Wrapping it up...traveling home

Last post I left off with us hanging out in the hotel room for a bit before we left for the airport.  We checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport at 10pm.  It was a quick 30 minute drive.  However, it took a while to get us all checked in because of Havi's immigration status.  At that point, we had an extremely tired and cranky big girl dumpling.  Oy!  All three dumplings fell asleep while waiting to board the plane.  Let me tell you how much fun it is to collect all your belongings and rouse your sleepy kids every time we had to get on or off a plane. Um, NOT!  But that's how our travel story goes....

Anyway,we finally left Hong Kong at 12:45am Sunday morning.  Havi traveled in her jammies.

We arrived in Seoul at 5:30am.

This next photo cracks me up because it was about the only time Madeline was awake.  Notice the cranky face?  Caleb moved to another spot, and she promptly fell asleep right there...and stayed there for 3 hours without budging.

If it weren't for Caleb, Havi would've wandered off.  Patrick and I were so sleep deprived.  We kept trying to take turns watching her and sleeping while waiting for our 13.5 hour flight to begin, but it was so hard.  My favorite phrase- "Caleb, you got her? Okay. Good."  Yep, mom-of-the-year award right there.  I could.not.wait to fall asleep on the next flight.

Finally, finally at 10:00am, we boarded the plane.

Havi did beautifully.  She actually slept the whole flight from Hong Kong to Seoul and then slept about 9-10 hours on the long flight.  It was great.  I slept a bunch too and also managed to sneak in two movies at the end of the long flight.  

The other three in the row in front of us also slept most of the time too.  Though, when we finally arrived in Atlanta, we were all pretty hungry and grumpy.  We had a 4.5 hour layover.  However, by the time we passed through immigration and finally made it to our gate, we only had 2 hours left to wait...at a crowded gate...with no place to sit but the middle of the floor...with two tired dumplings and one that wanted to play chase through the crowd of travelers.  Oh, let me tell you, that was loads of fun.  Patrick picked up some food for us, although nobody liked what he bought for each of us.  Why?  Because we normally eat it all but were all vying for the best grouch crown.  I'm not sure exactly who won.  You'd have to ask him.  Poor Baba.

Anyway, we finally boarded the plane for our final one hour flight.  We arrived about 15-20 minutes early.  So my sister and crew, who were driving our minivan to the airport for us, weren't even there to meet us.  Thankfully my good friend and her daughters were there to greet us.  They followed us to baggage claim and helped us with all our luggage.  Then as we headed outside, my sister pulled up and, in paparazzi style, started snapping away.

Yes, I was tired, but I was actually blinking in the shot above.  I wasn't that tired.

My sister's father-in-law couldn't wait to hold Havi.

Havi did really well in the carseat.  She rather liked being up so high and looking out.  It was pretty funny.  When we arrived home, our neighbors came out to greet us and give us muffins and balloons.  My sister made that cute sign that my niece Leah is holding.

Then it was inside to play with all the toys and eat some dinner.

The two littles together.  I love it.  Madeline was so cute.  She said, "Havi and Josh don't really play together."  Nope, honey.  Not yet.  They're too young.  They'll just take each others toys for now.

Thanks so much, Deb, for snapping those homecoming photos for us. They are priceless.

We've been home almost a week now and have done really well with jet lag.  In fact, Havi and I have had zero trouble.  Seriously.  It's as if I didn't fly half way around the world.  For real!  The bigger dumplings have struggled with staying awake till bedtime on the days that I haven't forced them to take a nap, which has only happened a few times.  When they nap, they go to bed as usual and wake up after 5am...instead of 2am or 3am.  Yeah, poor Patrick, as he's been the one to get up with them.  

My mother-in-law arrived on Tuesday to spend some time with the dumplings and help out.  Caleb and Madeline have loved playing with her, as they always do. And Havi has joined right in.   It's been nice to have her here.  Oh, and remember how much Havi enjoyed the pool in China?  Well, let's just say I know where we will be spending time each day with this girl.  Seriously.  The sight of her brother and sister swimming has her trying to break down the doors to get in the pool too.  She loves the water.  She squeals and splashes, puts her face in the water.  She'll even let me lay her down in a floating position.  Anyway, I promise I will try to snap a few photos of her at home and post them.  I need to do this anyway because we'll be meeting with our social worker next weekend, and she's going to need photos for our first post placement visit report.  Thanks for hanging in there as I finished up blogging about our travel, and I hope you'll stick around now that Havi is finally home.

Last day- Kowloon Park

Our last day in Hong Kong we wanted to keep low key.  We would be leaving the hotel late at night for our flight home.  So we needed to pack and didn't want to spend hours away from the hotel.  We decided to check out one of the local city parks, Kowloon Park.  If it wasn't so stinkin' hot out, we could've walked there from our hotel, which was in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon.

We checked out a sculpture garden.

Then the dumplings headed into a garden maze.

Only Caleb was tall enough to see over the hedges.  It was cute to watch them run around.

We also spied some fish, ducks, and flamingos.

It was soooo hot, and at times, there was no breeze.  So we had to call off the park adventure and head back to the hotel.

Havi loved standing on the window ledge and walking back and forth, always with rice cracker in hand.

Don't worry, Patrick was standing just outside the frame of these shots.  So she wasn't in any danger.

Since we really enjoyed our dinner at Pizza Express a few nights back, we decided to eat at one located near the hotel.

After dinner, we took a quick walk down to the harbour for one last view.  Since Havi's diaper had leaked, we were in a bit of a hurry to get back to the hotel.  So I didn't have time to set up my tripod.  I just "upped" my ISO and snapped a shot.

I did manage to take a series of shots that I hope to convert into a panorama (I did the same for the view from the Peak.)  Then it was back to the hotel for about an hour before we departed for the airport.

I will share about our actual travel home in the next post.  We really enjoyed our time in Hong Kong.  Honestly, I wanted to use up all the 7 days we're allowed when transiting without a visa.  There were just a few more places and things I wanted to see.  But three weeks away from home was wearing on the rest of the family.  It got old living out of suitcases, trying to keep clean and dirty clothes separate and just trying to find whatever it was you were looking for.  Anyway, I'm thankful that we took a different travel route this time than the two previous adoption trips and that it allowed us to explore Hong Kong for a few days.  I honestly can't wait to return when the kids are older. 

Ngong Ping 360 on Lantau Island

On our third full day in Hong Kong, we took a cable car ride on Lantau Island.  There is a subway station right at the ticketing area.  So we opted to take the subway there and back.  It was very easy to navigate the subway system because everything is in both Chinese and English.  It was easy to switch lines, and we arrived about an hour after we left our hotel.

Unfortunately, we did not purchase our cable car tickets in advance and had to endure an hour and twenty minute wait.  Thankfully it was shaded because it was soooo hot and humid, even for a Florida gal.

You can purchase a crystal clear cabin, which means your cabin has a clear bottom.  It was pretty awesome to see Tung Chung Bay right below your feet.

In addition to cable car tickets, we also purchased tickets for a short boating excursion around Tai O Fishing Village, which also required bus tickets for a 20-25 minute bus ride down the mountain to the village.

Life is very rural there, and the houses are all on stilts.

Our boat ride also took us out around the island for some pink dolphin spotting, only we could barely see them under the water.  The boat ride was rough out in the open sea.  Thankfully Havi squealed as if she was on a rollercoaster.  She loved it.  That was a relief because that boat ride wasn't for everyone. lol

Unfortunately we didn't plan well, arriving at Tai O Village at lunch time with nothing to eat unless you wanted to be extremely brave...something we were not going to subject the little dumplings to.  

So our visit to Tai O Village was brief.  We boarded the bus and took the 20-25 minute ride back up to Ngong Ping Village to eat there.

We picked up some Taiwanese food for the littles and Starbucks for mama and baba.

Then it was time to head over to the biggest Buddha in the world.

As we walked through the piazza on our way, Madeline decided to stop and pose.  And her family photobombed her.  

After such a long day, we were not about to purchase additional tickets to climb to the top.  This was as close as we wanted to get with three tired little ones in tow. lol

Caleb and Madeline tried to help Havi look in the direction of my camera for photos.  Some of the onlookers apparently thought this was funny.

It was a full day on Lantau Island.  The views were spectacular, and the weather cooperated, for which we were thankful.  I just wished we had eaten lunch at the Ngong Ping village before we took the buse ride down to Tai O Village because I had wanted to explore the area more after the boat ride.  Lesson learned.