We're here!! - Wednesday 2 June 2010

Well, we arrived safely into Germany at 5:30 PM, Germany time last night (Wednesday).  It was a LONG day, as we got up at 8 am and began our last day preparations....mailing one last box of stuff to our new address, getting the girls their haircuts, packing carry-on bags, and I even snuck in a last minute 30-minute nap! 

We spent our last day with our great friends, that will also be our new neighbors here in Germany (though they don't arrive until June), and it was great!!!  We had so much fun with them, over our last weekend in the States, and can't wait for them to arrive "in-country".

We started loading the bags into the car (well, okay...Jason and Alex loaded, I took pictures)....

10 bags, 6  back packs, 1 bag with gluten free foods, a dog, and a cat.....THAT'S alot of stuff! :)    BUT...it's all we will have until sometime in August, when our household goods are delivered, so I guess it's not "too" much, afterall.

The trip to the airport was filled with grand adventure, all Wieman style.  About 20 minutes into the trip, I asked "where's the dogs leash" and everyone gave me a blank stare.  We had to stop the vehicles (2 - one for the bags, and one for us) to search for it.  After a 5-mniute search we found it UNDER Samantha's bottom (not the bottom of her bag, but her rear-end...HA!) 

So, we got BACK on the road and about 20 minutes from the airport, Victoria announced in a SCREAM, that Sally (the cat) soiled in her kennel....and it STUNK!!!!!   So, when we got to the airport, we unloaded everything and then I got to "wash" Sally with her water bottle (and you *know* how much cats love baths), and I took her kennel bed into the bathroom, washed it and then used my blow dryer to dry is - all in the airport bathroom.  I got lots of stares, but only a little more than I usually do!  :)

Cat finally clean, and back in her clean kennel, we checked in all of our bags, and waited 2.5 hours to board the plane....couldn't believe it was *only* midnight.  Ugh...the night was long!  We found the USO room at the airport, and it was great.  For those that don't know about the USO room, it's a place that has volunteer workers, free food, free soft drinks, large screen TV, kids play room, XBOX 360, free internet and it's all for our US soldiers and families.  What a blessing those volunteers and donations are.  There were many soldiers on our flight (since it was a military flight) that were heading out to Iraq and Afghanistan, and I KNOW they loved being able to play XBox, watch movies and use the internet on their last hours outside of War.  So, the girls were able to enjoy some girl scout cookies, ice cream, doughnuts, and juice, while Alex and I checked our email and facebook one last time.

We were able to board the plane aroudn 2:45 am, and none of us remember the plane taking off.  We were exhausetd from a busy day, and went straight to sleep.  I woke up at 8:30 am, to eat an egg omelett and hashbrowns....pretty good food for an airline.  The kids were not impressed with their french toast sticks, though.

We arrived into Ramstein Air Force Base around 5:30 pm, and had to clear customs. We were greeted by a wonderful group from Jason's unit, the out-going command and his wife, his XO, and several other, along with 3 vans, one for us, one for everyone that came up to greet us, and one for all of our bags!  :)

Unfortunately, we didn't get one of our suitcases, so we sat around for nearly 2 hours while they figured it out.  After  2 hours, we still didn't have our bag, but we had a great dinner at the Macaroni Grill by the airport.  At 9pm, we began our drive towards Wiesbaden, approx. 120 km from Ramstein (1.5 hours) .

We arrived at our hotel, the American Arms, at 11:00 pm, and hoped to settled in for a nice long rest.....however, jet lag set in, and Rebecca was awake at 3am!  :(  So, our rest ended quickly, as we were being picked up at 9am to go to housing and sign for our new quarters, update our military ID cards with photos and fingerprints, and get some food shopping done.

At 4pm, we settled into our new quarters!