We made it!

We made it to Washington! And I am so happy that the whole flight experience is behind us for now. All I have is a quick and compared to the last flight, four hour flight down to Texas in December and when I head back to Saudi I will gain another parent which will help tremendously.


Our first flight went amazingly well. Peyton was exicted and very helpful and I got Graham to sleep pretty early on and he slept the majority of the six hours. Peyton had a hard time falling asleep due to the seating arrangement. Graham's car seat is not allowed to occupy an aisle seat and I had a row of only three seats so he was in the middle between me and Peyton. She couldn't put her head on me and couldn't fall asleep. After trying everything she ended up in my lap and fell asleep which worked great.


We landed and the Amsterdam airport is so kid friendly. We found a baby care area where they have a pretty sweet indoor play ground designed like a forest. Peyton found some friends and played tag, hide and seek and ran around. We then went and got her some breakfast/lunch and went to the baby room where they have mini rooms that have a crib, changing area and chairs to rest. I also able to get Graham done for a nap, get Peyton to have some quiet relaxing time, disinfect bottles in the microwave (they had steam sanitizer bags available to use) and repack our bags/organize. It was great! Very nice airport and helped tremendously.


Our next flight was long and a little rougher. We boarded and sat on the plane for just over an hour due to delays with the flight plan. I had gotten Graham asleep so I wasted an hour of him sleeping just on the tarmac and Peyton was starting to get whiny. We finally were airborne and I got everyone asleep but as soon as beverage service started Peyton was up and didn't sleep the rest of the fligh...8 hours until just before landing when I told her she HAD to have a nap.Graham didn't sleep for any long stretch of time since this was essentially during our day time in Saudi and so he was hard to entertain. But we made it through and landed with Peyton finally sleeping. And then the fun began...Peyton started crying because I woke her up and she cried the whole way through off the plane, through customs, through baggage, through a train and finally stopped when she was scooped up into G's arms. I felt so bad for her and nothing would fix it besides her G. Her meltdown did earn me an express lane pass through customs which was a huge praise but the whole airport/arrival experience was tiring!

We made it home with G....while making a stop at Starbucks and Peyton has been glued to her side ever since. She is so happy to see my mom and is constantly wanting G to do it and nothing to do with mommy! The kids slept relatively well last night with Peyton only waking up once and then going straight back to bed and Graham waking up every three hours. Hopefully we can get turned around pretty soon! Overall the whole travel experience went well and I will do it again which is a positive!

We are just happy to be spending time with family and relaxing and enjoying beautiful Washington state....I might start looking for houses while I am here!