Hibbets' Happenings

The long flight to Newark went smoothly. The kids did even better coming home than going over -- I didn't think that was possible! We all slept some, and Jayden stayed very content. She especially slept hard at the end of the trip. We saved some of the last meal they served us -- noodles and fruit -- but we couldn't wake her up enough to feed it to her. She just missed out! We were worried about our timing in Newark because we only had a quick layover, and we knew we'd have to get our checked bags, and go through customs, and probably through security. It really helped us that our flight from HK arrived about an hour early. Going through customs was not difficult at all; we spent longer with the guy who checked our passports than the actual customs. In fact, we just handed our card to the guy and were waved on through. We rechecked our bags and then proceeded to security. Here was the second boo of the trip. First you stood in line to get your passports checked again. Then the guy waived us to Line #2 for security. After getting up to the part where you start to disrobe and place all your carry-ons into the bins, I start hearing, "Ma'am, ma'am..." They tell me that Joshua has to go through Line #1. That was frustrating! So he and I get out of Line #2 and go back to Line #1, past the stern-faced passport-checking man. We have to wait in line again, now in Line #1, to go through security. But then it wasn't too bad after that. David and Jayden were finished before us, of course, and waited on us. We all went to the gate and made it there with time to spare based on the departure time -- and then we found out the flight was a few minutes delayed. They were waiting on a flight attendant to reappear. So we ended up waiting at the gate maybe 20 minutes or so, maybe even longer, before getting to board. But at least we weren't late, which is what we were concerned about. Joshua was fussy on the trip to Dallas. He was by me, and I was really wanting to sleep, but didn't get much sleep. David and Jayden were able to sleep some though, I think. We arrived in Dallas, finally claimed all our luggage, and went to find a shuttle to take us to the hotel in Fort Worth. The shuttle driver ended up charging us $17/person, including Jayden! I thought that was a little steep. But oh well, he took us where we needed to go and dropped us off first. It was about 8:30 when we got to the hotel, and I think I was asleep by around 10:00. Jayden didn't sleep very good that first night, but we were able to keep her pretty quiet by putting her in the bed with us, so at least we rested.