We're here!!!

Yay!!! We finally arrived! I can't believe I'm typing this from the Outback of Australia!

Getting here was one "aw crap" moment after another, though! Geez.

It all started out at the airport back at home... We got there only to find that our travel agent never put in the paperwork for our travel visas, so we couldn't leave at that point. What kind of travel agent doesn't know about visas?? And we bought our tickets in February, so it wasn't like he was under a time crunch or anything!

Luckily, Matt, the man at the second counter at the airport, was able to help us out. He spent quite a bit of time painstakingly putting every facet of both of our passports and tickets into the computer to register us for e-visas. Which cost us 70 bucks. But would have been free had the travel agent done it originally. So 70 bucks for someone else's mistake. (Sorry, still a little bitter.) But nonetheless, we got through to security and said bye to my Dad and were officially passengers at that point.

Our flight to LA was pretty uneventful (to me anyway... given that I napped through 90% of it). When we got to LA, Sue was on a mission to get a postcard for a friend's 5 year old granddaughter, but forgot the catch that she had no way to mail it from the airport. After running person to person and dealing with quite a few punk-ish behaviors from unhelpful people, she finally found a security guard who offered to mail it himself. She was so thankful that she pulled an AFP badge that Sam had given her out of her purse and gave it to the guard as a thank-you gift. He was so excited. Apparently there's an underground badge collection amongst guards and police, and they will collect patches from everywhere. The guard next to him looked so envious of the Australian badge in his friend's hand. But good deeds earns you good rewards. Maybe next time he'll be the one to go out of his way for a stranger...

The flight to our first overseas stop (Brisbane, Australia) was LONG. I think that was the first time I've ever been served a full dinner at 3:15 AM (our time). And even though they give you a little more legroom on international flights like that, its still almost impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time. So, I catnapped through the trip. At one point, I went back to the restroom and ran into Sue, who was walking around stretching her legs. She pointed out a set of stairs (small ones, clearly for crew) that went up to the second story. We had been debating earlier in the flight about what the second story was like, if it was for crew, first class, whatever. So, I went to go poke my head into the staircase and look up. I wasn't intending on going up or anything, just wanted to look up the stairs.

As soon as I looked up, there was a face less than 3 feet from mine, and a hand reaching quickly toward me to wave. Startled, I jumped and tried to move out of the way at the same time, and smashed my head against the doorway. I stepped back out of the way just as the "face" (and the rest of him) came out of the staircase chuckling and said "Sorry ma'am, private party only up those stairs." I could hear more laughter from the stairs and, being a "flight" type when it comes to fight-or-flight, told a laughing Sue I was going back to bed and exited stage right.

My head hurt for a while too. Hahah

We landed in Brisbane and had to hightail it straight to our connecting flight to Alice Springs. That flight seemed to go on forever, probably because it was so close to our final destination. When we landed, it was COLD. Definitely NOT what I expected for the Outback. We hurried across the tarmac to the terminal where Sam, Jaiquen, and Milla were waiting for us.

Jaiquen (8) gave me a big hug, followed by Milla (2). She looked up and said "We're getting Grandma Sue and Devyn. Grandma Sue.... Devyn.... Grandma Sue." You could tell she had clearly been given a mission. It took a little while to convince her that we were, in fact, the very same Grandma Sue and Devyn she had been hearing about and had been sent to the airport to pick up.

The whole drive home, Sue and Sam sat in the front seat and chatted, and Jaiquen talked to me (with prompting, since he's 8) about Pokemon (his obsession) and our agenda for the trip, and Milla went over each bruise, scrape, and "owie" on her body in detail.

Kellianne was waiting for us at the house. We all talked, caught up, and had the home tour (they have such a nice home!). Then Sam and I went to the store for dinner supplies, and we came home, ate, and went to bed early. Jet lag is not your friend.

Today has been pretty low-key. We exchanged our money for Australian currency, went to Todd Mall (not what Americans generally think of when they think of a mall), ate some lunch, and hung out around the house. When Kellianne gets off work, she's taking me up to the hospital where her mom, Dianne (SWEET lady) works to look around and so I can have some close encounters with the locals. (Pretty intrigued about them, since I keep hearing stories about them and their habits and personalities).

I'm so happy to be here with everyone, its so gorgeous here! And I'll be SO pumped when the weather warms back up soon! (Its usually 80, right now its 60). Hope to write more soon!