UK here we are!

So we made it, Alive and in once....well 7 pieces (people). It was just like I imagined, overwhelming and raining lol.
I'll start from the beginning of our trip. Hope I can remember it all through the lack of sleep. I am really scared of flying so my Friday morning really started out at 2am because I could not sleep due to anxiety and nerves. Knowing that the day was going to be long already sure didnt help the fact that due to my own issues it started even earlier then I really needed or wanted it too. Once everyone else woke up and joined me we had eggs, bacon and toast thanks to my mother in law for making us a special good-bye breakfast. We did another walk through of the house to make sure we got everything in our suitcases, I still can believe we did! We ended up with 14 pieces of actual luggage and 3 car seats and a stroller! I have no idea how we managed to get it all where it needed to end up. Especially scene we got dropped off at the wrong terminal and then ended up in the wrong terminal at London. God must have been in the works for helping us for sure. We ended up having help from people all over the airports. One man at LAX just walked up to us and asked to help us. He carried the luggage that I could while holding a baby and helped mike destress over the issue. We got dropped off at noon and were just going to get set up and go eat. When we ended up being in the wrong terminal for over an hour our plans got cut short. Our tickets were booked through American Airlines, but when we finally got to the counter they said we had to go to British Airways. Ugh so frustrating. So we got help from one of the catty luggage people and headed over to the next Terminal. Once we got through all that it was about 1:30pm. We figured that they would have food places after the security line (bad move on our part) so we went through the security first. We were happy to find out that with a baby and our large family we basically got to cut through the line all the way to the front. Guess they dont want us in line as much as we did not want to be in line. We got to our gate and mike went in search of food. When he finally got back he gave us our $10 sandwiches ekk. Not even subway quality. More like home made by teenagers quality. But we werent complaining we were all just tired and wanted to get this trip over and out of the way.
I had a little melt down right before entering the gate but Mike said for how scared I was I did a really good job, Yay me lol. I do admit as soon as I was allowed I had a Jack n' coke. It really did help my mood ;)
As far as the actual plane ride went, well that was probably as good as it could have been. We had NO children melt downs praise God. Amariah was the star of the plane everyone wanted to touch her, talk to her, ask us a billion questions. This cute little English women behind us just thought she was the most adorable thing ever. Everyone was so nice and impressed with the children's behavior! AMAZING.
I am always so proud of my kids when people start telling us how great they are. I think they are great all the time, but its nice to think other people think so as well. Once we got off the plane which was 10.5 hours long the kids which probably got 3 hours of sleep max and us grown ups which were working on mere minutes of sleep. Got the joy of trying to walk through the London air port which happens to be very confusing, different, and BIG. We probably got a good 3 miles of walking done not including what we had done back in the states. Our frustration grew when we found out we were in the wrong terminal for pick up for the bus that was supposed to drive us to the base and in fact thought we were going to have to be picked up another way. Thankfully a guy going in the same direction as we were let us know that we were still able to make the bus and the air port person did not know what they were talking about.
The 3 hour bus ride ended up being the best part of the whole trip. It was a tour bus with really comfortable seats and I slept the whole ride back. Which felt so good. I was a little bummed out because I wanted to sight see as much as I could. But apparently that was not what my body wanted because the one or two times I even opened my eyes I couldnt stay awake and my brain was not even registering what I was seeing ha ha pretty funny.
We got to TLF (temporary living facility) It was around 3pm. Realized that we had no food so we made a trip to the commissary for enough food to make it tell Monday and headed back to TLF. We were so thankful to see that we are basically smack in the middle of the BX and the Commissary and can walk to both in just a few minutes. Being carless this is so helpful and a blessing.
We fell asleep quickly which was no surprise. The 1am wake up party we had with Amariah and Levi in full morning mode woke everyone else up. It wasnt bad but boring due to the fact we didnt really have anything to entertain ourselves with. We feel back asleep around 5am and Mike had to wake us all up at 10am. It was really hard getting ourselves out of bed (2am our usual time) but we managed to get it done.

Allyson waiting to board the plane. 

Levi looking out the window at our plane

there it is! Our British Airline Plane

Levi awaiting the plane ride, He was so excited

This is Levi in London Airport. He was so tired. I was wishing I was young enough to be pushed around ;)

Anika in London, can you see how tired we are? lol

I said, "hey were in London, smile" this is what I got. Shy throw her thumb in the photo

At least one kid was excited (Shy)

This is Allysons leave me alone smile ha ha

Were on the bus! our last part to the trip

Right after this shot we ALL passed out. I should have had a pic of that. It was pretty funny