Traveling home and travel dates!

When I last left you, everything looking smooth for our trip home.  We got up EARLY on Thursday morning, finished packing the last of our stuff, and headed to the airport about 6 a.m.!!  We got there, got all checked in and everything was looking great.  But then, our flight was never called to be boarded!  We waited and waited - finally Brandon went in search of someone who spoke English to figure out what was going on, and we found out our flight was delayed about an hour. So we were going to be REALLY cutting it close once we landed in Moscow because we only had a 2 hour layover, and it can sometimes take a little while to get through Passport Control.  We finally were able to board our plane, and sat there for almost another hour!  By the time we left, we knew we would have missed our flight.  Having spent many nights in airports over the years, I was not particularly looking forward to this one - especially because we were there in the morning - it would be a LONG day in an airport!!! 

So, we get to Moscow and go to the Aeroflot desk, and first they tell us they can book us on a flight later that afternoon to JFK.  Yay!  But then she looked at what our connecting flight was (to Portland) and told us, that if we fly out that afternoon, we would miss the only direct flight to Portland, so we wouldn't be able to leave JFK until the following day.  UGH!  So then she suggests, she just rebook us on the exact same flights the next day.  So, I'm envisioning we'll be sitting in the Moscow airport for almost 24 hours.  But...then....she surprises us with this little gem... "If we rebook you for the same flights tomorrow, Aeroflot will provide you with accommodations".  Excuse me? Really??  Sweet!!  So, we went with that deal! :)  Aeroflot provided a hotel AND breakfast, lunch and dinner for us!!  The hotel was pretty nice, food was good and we were able to get a good night's sleep!  We took a couple of hours and went and walked through the shops near the train station at the airport, just for something to do and I found Dr. Pepper!!  Oh it was delicious and glorious!!!

 Kind of dark, but the lobby and restaurant area of the Novotel. :)

After a good night's sleep - we got up and headed back to the airport.  When we got there and checked in, we found out we'd also been upgraded to first class!!!  Which came with passes to the lounge in the airport....here we are enjoying a quiet hour or so before boarding our plane....

Then we got to get on our plane.  Oh my goodness, that was the most comfortable plane ride I've ever had!!  There is SO much leg room and the seats recline completely and they bring you drinks and the food is good!!  We probably should have slept, but neither one of us wanted to waste a single moment of our only first class experience!! :)

 My feet didn't even touch the seat in front of me!!!

 Cheers!!  Champagne courtesy of Aeroflot Russian airlines! :)

So for those of you who watch "The Office"  - this is our version of when Dwight shuns Andy....

Shun

Un-shun

Re-shun

Yeah...we're nerds. :)

Our glasses were real glass...

 We had a 5 course lunch, no joke!  There was a fish course, salad, soup, main dish and dessert!  And it was REAL food!!!  We even got little table cloths on our tray tables!

 My salad...

 We got our own cute little salt and pepper shakers....

 My chicken

 Brandon's beef...

 Mango cheesecake for dessert...

 I wasn't really sleeping, just relaxing....

 Brandon doing kung fu at 38,000 feet.

We got into JFK and the airport was pretty quiet, so we moved through customs quickly.  Found our gate, got some food and waited for a few hours before our flight to Portland.  That flight was not full!!  This is the first time in YEARS I've been on a flight that wasn't full - I was able to move to an empty row and lay down!  It was great!!

When we got to Portland, we found out our bags were still in New York.  Some how when we rechecked them after clearing customs, they got tagged to be on the same flight the next day.  We had planned ahead and done laundry before leaving Krasnoyarsk, because of all the delays because of the hurricane, just in case - so we had clothes for a couple of days.  Brandon's cousins picked us up and we spent that night in Portland before heading back to Eugene.

All in all I think we spent 53 hours in "transit" between Krasnoyarsk and Portland.  

We're home now, and in transition to getting the final preparations made to bring our girls home!!  We've got some toddler-proofing we need to do, since Miss Emily is into everything these days. :)

In other news, we were confirmed today for our dates for our gotcha trip!! :)  We will leave again on Friday, November 30th, arrive in Krasnoyarsk on Sunday, December 2nd.  Gotcha day will be Monday, December 3rd.  We'll be in Krasnoyarsk until the 9th taking care of things there, and then we'll fly to Moscow.  We'll fly home to the states on December 12th.  So excited for our girls to become US Citizens on 12/12/12! :)