Leaving Texas

Monday January 2nd to Wednesday January 4th

Our flight was scheduled for 6:37pm from Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The trip from Flatonia to the airport was great. We were packed in the car like sardines though!!! Five large checked bags, a stroller, a car seat, 1 garment bag, 1 small suitcase, 2 backpacks and a diaper bag!!!!

 We were prepared for the worst when we got to the airport. Expecting to have to pay for overweight bags, trouble through security and what not, but we lucked out! We breezed through checking in our bags and security! So now we had to wait at the airport because we had arrived early expecting those delays! Then on top of that we had to wait about 2 more hours for a pilot to arrive!

Jayce didn't seem to mind the wait!

 We flew from Houston, TX to Frankfurt, Germany first.  Saying good-bye to Houston.

Jayce's first time on an airplane!!!

 On this portion, Continental was our carrier and they allowed us to have a baby bassinet, which helped a lot. Jayce was able to stretch out!

(Sorry this is blurry!)

The estimated flight time was a 10 hours, but I think we made it in 9. Once in Germany, we had to go through passport control checking into Germany and then to another passport control checking out of Germany! (Jayce's first two stamps in his passport!) Then through another security check point, which was great because we had Jayce we didn't have to go stand in line they took us immediately. Once we finally found our gate we had about a 8 hour wait for our flight. So we set up camp and took turns trying to nap.

After the long wait, we were finally ready to board our final flight. This flight was estimated at 11 hours.  When we found our seats that we pre-booked specifically for bassinet seats, we met a really nice couple from South Africa, who had a daughter 10 days younger than Jayce.  To make a long story short, a rude flight attendant informed us that because our baby was 6 months old we would not be allowed a bassinet. Michael handled the situation asking for them to provide us with these rules that we did not find on their website when we were booking our flights, but they were just out right rude about the whole situation. We asked to speak with someone in charge and she took her time coming to us. And when she did come it was while they were making announcements to take off and told us that she couldn't speak to us because we needed to listen to the announcements and walked away!!! What a way to start an 11 hour flight! The carrier of this portion was South African Airways.  The funny thing is that the couple, we had been speaking to with the 6 month old girl, had been allowed a bassinet! Another flight attendant did come to our rescue and found us seats where we were allowed to give Jayce his own seat. Jayce did sleep most of the flight in my arms or on the seat between us. After all that excitement, we were more than ready to get to our hotel and get settled.

Once we made it to the hotel, we showered and then one of the hotel drivers drove us around the areas we were interested in for renting an apartment.  Then it was finally time to crawl into bed. Jet lag had really set in!!!