Sunday, December 2nd
We spent the afternoon in the hotel taking naps. Ryan and I weren’t very successful, but the kids did awesome. They slept from 2:00 until we woke them up at 6:00. Actually, Katie took a little while longer to fall asleep, to the point where I was really wishing I could staple her eyelids closed. It’s amazing how frustrating it can be trying to get a child to sleep when they are feeling restless.
We went to the airport feeling quite optimistic, and pleased with ourselves for having gotten our kids to take such great naps. We got there right on time, and were handed a piece of paper telling us our flight was almost four hours late. We quickly found out that there was nothing we could do about it, and at 8:00 pm, the options for a family of five with no car and a boatload of luggage are nil. But they did give us meal vouchers for $15 a person, so I guess in the end we were even.
The terminal our flight was leaving from didn’t have much to offer, so they suggested we walk over to a different terminal. We did that, only to find that although there were more stores and restaurants, there were no additional benefits to being there when you have three tired kids. So we ended up going back to the terminal our flight was leaving from and putting our meal vouchers to use. There was a Wolfgang Puck’s by our gate, so at least we were well fed while we waited.
Mason and Katie watched a lot of Pokemon (that has been annoying, yet very convenient to have) while Andrew ran around like a child possessed. Eventually I stuck him in his stroller and started walking around, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he actually fell asleep. He slept for a good hour and a half, then we had to wake him up to board the plane.
Because of the flight delay, a lot of smarter passengers had managed to get on an earlier flight. Other smart passengers probably rebooked for the next day. All I know is that the plane was less than half full, which is a beautiful thing on a 12-hour flight. The flight attendant, noticing our tired kids, saved an empty 4-seat row for us to grab once the seat-belt sign turned off. So we ended up having Mason sleeping on a 3-seat row, Katie and I sleeping on the 4-seat row, and Ryan and Andrew sharing another 3-seat row (Andrew was in his car seat).
Mason and Katie slept for over 6 hours, and Andrew slept for a total of 7 or 8 hours (a 5 ½ hour nap, plus another 2 hour nap). Each seat had its own TV, and the kid section offered Playhouse Disney shows. Andrew watched the same Mickey Mouse Clubhouse a minimum of five times, but he never seemed to get tired of it. Mason and Katie watched movies (our new DVD player has been fabulous) and played some of the video games that were on the TV. It wasn’t until we had to strap Andrew in for landing that he really showed everyone on the flight what he was capable of. I hope that his little exhibition made them a little more grateful for how amazingly well-behaved they had been for the previous 11 ½ hours.
We arrived in Auckland at 10:45, about 3 ½ hours later than planned. Neither Ryan nor I had actually gotten much sleep, but we were both so excited to have finished the flight with relatively little damage done that we didn’t even mind.
We spent the afternoon in the hotel taking naps. Ryan and I weren’t very successful, but the kids did awesome. They slept from 2:00 until we woke them up at 6:00. Actually, Katie took a little while longer to fall asleep, to the point where I was really wishing I could staple her eyelids closed. It’s amazing how frustrating it can be trying to get a child to sleep when they are feeling restless.
We went to the airport feeling quite optimistic, and pleased with ourselves for having gotten our kids to take such great naps. We got there right on time, and were handed a piece of paper telling us our flight was almost four hours late. We quickly found out that there was nothing we could do about it, and at 8:00 pm, the options for a family of five with no car and a boatload of luggage are nil. But they did give us meal vouchers for $15 a person, so I guess in the end we were even.
The terminal our flight was leaving from didn’t have much to offer, so they suggested we walk over to a different terminal. We did that, only to find that although there were more stores and restaurants, there were no additional benefits to being there when you have three tired kids. So we ended up going back to the terminal our flight was leaving from and putting our meal vouchers to use. There was a Wolfgang Puck’s by our gate, so at least we were well fed while we waited.
Mason and Katie watched a lot of Pokemon (that has been annoying, yet very convenient to have) while Andrew ran around like a child possessed. Eventually I stuck him in his stroller and started walking around, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he actually fell asleep. He slept for a good hour and a half, then we had to wake him up to board the plane.
Because of the flight delay, a lot of smarter passengers had managed to get on an earlier flight. Other smart passengers probably rebooked for the next day. All I know is that the plane was less than half full, which is a beautiful thing on a 12-hour flight. The flight attendant, noticing our tired kids, saved an empty 4-seat row for us to grab once the seat-belt sign turned off. So we ended up having Mason sleeping on a 3-seat row, Katie and I sleeping on the 4-seat row, and Ryan and Andrew sharing another 3-seat row (Andrew was in his car seat).
Mason and Katie slept for over 6 hours, and Andrew slept for a total of 7 or 8 hours (a 5 ½ hour nap, plus another 2 hour nap). Each seat had its own TV, and the kid section offered Playhouse Disney shows. Andrew watched the same Mickey Mouse Clubhouse a minimum of five times, but he never seemed to get tired of it. Mason and Katie watched movies (our new DVD player has been fabulous) and played some of the video games that were on the TV. It wasn’t until we had to strap Andrew in for landing that he really showed everyone on the flight what he was capable of. I hope that his little exhibition made them a little more grateful for how amazingly well-behaved they had been for the previous 11 ½ hours.
We arrived in Auckland at 10:45, about 3 ½ hours later than planned. Neither Ryan nor I had actually gotten much sleep, but we were both so excited to have finished the flight with relatively little damage done that we didn’t even mind.
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