Where to start! Julie Andrews would say "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start". But that might make this whole thing a bit long and boring for you all so I'll try to summarize.
About 5/6 months ago, Pete came home announcing he'd seen a job advertised in Shell's internal system for a posting in Alaska. And to cut that part of the story out - here we are. I'll pick up about a week ago when we moved out of our house in Melbourne.
We had 5 days in a serviced apartment which was lovely but it's not home. Poor Naomi was confused as we were close to home and driving on roads she was familiar with but we didn't go home. Thankfully she hasn't got too upset yet, just a couple of times asking to go home but seemed ok with our explanation of why we weren't going home.
We then flew to LA on Monday 13th in the morning. After a sad goodbye to family and friends (sad is a ridiculous understatement) we tried to look forward to the adventure that awaited us. Business class flight was luxurious. We had 4 seats between us and so Lydia's seat just became extra space to spread out our stuff. We had a bassinet so when she slept we could put her in that. A couple of times I curled up on the flat bed with her.
Naomi was mostly happy. A few tantrums in the airport and a couple of complaints on the flight but basically she sat in front of her personal TV and didn't really move for the rest of the flight. She didn't go to sleep until about 9 or 10 hours in but then slept nearly until we landed. Pete looked after Naomi and I looked after Lydia basically. We got a few little blocks of sleep between us.
We arrived in LA in the early hours of their Monday. We had two rooms in the hotel. We managed to keep ourselves awake until lunchtime and then crashed - Pete in one room with Naomi and Lydia and me in the other. We slept a couple of hours and then forced ourselves to get up for the afternoon - not a pleasant feeling as we were so tired. We went for a walk but the only thing nearby was a service station! We played hide and seek on the hotel roof top with Naomi and managed to last until 7pm when we all went to bed. Lydia woke a few times in the night but it could have been a lot worse.
The next day (Tuesday) we flew to Calgary. Lugging our 6 cases, a portacot, a pram, about 5 pieces of hand luggage and 2 kids around the airport was interesting. Naomi of course had her own mind about where she was going to go and when. Sometimes she was happy on her Trunkie (a kid size wheelie suitcase that she can sit on while we pull her along) but then she'd want to be carried (impossible given the amount of luggage). Enter tantrum!! I think Naomi just feeds of our mood and we tend to get a bit stressed in airports as we try to get ourselves checked in.
Unfortunately, we arrived in Calgary to find our hotel room was not a 2 bed as we had thought. Nor was it a 1 bed. It was actually just one big room with no separated sleeping area. So we all had to bundle in together. Once the kids were in their cots, Pete and I crept around in the dark, whispering with only the bathroom light to go on. Not the best arrangement for a family.
Pete had his conference for the next 2 days so it was just me and the girls. I didn't enjoy the 1st day much as it was one of those days where everything goes wrong. Couldn't find anywhere to feed or change Lydia so she was crying and Naomi was shouting "I'm still hungry. I'm still hungry" which seems to be her mantra recently. Stayed in the room for the afternoon and resorted to more DVD watching.
Next day I tried to drive the enormous truck of a car we had rented. Wanted to scream the whole way as it was so massive and I was on the wrong side of the road as well! Went to a science museum only to find it was closed! So back to the hotel and more DVDs. In the afternoon Pete finished his conference and we all went up the Calgary Tower to see the views.
That night Pete and I decided to risk the kids waking up and watched a movie in the room. Mistake! They ended up being awake for about 2 hours in the evening. Lydia screaming and Naomi whispering to her to be quiet (gorgeous big sister, trying to stop her little sister getting in trouble).
Friday finally arrived and we had our flights to Anchorage via Seattle. However, our fairly relaxed schedule for the morning turned chaotic when Naomi started throwing up. No idea why, probably jet lag and over tiredness. So we spent the 1st couple of hours of the day running her into the bathroom and trying to avoid our and her clothes (no time to wash anything!). We just made it to our flight on time and thankfully Naomi had got it all out of her system before we left the hotel. Lots of queues in the airport and more stress Pete and Helen. God definitely intervened on this day. He kept Helen calm to deal with the kids which left Pete free to get us where we needed to go when we needed to get there. He made Naomi better and got us safely (and on time) to Anchorage.
Finally we arrive in our little hotel in Anchorage and we can semi-unpack our suitcases. Yippee! Feels strange that this is now home but we're still in a hotel. Trying not to feel too homesick but its tough. I opened a present from my sister which sent me into floods of tears (was a very well thought out toy that Naomi has adopted as her own now). I called home to let them know I'd arrived safely and then it was off to bed for everyone.
The adventure begins...
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