Finally!

(REPOST FROM FACEBOOK)

FINALLY made it to Xi'an and the hotel! 

The BIG flight went pretty well considering we were all going on about 4 hours of sleep. All the kids slept a good portion of the flight and Josh and I got a few hours as well (Josh a few more than me - but he did sit next to Sawyer through the whole flight!) I will not say anything about the food that was served on the plane (if you can't say anything nice. . .)

We arrived a little late in Beijing and headed off to immigration and customs. That wasn't bad at all. The security checkpoint to get to our flight to Xi'an was a different story though. Chaos + no air conditioning + no real lines or guidelines + a very tired family of 6 + the language barrier = lots of sweaty, frustrated people. I will say that everyone we have met has been VERY friendly and kind even when they have no idea what we're saying. 

We made it onto our flight to Xi'an after finding some water and food for everyone. Our flight was delayed about thirty minutes and then we sat on the runway for about an hour before we finally took off. Everyone but me slept the entire flight. 

We took a wrong turn in the Xi'an airport and ended up backtracking for quite a while to find the baggage claim. We were so late there was no luggage left and all the people from our flight were gone. (I may have had a mild heart attack at this point.) But we found all our luggage and our sweet guide, Celine, (no relation to Dion), was waiting patiently for us there. We loaded all our crew and stuff into a huge van and our driver (we're so sophisticated - ha!) took us to our hotel about 45 minutes away.

It's now 1:30 am on Sunday here in Xi'an although it feels like it should be about 12:40 pm to us. Everyone else has crashed here except me (anyone else notice a theme here?) and I am mighty tired after our 30+ hour adventure. I just wanted to let everyone know we're safe and sound. 

Our guide let us know that our girl is taking a train overnight to Xi'an and we'll meet her tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon around 4. So excited!!