Ha. Na. LU! LU!

A message from the family historian:

I’ve been running behind on blogging.

Oh! You’ve noticed!

It happens. I’m not stressed. Now that we’re on vacation, I know I’ll have time to catch up.

At Hubs request, I’m back to blogging our latest adventure. As for the events of June 11 – July 14th, I’ve made a list and thanks to high speed internet, I do plan on recording some family memories. There are still stories from those days that I want to tell.

Right now, we’re on our way to Hawaii.

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We love to travel.
We do.

I think we’ve given the travel bug to Schäfer.

For quite some time, we’ve been telling him that we’re going on a summer vacation to the ocean. We also mentioned that we need to go to Hawaii to complete Sianna’s adoption. Who cares about paperwork? There are new floaties to pack, sand castles to imagine and two airplanes to ride!

This morning, Schäfer was SO excited because he knew we were on our way to the ocean.  As we wheeled our luggage to the airport bus stop, Schäfer kept saying, “We’re going to Ha. Na. LU! LU!” His joyful spirit was so contagious.

As luck would have it, the front seats on the second level of the double decker bus were empty! So fun!

We arrived at the airport,  purchased Sianna’s infant ticket, and got all checked in with no problems. This trip has contained so little stress for us.

Our stress free travel began three days before leaving JiuJiang when Hubs said, “I’m taking the kids to Jump Zone so you can get the bags packed.” Thus, we were more or less packed three days early. Love that. We also made a plan for what time we wanted to go to the train station, who would move the bags to the curb, who would go get the taxi, etc. Having a plan helped me to stay on schedule and serve our family best.

After we arrived in Hong Kong, we talked about how we wanted today to go: What time should we leave for the airport? What if we have problems purchasing Sianna’s infant lap ticket? When do we switch our watches to Hawaii time? Should the kids take naps on our first flight? etc. Stress free travel – I’m a big fan.

For this trip, we brought three (mostly empty) large bags. In the large red suitcases, we’ve packed two smaller suitcases. We’ll use them to bring supplies back to China. At the same time, the longer we live here the less supplies we need to carry back so we’re going to focus on our Supplies List and see how it all turns out.

During our travels on the train out of JiuJiang and even today through Hong Kong, we were thankful not to have a stroller so that I could use my hands to each wheel a bag. I hope to wear the Ergo as long as my bulging belly will allow.

The Hong Kong airport never ceases to amaze me. I found this family bathroom in the ladies restroom. Schäfer loved the kid sized potty and sink.

Hubs and I ate a little Popeye’s while the kids enjoyed the play area. We knew there was a designated space for kids to run around in the terminal, but we did not know they were going to have free crafts available.

Schäfer made a glass jar filled with colored sand.

Then, he decorated a sun visor with his name and sea animals on it.

Meanwhile, Sianna crawled around after a balloon.

It was WAY past her nap time, but she was in a good mood. I was thankful she could get some energy out before our three hour flight to Japan.

Schäfer was SO proud of his sun visor. I told Hubs this was just like VBS without the verses or songs or grape snow cones.

They ran out of the letter “e”, but Schäfer didn’t care.

The last craft station involved selecting beads for a beaded bracelet. Oh my, did Schäfer select some beads.

The kids had fun playing together.

We finally pulled Schäfer away from the craft area just in time to catch our 3:00 flight.

Sianna was well past her 11:30am preferred nap time. She easily crashed in my arms.

This airplane had a unique camera on the plane’s nose so we had a view of both take off and landing. Schäfer helped steer the airplane around the runway.

He and Hubs got the plane into the air.

They held her steady until we reached the clouds.

After a snack service, where Schäfer’s lemon juice ended up on his shirt, he watched some Thomas.

How about this iPod stand? Eventually, Hubs read on the Kindle while Schäfer watched the “new ocean movie”. He seemed to like Nemo, but he hasn’t asked to watch it again. Thomas on the other hand…

Meanwhile, Sianna woke from her nap. She crawled and climbed wherever she could.

Business class appealed to her.

Mostly, standing and playing next to Mommy was her favorite way to pass the time.
Love those four teeth.

We arrived in Japan with an hour and a half layover. This was just enough time for Hubs to confirm our seats and for Schäfer to partake in his new, favorite hobby: drinking from a water fountain.

We got on the plane about 8pm bound for Ha. Na. LU! LU!  The kids were tired from such an exciting day. It wasn’t long before they were tucked in for the night.

As much as Sianna is willing to nap in my arms, she is not willing to sleep in them. She and Schäfer slept about 6.5 hours.

We did the old parenting trick of getting Schäfer to put on his pajamas so that he could mentally prepare for a long night’s rest – even if it was on the floor of a plane between his Mommy and Papa’s feet. When he woke up, he asked if I could bring his Handy Manny pajamas next time. Those are his flannel pajamas with feet! I agreed. The plane was a little cold.

Hubs estimates that we might have slept 4 hours on the flight to Ha. Na. LU! LU!