Traveling to Guangzhou

Yesterday was a long travel day.  A long day but only a two hour flight.  We met in the hotel lobby in Nanjing at 1pm and did not arrive at the hotel in Guangzhou until 8:30pm.  Rachel had her first plane ride.  She did very well all things considered.  She usually goes down for a nap at 12:30pm or so.  We tried getting her to nap before we left but it was not happening.  So we expected she would fall asleep on the bus to the airport... NOPE.  She wanted to walk all over the airport.  We did laps and laps.  It took forever to check in.  Our guide was checking in our whole group and it took a long time.  So Russ manned all the luggage and Abigail and I walked little Ms Independent all over the airport.  Up and down steps.  We finally got through security!  They found a pair of scissors in Abigail's backpack.  We had gone through two flights already and they did not find them.  We didn't even know they were in there.  Oh well,,, lost a pair of school scissors.  Makes me feel so safe that we got on two flights already with scissors.  

Rachel checking out the planes with dad.

So we fully expected little miss adventurous without a nap to sleep on the plane.  No way!  This girl reminds me of Trevin.  Boy I'm going to be in trouble.  She is so busy.  She wanted to see everything that was going on.  When it came to sitting on the plane, we had three seats together and one was four rows away.  Russ was expecting to sit four rows away but when it came to sit down, she wanted her dad.  So Russ managed both girls for most of the flight on his own and I sat and read a book... it was beautiful (on my end at least).  She really did not cry at all but you have to be quick to keep her entertained.  Once we got off the flight, we were excited to see that all our luggage made it.  Sadly, the stroller for one of the families did not make it on the plane so we spent some time finding lost luggage.  At this point, Rachel was just crazy delirious.  Russ would throw her in the air and then she'd run all around the airport.  She so wanted to get on the luggage conveyor belt.  We always stand out in China, now with a crazy toddler running everywhere, we really stood out.  It was nice to be with 5 other families so people looked at us like the circus just came to town.  

Rachel's first plane ride!

Daddy desperately trying to prevent a massive meltdown.  Now it's about 8pm and we're still without a nap or a bottle.  

We finally arrived in the hotel around 8:30pm, got checked in and put this tired girl to bed.  She did fall asleep on Russ on the bus to the hotel about ten minutes before we arrived.  So typical!  By the time we got the girls to bed and got some water, Russ and I passed out.  Poor Russ is out of practice throwing kids in the air.  He was so sore when he went to bed but doing better this morning.