First of all, huge thank you to Jessi and Mark for hosting a party for us to say “see you soon” to many of our friends and family. If I thought saying goodbye to Treasury was hard, it was even harder the night of the party. I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for the emotional roller coaster that was to come that night. It started out like any other party – super fun, and then quickly turned heart breaking as people started leaving. I knew it was going to be difficult for us to leave the country, but I hadn’t fully considered the pain we were causing our loved ones. I decided quickly that night that “goodbye” sounded way too final, and since we are really only gone 18-24 months I decided that “see you soon” is much easier to say. As difficult as that night was, we are so thankful to have had the chance to see everyone one last time. So, Jessi and Mark, we are forever appreciative of giving us that opportunity. *hugs*

It was such a strange feeling walking through my house in Davenport one last time. My eyes were scanning all of the rooms to make sure I didn’t forget something important – either to squeeze into one of our 6 nearly 50 pound suitcases, or to put in storage. I did a lot of sorting, organizing, and purging over the past several weeks to prepare, but am certain that there is something that slipped through the cracks. Anyhoo, after I was reasonably certain we were all set, we loaded up the rental Tahoe to the brim, pulled out of the driveway, and shut the garage door one last time. At this point, I had said all of my goodbyes (not fun at all) and was filled with a mixture of excitement and an occasional wave of anxiety. Ready or not!

We caught the 5:50 PM American Eagle flight from Moline to Dallas on Monday, October 21. That day also happened to be our 7 year wedding anniversary. What a gift from Mr. Shearer! Ty was really super excited. So excited, in fact, that he couldn’t eat. More to come on this later… Lily was her usual chill self. Lily didn’t make a peep on the entire 2 hour flight to Dallas. Ty was a big boy and sat in the single seat behind Jay. He loved looking out the window. About halfway through he needed a little extra entertainment so he played Umi Zoomy math games on the iPad.

We had a 2 hour layover in Dallas, which was just enough time to burn off some energy before getting on the HUGE Qantas airplane at 10:00 PM. We had the 4 middle seats in the back row of our section. It was perfect for us. Jay on the left, then Ty, me, and Lily in her infant car seat (which was a lifesaver). Qantas was a great airline to fly with. The food was delicious and the flight attendants were the most friendly I have ever encountered. Ty even gave one of our attendants a hug when he got off the plane (she gave him lots of milk and he is a sucker for a nice cold glass). My only beef with Qantas was that despite the fact the I called numerous times in advance of the flight to try to reserve a seat with a bassinet for Lily to sleep in, they told me there were none available. You can imagine my frustration when we got on the plane and found that the seat with the bassinet was not occupied by a needy mother and her infant, but by a big dude and his wife. Nonetheless, our seats were quite perfect for our little family of four so I quickly got over my anger. Plus, I was putting into play our motto for the trip – “just roll with it”.

All was going well. We got served a yummy dinner right after we reached cruising altitude, but Ty was a combo of too excited to go to Australia and exhausted, so he didn’t eat more than a bite or two. He couldn’t get comfortable enough in his seat to sleep, so he crawled onto Jay’s lap and about 4 hours into the 15+ hour flight he puked. My apologies and deep gratification to the Qantas blanky that captured all of it… Add onto the fact that his tummy was obviously upset, the poor growing boy had major foot & leg cramps. So he spent over half of the flight on dad’s lap. Meanwhile, Lily is still sleeping peacefully, oblivious to everything around her. Ty got sick one more time a few hours later, but then finally got some sleep. When he woke up just before brekky (breakfast) was served, he was a totally different child. He devoured his meal and was a million times more happy. He was starting to get a little stir crazy and voiced what everyone was thinking at that point. “This is taking FOREVER!” I had some time to think on the flight, and as I looked at my beautiful baby girl all snuggled up and cozy, my son cuddled up with his hero, and my hubby of 7 years, I got a little misty eyed. I thought I knew what love was 7 years ago, but I had no idea how much more I had in store for me. Love my sweet little family!!

We landed in Brisbane a little after 5:00 AM, rolled through Customs in the shortest customs line I have ever been in, and managed to fit all 6 pieces of luggage on 2 little carts. Keep in mind we also had a stroller for Lily. 2 adults + 3 things to push = an interesting hike to the rental car, but we made it. Thanks to the friendly Customs guy that helped us maneuver our way through the zig zag of ropes.

We get to the rental van and the nice people at Hertz had pre-installed the rental car seats for us. Sounds great, but after I attempted to secure Lily into hers for 15 minutes without success, Jay came to my rescue and had to tear apart the straps and redo them. Made me feel better that I wasn’t a complete idiot. :). We got the van loaded and after a quick drive by the daycare and a stop at the realtor’s office to pick up the keys, we FINALLY made it to our new home, probably around 9:30 AM.

Talk about a feeling of being overwhelmed… I walk into this beautiful home, dead tired, stinky, wander my way through it and think “holy cow it is going to take a lot to get settled”. So I am a bit of an anal, obsessive person and I like things put away where they belong. We had rental towels, dishes, and bedding in the home, but they hadn’t been washed. And we didn’t have laundry detergent or dish soap… And we had 6 suitcases full of clothing and other random items, but no dressers or hangers to put them in. My brain immediately went into over drive and as my mom would say, I got into one of my modes. Go mode. I started making a list of immediate essentials and sent Jay to the store (you are crazy if you think I was going to venture out on the wrong side of the road on my own so soon). Ty and Lily stayed home with me and when I wasn’t entertaining them, I started getting settled.

Ty went down for a nap around 2:00 and when I woke him at 5:00 I carried him downstairs and he immediately fell back to sleep on the couch. Jay and I called it a night around 7:30 or so. Lily continued to be a perfect little baby.

Night one was ROUGH. Lily woke up to eat more than normal, and Ty woke at 2:00 and was ready to party. After trying to force him to go back to sleep, I went to the TV room and after failing to figure out how to get the DVD player to work, settled on watching Happy Days. It was either that or infomercials… We played cards (Spot it and Memory) before his tummy growled. Kid had slept through dinner, so of course he was hungry. I have him a midnight snack of yogurt and cheese. And then Lily woke up again, so all 4 of us were up. What do you do in the middle of the night in Australia? FaceTime your family back in the US. :). It was great to see Mom, Steven, and Brooke’s smiling faces. Around 4:00 we tried again to go to bed, but Lily woke up and the sun came up around 4:45 so we said the heck with it, and got up to cook brekky.

The boys got in a quick, slightly cold swim before the cable guy showed up. Lily had a bit of a fit – I think she is exhausted and hungry as my system hasn’t adjusted to the time difference so she is getting less to eat during the day (apparently my body thinks it has several hours before she will eat again). And then the battle for nap time began with Ty. One would think that Ty would be so happy to lay down and go to sleep (lord knows I would be), but nope, had to be a battle. Finally at 1:30 PM he laid down on the couch and fell asleep.

So now both kids are sleeping, laundry is still going (lots of stuff to wash up and each load takes about 3.5 hours), and Jay is out fetching our internet box and storage units for our clothes. I am feeling so blessed with how well things have gone, all things considered. As soon as I publish this blog I am going to lay down and close my eyes. Hopefully I will get a few minutes of snoozing before the fun begins again. If not, though, I will just roll with it. 🙂