Leaving Germany

Before the movers came to take our household goods, we moved into a hotel.  Ben packed up a few toys and books to take along.  He was really excited.

 Our first night in the German hotel.  We ordered schnitzel for delivery but got spaghetti for Ben.

 After a mixup with our reservation, we ended up getting adjoining rooms like we requested so there were two separate sleeping areas: one for me and Maddy, who still wakes up a lot at night, and one for Mike and Ben (he slept on a couch).

 There wasn't a lot of space, but it was so much better than all of us squeezing into one hotel room.  And the main room had a kitchenette which made keeping and making food for the kids a whole lot easier.  But keeping Ben occupied was a challenge.  He didn't care about the TV because all the channels were in German, and he got pretty stir-crazy.  He did look forward to the hotel breakfast every morning.

 Waiting at the passenger terminal the morning of our flight.

 Still waiting.  They finally let us through security so we could wait at the boarding gate.  We waited over an hour past the boarding time because of a delayed fuel truck.

 Once we finally got to our seats, we waited again to take off.  All told, we were delayed two and a half hours.  At least Ben was happy to be on an airplane. 

 Before takeoff.  Madeline may look happy in her car seat on the plane, but I can assure you that this is not representative of what the flight was like.  She was not a happy camper.

 Shortly after takeoff.  Ben was pointing to a map that showed the flight path.

Many, many hours into the flight (it took about 9 hours).  Maddy desperately wanted to lie down flat so  I tried to make a little bed for her with my sweater and her blanket and teddy bear.  She only slept for about half an hour the whole flight.

 We landed in Baltimore, and my parents were waiting for us with a rental SUV big enough to haul all of us and our luggage to Pennsylvania.  The drive took about 90 minutes and Ben slept for a good bit of it.

Maddy was thrilled to pieces to be off of that plane.