We are a day later than we thought but getting everyone home safe was worth it! Our flight from Newark to Buffalo was cancelled Thurs night, so we had to wait until morning to come home. We were surprised with a great welcome at the airport, my sister and her family came from Newmarktet ON to greet us. Our friends Kim & Jenn spent the night in Buffalo so that they could take us home on Friday, that was so above and beyond.
The kids did well on the flight home, it was the parents that were pretty frazzled. Getting from one plane to the other in Beijing took over 2 hours. With the new security, they took away our water and searched both our checked and carry on luggage three times during the trip home. It is much more difficult to travel with kids with all this security. Also, Liam at age 6 was good about staying close to us, but occationally Nyla would start to wander and the fact that my kids would blend into a crowd scared me during the entire trip. Overall, despite all my heavy complaints, I am really glad that we brought them, it was good for them to experience everything first hand. Kids are more flexible than adults in many ways. It was more work & stress, so I can understand why many parents don't bring their kids.
Below I will post some pictures of our arrival to Buffalo.
When we arrived home, friends Kirsten, Chris and Jen brought over some lunch, with no food in the fridge it was greatly appreciated.
I tried to keep the kids up but everyone was asleep by 8pm. Ethan woke around midnight and then woke up Liam and Nyla. It is 2am and they are settling back to sleep. I am going there also. We probably will keep Ethan home for a few days to get settled in and feel secure in his surroundings. We have been traveling to different places every few days so I want him to get to know his new home. Feel free to stop by, we may be asleep but hopefully we will get that straightened out in a few days.
