23 Hours

23 hours door to door. That's how long it took us to get from our house in Phoenix to our apartment in Korea.

PHASE 1: From door to Rental Car Return. This part went fairly well, although you're supposed to fill the car with gas within 10 miles of the rental place and I'm CONVINCED that there is NOT a gas station within 10 miles.

TRANSITION PART 1: From Rental Car to Airport. Again, unremarkable. I will take this opportunity however, to tell you to ignore most everything I've said about traveling with children. Instead, bring an able bodied, unencumbered, adult with you to help.

Now, I have to say that the most challenging part of traveling with the kiddos is the transition times. Most of those moments are spent carrying an OBSCENE amount of luggage and carry-ons or spent in line. Making toddlers stand still, quietly in a line for any given time is nigh impossible. (hence: able bodied, unencumbered, traveling companion.)

Here we skipped merrily from Rental Return to the airport, laden with 3 suitcases, 1 pack-n-play, 5 carry-ons, 3 car seats and one stroller. When in doubt, do a count: head count (5), carry-on count (5), seat count (3), etc.

PHASE 2: From PHX to SFO. The kids watched the i-pad.

Transition 2: San Francisco Airport. I really don't like it when I have to go back through security. It had to be done. Doesn't make it pleasant though. One perk of traveling here was that the kids got to see Santa and have their picture taken with him. Courtesy of Southwest. Thanks guys! We also had an overpriced lunch before boarding our plane to KOREA!

PHASE 3: San Francisco to Korea. Again, it's nice to have a helper. The kids had enough things to keep them occupied for awhile then they fell asleep somewhere near Russia. I think I slept about an hour. One thing of note: we sat in front of SuperParents. Their children were about the same age as mine. They were well behaved and intelligent. The parents brought plenty of educational toys and games which the children had to play with before they were allowed to watch anything on their little tvs. Meanwhile, I was in front of them BEGGING Kate to just watch her tv for a little bit.PLEASE!

TRANSITION 3: Korean Airport. Immigration, Customs, heavy laden, then onto the bus to Songtan. At least we got that right this time!

PHASE 4: Airport to Bus Station. Kids mostly slept.

TRANSITION 4: Bus to Cab. This part was AWFUL. It took less than ten minutes, but Kate cried and would NOT move the whole time. Then a cab driver wanted all of us and our luggage to go into one car. We took two cabs.

PHASE & TRANSITION 5: Cab ride and into apartment. Cold. Crying. Korean Cab Drivers. Enough said.

ALL that only to find out that Brent would be delayed AGAIN and he wouldn't be back from Singapore until AFTER his sister went back. Then he told us his epic adventure. He tried to surprise us and come home early. He booked a ticket using miles and money to get back to Korea. Unfortunately, he forgot his passport. So when he got to his layover in Beijing, the Chinese detained him. Then the immediately deported him back to Singapore.

Several days later, we were finally reunited. Finally.