Going Home

Don't they look so cute? It was hard having to wake them up so early to catch our flight! After a lot of thought and prayer, Bruce and I decided to fly southwest to Philadelphia, then take a shuttle to Dover, AFB to get home.

Doesn't he look scary in the morning?

The flight to Philly went well. The hard part was having to track down the USO in the Philadelphia airport. We enjoyed some food, the boys enjoyed some TV and were offered some toys, which we politely declined due to space restrictions with our luggage! The people at the USO were so nice. We took the Dover Express to the AFB and were in the terminal for almost an hour before we found ourselves manifested on a flight home to Germany. If only it were that simple! We had checked our luggage to get on that flight, but before we boarded the plane, we were taken off the flight because it was a NATO plane. We got a hotel for the night and showed up at the terminal again at 1:30 the next afternoon.

The 12 hour wait was hard, but we managed to keep ourselves occupied.

We played lots of cards.

The boys made up their own games.

They got lots of laughs.

And of course, they wrestled.

And wrestled some more.

We loved the volunteers at the USO who were so helpful. We ate a lot of snacks and stored our food from Walmart in their fridge so we could survive! We finally started boarding our plane at 3:00am. The flight was cramped (lots of cargo) and cold (we bundled up!) but the kids slept the entire way! We landed in Spangdahlem (about 9:00 pm) and took a shuttle to Ramstein where the car was parked. We picked up 2 other soldiers and gave them a lift home, so we were packed in like sardines! We arrived at our house at 4:30 am. Bruce was determined not to lose another day of leave, so he slept for a few hours, then got up, took the other soldiers home, and went to work. We were all so happy to be home. The trip was great, but there is no place like home!