For those of you who don't know, my husband is going to work at the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf offices of his Chicago-based law firm for 8-12 months. So the SIX of us are packing up and flying to Frankfurt.
I think getting your house ready to put on the market is a huge task; packing up your house (usually reserved for AFTER you have sold your house) is another huge task; packing up for a 8-12 month stay in another country (for you, two dogs, two babies, and a household) is another massive project. Trying to do it all at once: insane!
But we did it! Sort of. There is still a lot more I would have liked to have done to "stage" our home, but it's in decent (enough) shape... now.
Last shot of house as I set the alarm to leave for the airport:
FIRST ATTEMPT TO DEPART
That was not the case on Saturday, the day we were supposed to leave. Indeed, we hadn't packed any of the food in the cupboards or in the fridge/freezer, piles of trash and other random stuff that had not yet been packed remained all over the house, and, really, only three of ten rooms were (mostly) ready. The rest were DISASTERS!
We left for the airport 1.5 hours before the flight (you're supposed to get to the airport two hours before an international flight; common sense would dictate that a trip involving two babies and two dogs would require you to arrive more than two hours before the flight). It was a futile attempt. When we hadn't even made it to the interstate and our flight was to depart in less than an hour, we gave up... (Although I knew there was no point in even trying to make it, my husband had to hear it from a Lufthansa representative before he would believe it.) We re-booked for Monday's 3:40 flight to Frankfurt.
SECOND ATTEMPT TO DEPART
We recuperated from all of the drama at an Ethiopian restaurant (which was very yummy) and resumed packing and getting our house ready to sell. Notwithstanding the additional time, we still pushed it as far as time and only got about 85% of what we had wanted to get done on the house.
But we had the car loaded, and were ready to go by about 12:20 (we just needed to stop at Petco after Jaeger's water bowl broke). The car was loaded to the max! I thought it was dangerously loaded but my husband said nothing was going to budge (hope not since the stroller was above Jack's head!). We had seven bags and one huge double stroller to check, one dog in a huge crate to check into cargo, one small dog in a Sherpa bag to carry-on, one double stroller to carry on, six bags to carry on, and, of course, two babies in huge, heavy car seats and the car seat bases.
Because we had to drop off the rental car, and we didn't want to deal with all of our luggage at Enterprise, my husband dropped me (the boys, and the puppies) off in front of the airport. I am sure we were quite a sight.
The check-in process was an ordeal. Luckily, we were practically the only ones checking in (because everyone else had already checked in!) and the Lufthansa staff were very helpful and exceptionally patient.
My husband had to take Jaeger through special security. It was so hard saying good-bye to Jaeger. He cried a little bit when we walked away. We were so worried about him but didn't want him to see it. We did our best to reassure him that all was good and we would see him soon.
Security for us wasn't too bad, except that my husband was subjected to extra security due to the "dangerous" liquid baby formula and other "suspicious" baby items we had. He actually got a full pat down. The TSA's agent play-by-play of where he was going to put his hands next made it all the more awkward for my husband.
When we got to the gate, the plane was almost fully boarded and my husband and I still had to talk to them about our seats - because we were late checking in, we did not have seats together. Indeed, we were twenty rows apart! Luckily, the the flight attendants persuaded some passengers to change seats so we were closer, although still not in the same row.
At the gate, they took away two of our carry-on bags (saying there was no space) which was a little stressful because we needed the items in each of our carry ons (for example, the ones they took had our extra clothes for when the boys would inevitably spit up on us) and then we lost additional bags as they said there wouldn't be space near our seats for all of our carry ons. All I had near me were diapers and feeding items (no laptop, iPad, book, etc.).
There was no time to get settled or organized. The flight attendants barely had us buckled in before we took off. At last, we were on our way!
THE FLIGHT
The flight wasn't too bad, for me at least. I had an aisle seat (with Will next to me), whereas my husband had a middle seat with Jack. The boys were okay during take off. Will slept, but Jack cried a bit (probably because it had been about 5 hours since his last feeding). Izzy almost escaped her bag.
Our dinner was great - I think it was objectively good, but it was especially good for us because it was around 6pm and we hadn't eaten ALL DAY long because we had been too busy getting ready and trying to make our flight. The boys had fun checking out other passengers and playing with their toys.
Will did get a little fussy (of course, during the time when the lights were dim and people were sleeping) and did some of his infamous screaming and shrieking but it could have been worse. He did eventually settle down after I handed him off to my husband.
(Although we thought they did fine, other passengers may not agree. Both Jack and Will spit up on the headrests; Jack pulled on the arm hair of the person next to him; and one of the passengers mentioned to my husband that Jack had not had a diaper change in a while - in my husband's defense, Jack was sleeping so he didn't want to wake him to change him, and risk having a screaming baby on the plane, and they were in the middle seats making getting up for a diaper change very difficult. Not sure which is worse - screaming baby or sleeping stinky baby)
ARRIVAL
We arrived exhausted... and anxious to get our Jaeger. Unfortunately, we had to get the rest of our luggage as well. Jaeger, thank goodness, was okay.
Our luggage was still overwhelming. While we had no problem getting the dogs through the vet check, getting our luggage out the door was nearly impossible. Jon hauled two overflowing baggage carts. I had the double stroller and one baggage cart. The baggage carts aren't really designed to be pulled with other baggage carts, or strollers. I would pull one twenty feet and then go back and get the stroller. The airport wasn't too crowded so I could do this safely and with everything in sight.
Picking up the rental car involved more complications, but eventually, it all worked out. Because the rental mini-van wasn't big enough for everything or everyone, Izzy and I took a mini van cab along with several bags.
Finally, the rental mini van and the cab arrived at our apartment in Frankfurt. Our adventures begin...
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