And the Journey Begins . . .

September 14, 2010 we began our very long journey to Melbourne.  After a tearful goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, we boarded our flight to Los Angeles.

 We had an 8 hour layover in LA.  Thank God for Aunt Erica!  She picked us up and we went exploring around the outskirts of LAX.  We managed to find Manhattan Beach and of course a mall.  After a few hours with Aunt Erica, we said our goodbyes and headed to the airport to wait for our 11:20pm flight to Melbourne. 

We spent a few hours in the Qantas Club, which the kids loved because there was free food, free internet, cozy chairs and a shower. 

We boarded our flight to Melbourne and we were off!  The flight was long, but non-eventful.  The kids were amazing.  They fell asleep right away and managed to sleep for about 9 hours.  We sat in business class so each individual seat reclined to a bed.  After having sat in economy for my house hunting trip and now had the luxury of business class . . . Gary is in big trouble when we make the trip back to the States for a visit!  We were spoiled and we loved it!  We watched movies, read, played games, listened to music and ate.   

After 18 hours of flying time and a 21 hour day, we finally made it to Melbourne on Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 7:30am.  The kids informed me that we totally missed September 15th.  We completely lost a day of our lives.  I told them we would get it back when we make the trip back for a visit.  After clearing immigration and customs, we happily met Gary and started for home.  We arrived at 15 Waterview Close, Mt. Eliza, Victoria about an hour later.  We managed to stay up until 9:00pm thanks to a lot of Coke and Diet Coke and a day spent grocery shopping and getting things for the house.  Our first night in our new home, in a foreign country went very well.  We are happy to be a family again!  As they say in Australia . . . Cheers!