SUNDAY-Day 18-February 4th

We had a wake up call at 5 am to make sure we were up and ready. KG got everything packed the night before. So we just had to get up, get ourselves ready and double check our room. KG only got about 3 hours of sleep and I only got about 6. Flower woke up around 5:30 wide eyed and ready to go. At 5:45 Janet, Chris's sister, came to the door to help us get our stuff. We piled into the van with all our bags and headed to the airport. The trip took about 45 minutes. When we got there we unloaded the van and headed to check in. They said we had to have an infant ticket, even if we planned on holding the child on our lap. We told them that we were told we did not need a ticket for her but the manager said we do. So instead of arguing with them we just paid the $270 for her ticket. The annoying part is we pay $270 but she doesn't get a seat with that ticket. That is just an international boarding pass so she can get on the plane. Our first flight was from Guangzhou to Tokyo Japan. That was about 3 hours. We left at about 8:45 am. Flower was pretty full of energy for that flight. We landed in Tokyo and had about 20 minutes until we boarded our flight to Portland. That was a long flight. It was only about 8 hours, so not as long as our flight to Korea. But when you have a 21 month old child, flights seem a lot longer. We tried to get Flower to sleep because it is bed time for her in China, but she was fighting back her sleep so much that she started to get pretty noisy. KG made a bottle of chocolate milk for her and put some of the liquid from a nyquil pill into it to try to help her sleep. It obviously made her tired but she still kept fighting it. Finally about 2 hours before the plane landed she finally fell asleep. About time! The fun part is we left China at 8:45 am Sunday February 4th and got to Portland at 7:00 am Sunday February 4th. We went back in time! Now we are sitting in the Portland Airport with a 4 hour layover. We could have rented a car and driven half way home! Well, we landed in Boise right on time at 2:00

p.m.. We had a huge amount of people at the airport including both sets of our parents, Grandma Madison, Grandma and Grandpa Hunter, Grandma Jensen, all three of my siblings and spouses plus their kids, KG's youngest brother's girlfriend and his daughter, our SW Jessica (with the cutest teddy bear in hand!), the Rummler's (good thing too cause they had to bring us our car and take our luggage in their van!), the Klein's, and we were especially grateful and so excited to see that KG's brother and our nephew, Justin and Adam, drove all the way from Arizona Friday night just to be here to meet Flower, and they have to leave first thing Monday morning! Flower did so well! She walked right off the plane and through the doors! She has such a commanding little walk. She of course got overwhelmed with the crowd and wanted daddy to hold her but then she was fine and happy to greet everyone that had been so excited to meet her! We were so overwhelmed and touched by the amount of love that was there and showered upon us! I cried of course as soon as I started hugging everyone. We were just so tired! After an hour of fun and greetings we were headed home. The Klein's asked if they could stop by real quick because they had a few things they thought might be helpful. They were so thoughtful and asked if we needed anything. We took them up on that and asked them to stop and get us whole milk for Flower's night bottles and diapers. The Rummler's followed us home and helped us bring our bags up. Flower liked Tristan right away and let him carry her in the airport parking lot which was shocking! She didn't really let anyone else hold her or touch her. We are thankful for their willingness to house our car and transport us to and from the airport. The Klein's showed up shortly after and they went above and beyond and spoiled us! They had paid such attention to what we were writing about Flower and got everything she loves plus a few things they know their kids like and thought she might too! They showed up with a big bag of stuff including two boxes of spaghetti, one box of bow tie noodles, two cans of spaghetti sauce, a box of ritz crackers, a box of teddy grahams, a box of pony tail holders, a box of dragon fly barrettes, two card board style books, a coloring book with washable markers and a box of washable/fat crayons, a box of egg rolls, a dozen eggs, two big bottles of apple juice, a package of apple sauce cups, a package of jell-o fruit cups, a box of Life cereal (for me :)), bubbles, 10 package of Ramen noodles, plus the diapers and milk we had asked for! They did way too much but we so appreciated it and needed it! We were so exhausted and didn't want to even think of going to the store! We have the greatest friends and family!!! By the time we were alone it was 4:45 and KG couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He took Flower to bed and I unloaded one of our suitcases. I joined them just a half hour later and we were all asleep by 5:30! Flower woke up at 9:00 p.m. so I fed her-the Ramen noodles were so perfect when it felt like the middle of the night!!! We all fell back to sleep and woke up at 3:00 am. I was up with Flower until she fell back to sleep at 6:00. KG slept on and off in that time. At one point, we were laying on our backs, I turned on my side and grabbed her and was pulling her in to snuggle to her to get her back to sleep. I pulled her too fast and her head went right into my noise and gave me and immediate bloody nose! Lovely. I did laugh though. We are all just doing really well and can't wait till things become normal. She is such a delight!

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