Heading to Dominica

In Salt Lake freezing cold! Just about ready to ditch our winter coats.

We had 10 large suitcases all right around 50 pounds and 6 carry on bags plus a double stroller.

In Salt Lake after midnight just about ready to board. The kids had never been on a plane!

We were scheduled to take off on our 1st plane leaving Salt Lake at 12:30am (Dec. 31st)  The baby was crying as we walked onto the plane. I had her, 3 backpacks and all the kids while trying to get to our seats! Mark was dealing with getting our large stroller checked. It felt CRAZY!! but things settled down the kids slept most of the was and we made it to North Carolina with very little incident.

One flight down two more to go. I love how alive everyone looks in this picture! HAHA! It felt like the middle of the night! In reality it was around 6:45 am North Carolina time.

We waited for a good few hours in NC before our next flight. At one point Lexi, Isaac, Mark and Kari were all asleep on the floor! Emma was also asleep at the time in a baby carrier. We then flew to St. Maarten. I loved watching out the window as we landed. SO much green!!

This is in St. Maarten after we'd already survived 2 flights. At this airport we had a scare because our tickets said "standby"!!! WHAT??!?!! But thankfully everything worked out just fine. We were bused from the airport out to this smaller airplane. We were even able to board the little plane first and sit together (the seats were not assigned).

This last flight was only one hour and went by quickly.

Looks like some fancy resort in St. Maarten!

We made it to Dominica!!!!

We landed at a teeny tiny airport in which they didn't allow photographs. Once we got through customs there were people from Ross there to greet us with bottles of cold water. Which was wonderful. We made it with all of our luggage. The more I talk to people the more rare this sounds. At least I've heard a lot of stories of people waiting for their luggage for days and weeks. What a blessing!! Once we loaded the bus I realized the extent of a poopy diaper I had smelled. It had gone up Emma's back! Eww! Since it was hot it wasn't so bad that I had to strip her down to her diaper. It was about an hour drive to very windy (is that a word? not like the wind is blowing but the roads were very curvy...) roads. To me, it felt just like being on a ride at Disneyland with fake plants all over!! It was getting dark when we landed and I think we got to the university around 7pm. We were all exhausted and had slept part of the way there. As we woke up children and gathered our stuff we saw Cami Davis (my Facebook friend who I had spoken with on the phone a few nights before) and JoEll outside of the bus. Cami brought us cell phones I had purchased off of a student who had just left the island. She offered and took Lexi and Isaac back to her home to feed them and let the rest while we watched a little slide show, ate some Chinese and got signed n. Our land lord Jared came to pick us up and take us to our new home. First we were able to call our mothers and let them know we made it here.  Once we got all our stuff to the apartment I called Cami to figure out how to get my kids. She said the missionaries were there so she sent them over with their truck to get us. We put the stroller in the back and went to Cami's. It was New Year's Eve so we hung out there with a few other couples (Kasey and JoEll, Jay and Jon, Cami and Kong, Michelle and Jason) It was fun to be there with instant friends and so nice to have a place to hang out and chill. Kasey and JoEll walked us home around 1am and we went to bed as soon as we got our fans set up.