Saturday, November 8, 2014

Home Sweet Home

We made it!  We left our hotel early this morning.  We can walk through our hotel to get to the metro station.  We got to the airport without ever going outside.  That is pretty cool.  We thought we planned enough time to get to the plane.  We figured we would be an hour early.  We had about 30 euros left to spend, so we thought we could be slow and enjoy ourselves.  We were unable to checkin online for some reason.  We ended up having to stand in a LONG line!  We were in that line for at least 45 minutes.  Once we were through we had to take a train to our gate, then go through security.  That took a long time!  As we were walking to our gate we passed a macaroon stand.  My friend had told me to try one.  I thought I would pick up a few as I passed.  I asked for three and handed her the euros.  She said I had to pay somewhere else.  I wandered over there and had to wait in another huge line!  I was tempted to just leave the macaroons on a shelf and walk out of there.  I wasn't sure what to do.  Mike said, "Well, it wouldn't be a trip with you if we didn't almost miss our flight to stop and get a treat."  There was still a line when we got to our gate, so everything was fine.  The line was so long to board, but the Delta app said our flight had left while we were still waiting.

The flight home was non-stop, so that was great.  It wasn't as cool of a plane as the one we came here on, but it was still really nice.  I love the planes with tvs on the seat ahead of you.  I brought nice headphones and was able to watch a few movies.  The rating system was wrong on the plane though. I watched Draft Day, which I really liked, but I was surprised how bad the language was in it.  I looked up the rating when I got home and saw that it was PG-13.  That's what it said on the plane.  I just can't believe PG-13 allows so many horrible words in them now. Why do they do that?  The movie was wonderful, but the bad words make it seem creepy.  I also watched Billy Elliot.  The plane said it was also PG-13.  I didn't make it very far before I turned it off.  So many things I didn't want to see or hear.  I looked up that movie when I got home.  That one was rated R.  I decided to watch While You Were Sleeping instead.  I knew that one would be quite tame compared to the others.

The crazy thing about international flights is they feed you so much! Every two seconds we were being offered food.  This was an 11 hour flight, so a lot of it makes sense; but the flight over here was only 6 hours.  We got two meals at least!  Our flight to Hawaii was almost that long and we only got pretzels.  Weird.

It took us quite awhile to go through customs when we landed.  I was thinking about how you never see this part of the Amazing Race!  My dad was waiting for us when we finally got through.  We got home and all four kids ran out and gave us hugs.  Even Stockton.  It was great! My dad left soon after and they attacked him.  I'm glad he was able to stay with them while we were gone.  They seemed to like it!
Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen hugging my dad
My neighbor, Kristen, brought Jorja a new frog while we were gone. Her brother works at Cactus and Tropicals.  Several frogs came in on a shipment.  A lot of the other workers claimed them.  He said he needed one for Jorja.  How sweet!  Jorja is in love with this frog.  She has named him Horizon.  He is very jumpy.  He jumps so far that he practically flies through the air.
Jorja and Horizon
 Horizon
Jorja told me she was worried about her other frog, Boing.  She hadn't been eating and was no longer sticking to her cage, she was just hanging out in the dirt.  It wasn't until later tonight that we got really worried, but by then all the vet places were closed.  Hopefully she gets better, but I'm quite worried about her.
 Boing
 Jorja & Boing
We picked up a few souvenirs for the kids.  We got Jorja and Preston each a penny for their penny passport.  We also got them an Eiffel Tower medallion that we got in the Eiffel Tower.  Preston was thrilled!
Preston with his first medallion
 Preston with his and Jorja's medallions
 Jorja holding no medallions
 Stockton with a Calvin and Hobbs book in French
 Maysen with a cup from Disneyland Paris
Mike and I had such a fun trip, but it is so wonderful to be home!

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