward to (really, since we left 2.5 years ago) is as we speak, happening. The Hockey's are back in Australia, the first time here for both Malachi and Charlie. We left Nashville on Saturday afternoon and flew to Dallas, a quick 2-hour flight. Amazingly, all of the kids did wonderful on the plane. It was Malachi's first flight ever and the first one that Charlie has had his own paid-for seat. Charlie has not been a good flier at any point in his life, up until last weekend (thank-you, Lord). Mal did very good as well, but didn't sleep at all on the plane to Dallas. Adelaide and Charlie were happy in anticipation that we were on our way to Australia - to see Nanna & Pappa, Uncle Carl & Aunty Jane, cousins Henry & Daniel, kangaroos & koalas, etc, etc. Little did they know, arriving in Dallas was just the beginning of our journey...

June 2013, mummy and Malachi, flying Nashville - Dallas

We had a nice layover that gave us time to sit down and eat some dinner (when Malachi did take a nap in the Ergo) and get the kids into their pajamas, then have a play to release all excess energy. By the time we boarded the flight it was 9pm and I think we were all already tired. We chose to fly through Dallas rather than LA because of the flight times - the LA flight leaves at midnight pacific (2am central time) and the Dallas flight leaves at 10pm central. This makes quite a difference for little children who are very tired and ready to settle into sleep. It is important to note that the Dallas flight is about 3 hours longer than the LA flight, which meant we were embarking on a 15-hour flight taking us halfway across the world.

June 2013, Charlie and Adelaide in Dallas, checking out our "kangaroo" airplane

June 2013, Ben and Malachi during our layover in Dallas

Charlie and Adelaide playing at the Dallas airport

I won't go into every little detail of our Qantas flight. All in all it went pretty well. The kids all fell asleep around midnight central time and slept about 6 hours. Malachi had a bassinet to sleep in which meant my hands were free, so Ben and I also got a bit of sleep. There were some more little naps here and there for the kids and the only excitement [stop reading now if you don't want to hear a poop story] we had was when Charlie pooped his pants close to landing time... when Ben picked him up to take him and change his pants, the poop started falling out in little mushy chunks onto the seat and our carry-on suitcase. All I could do at the time is the same thing I'm doing now - laughing about it. Ben took Charlie, wrapped in a Qantas blanket, to the bathroom to get cleaned up while I used some baby wipes to clean the poo and pray that none of our neighbors were watching me... although I'm sure some people saw what was happening. Thankfully a nice lady sitting in the row next to me held a sleeping Malachi since the bassinet was full of stuff and I needed my hands - quickly.

Charlie at the end of our flight from Dallas - Brisbane. I love this kid, even when he has poopy messes :)

Malachi and Adelaide, post a 15-hour flight

We landed at 5am local time in Brisbane and were all sleepy, to say the least. It was very rainy all day long (this was Monday at this point) which hasn't been helping with the jet lag, but that is another story for another night. Let me just say that I am glad we have several weeks before we do the return flight home and Nanna will be coming back with us (again, Praise the Lord!!). I did manage to watch one episode of season 2 of Downton Abbey, which we have been waiting for on Netflix. Maybe I can sneak in another episode on our return trip :)