August 15, 2014 The departure…
This was the day we’ve been waiting for. The day we’d finally fly to Vienna and begin our lives on ‘the other side of the world’ - as Tucker so adorably describes it.

We chose to fly out of Lubbock, so that we could leave our family car with my parents and have my parent’s house as a ‘home base’ for when we come back to visit. We awoke early on Friday morning, and finished packing up all of our luggage, for what we hoped to be the last time for a very long while. It was a lot of luggage. We made sure that we were following all the customs and TSA rules again, and double checked the house to make sure we had everything we needed. My mom and my sister took us to the airport (because our luggage wouldn’t all fit into one car), and we said our goodbyes. I don’t like goodbyes at all - so I’m going to just skip that part. You all know I love you.

The day of the flight is something that I had been kind of stressing about for some time, because Eric hates airports and gets stressed very easily while traveling by air. Add four kids, an over-seas trip, and a whole heap of luggage to an already stressed out guy, and you’re in for trouble. But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone handled the first leg of our trip so pleasantly. We got through check-in and security without any problems (Lubbock airport is super small, so the lines were almost non-existent which was nice.) We even had plenty of time to grab a leisurely lunch at the food court and enjoy an ice cream bar before it was time to board the plane. The kids were pumped up and excitedly looked out the windows pointing at every plane they saw. Tyler would jump up and down every time he saw a plane go “up, Up, UP!” It was pretty obvious that it was their first time at an airport, and while it was all very exciting, we still weren’t sure how they were going to react to the actual flying part.

We boarded the first plane (headed to a layover in Dallas) which was pretty small. So small, in fact that we had to ‘check’ our carry on baggage at the plane to be put in the cargo area, because there wasn’t enough room in the overhead storage bins. One of the passengers, however, must have believed that his bag was an exception to the rule, because he tried to cram in an oversized carry-on into the overhead bin and managed to break the latch. Since the latch of the overhead bin was broken, it posed a safety threat to the flight, and so we were grounded until maintenance could come and fix the problem. We waited for about fifteen minutes for the maintenance guy to get there, and then after about another fifteen minutes of “fixing it” time, I couldn’t help myself any longer and vocally suggested that they use duct tape. They didn’t think it was very funny though. Eric and I started getting very nervous, knowing that our layover to catch our plane to London was only an hour long, and the DFW airport is huge. The kids were getting very antsy and Tyler kept shouting “up, Up, UP!!” - Like, “C’mon people, get with the program, we’re supposed to be flying by now!” Finally, about 45 minutes late, we were taking off, hoping and praying that we would somehow make up some ground - in the air.

The kids loved every bit of the first flight. The were in awe looking out the window seeing the cars getting smaller and smaller as we rose into the air, they loved seeing all the “shapes” of the fields below, and then when the clouds started flying past the windows, I heard Tucker shriek, “We’re as high as the sky - for real!” It made me remember the first time I flew and how magical it felt. I still love to look out the windows and enjoy the wonder of it all, but I have to admit that during this particular flight, I was stressing about time - and whether or not we would miss our next flight.

When we landed at DFW, we only had about 10 minutes before our plane to London was supposed to take off. With our carry-on bags below the plane, we knew it would pose and additional wait, so Eric and I decided to divide and conquer. I took the oldest three kids and all of our back packs, and Eric stayed back with Tyler to wait for our other two carry-on cases. Cooper, Addie, Tucker, and I literally ran as fast as we could toward our departure gate - two terminals away. We ran down the hall, around the corner and up the escalator to the sky tram, caught our breath while we waited for our terminal stop, and then made a wild dash for the gate. (A flash of the airport scene in Home Alone came to my mind.) There were no other passengers around - and it was quite obvious they had all already boarded the plane. Out of breath, I asked, “Did we make it?” The attendants were definitely not pleased with our tardiness, but they took our tickets and began to hurry us on the plane. It was then that I explained that my husband and last child were still a ways behind us as they had to wait for our carry-on luggage. Clearly put-out now, they begrudgingly waited. About 5 minutes later (but what seems like an eternity) my super-hero husband came running around the corner, in a full-out sprint, holding Tyler in one arm and two large carry-ons in the other, with a heavy backpack on his back. He was completely out of breath and sweating bullets, but he made it - we made it, and the look relief on his pained face was a look of pure gratitude. We made the flight… by the skin of our teeth.

Once we got on and got settled, the flight started looking really, really good. The IAEA has a policy that for all flights over 7 hours in duration, they fly their employees (along with the family) business class. For someone who has only ever flown economy class, this was a whole new world. We were all seated in luxury ‘pods’ completely separate from one another, that come fully equipped with a TV (with on demand movies, tv, and video games), Bose noise-cancelling headphones, a personal bag of toiletries, a pillow and blanket, and a comfy seat that reclined into a completely flat, full-length bed. Business Class is nice. I went to help each of the kids get settled into their seats after take off (because there was no time beforehand) and Cooper was already fully enjoying all of the amenities of his luxury pod, eating a snack and watching a movie with his feet up, and he looked up me with a huge grin on his face and said, “Man! I LOVE flying!” Addie was enjoying herself as well, but Tucker took some time to get settled, and Tyler fell asleep before he could even eat dinner. They served a full five course meal that actually was quite delicious. I’m not sure how much the kids actually ate - but I’m sure they polished off the ice cream sundae at the end with ease. After dinner we all reclined our seats into beds and went to sleep. We all slept pretty well, with the exemption of Tucker waking up a couple times (but Eric is a pro comforter and had him back to sleep in no time). We woke up and were served a nice breakfast before landing. Tyler was still sound asleep, and I actually had to wake him up so that I could put his seat back upright for the landing. Cooper was bummed that the flight was over and he had to leave his lovely seat. This was definitely a good flight.

We arrived at the London Heathrow airport at about 8:30 am London time (2:30 AM Texas time), a little groggy, but overall okay. However, this airport must be the least passenger-friendly airport ever in the history of man! It was awful! We had to walk what seemed like miles and miles through the airport just to get to the connections terminal, and then we had to go through dreaded security again! Although we were on the “fast track” it was not fast at all, and we actually started getting nervous we would miss our next flight. Eric began stressing, the kids started melting down, and the people behind us in line started making rude comments about how our family was holding up the line. It was not a pleasant experience. We managed to survive the thralls of security, but we were in a lot worse shape than when we were sitting pretty in our pods just moments before…

I believe the London Heathrow airport was built to make sure people got enough walking in their lives - because after security, we had to walk miles again (this time with horribly tired, whining children) to get to our gate - which was closed. We weren’t sure if we were in the wrong place all together, and we could not find any employees or even a sign to tell us otherwise. It was so backwards! Finally we located an attendant that confirmed we were in the right place, and got checked in a few minutes later. Only to be placed in a holding room of sorts before being shoved onto a standing-room only shuttle bus and driven out onto the tarmac where we had to climb the stairs to our plane. Seriously, people. There are more efficient ways to do this. At least we made our flight though - the last leg of the trip. Vienna was in sight.

My children were disappointed that we didn’t get to sit in luxury pods again - however we were served a delightful lunch, and the flight went pretty well. By this point we were just really ready to get to our final destination. We landed, got in line to exchange money, and went to see if our baggage had made it on the flight that we almost missed back in Dallas. It did! Every piece of luggage was there, and we were so grateful. We loaded it up on two large baggage carts and wheeled it out to find our taxi driver waiting for us. We barely were able to fit our luggage into the “oversised” taxi van, but managed to do so with some shoving. We got all buckled up, and the kids were all asleep within five minutes of the trip. The drive was nice - and Eric and I pinched ourselves several times, smiling, saying, “We made it. We are actually here.”

40 minutes later we arrived at our temporary apartment and greeted warmly by the super friendly owner, Peter. He showed us around our fully-equipped, yet cozy apartment and answered all of the questions we could think of. After he left we opened the windows and breathed in the crisp, cool air of Vienna, and we all took a deep sigh of relief to finally be here… in Vienna.