Harper's Going to New Zealand

This is how we broke the news to Grandma and Grandpa Brown that Harper was going to New Zealand to see them for the very first time. On Grandma Brown's birthday we sent her an email with this picture. Grandma & Grandpa had no idea we were planning to come. In the email we told Grandma that we were very excited to come, but we had some very important things to do first.

First, Harper had to have surgery to get tubes inserted in her ears. Harper had had 4 major ear infections in the past month. No antibiotics would help the infections. The doctor even tried daily injections of medication, which also didn't work. He told us that flying on an airplane would be cruel because it would hurt her ears so badly. So we scheduled the surgery.

We also had to get passports for the big trip. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but we wanted to leave for the trip in less than 6 weeks. Several laws had just changed regarding passports, which meant the demand for passports and wait time were longer then usual. We went to the post office to get passports and the man laughed at us and said he didn't have any open appointments for a month. So we had to go downtown to the county offices to get our passports.

So with these things out of the way, we were able to make plans to go to New Zealand to see Grandma and Grandpa. The surgery was successful and the passports arrived on time. Now we just had to brace ourselves for the incredibly long flight. Our flight, in fact, ended up being even longer than we had anticipated. When we arrived in Los Angeles for our layover, we were informed that our connecting flight to New Zealand had been canceled! There was only one flight a day to New Zealand, which meant we would not be flying out until the next day. We were disappointed that our trip would be shortened by an entire day. The airline put us up for the night in a very nice hotel. They also gave us money for our meals, which surprised us. The trip the next day to New Zealand was actually quite nice. We were on a 747 and the plane was only about 20% full. We were able to spread out and relax. I'm guessing that is why the flight was canceled the previous day...they don't have enough people to fill the flight.

Flying home was another story. The plane was on time and none of the connections were canceled. The plane was also completely full! The poor man next to us was literally trapped in his seat. When you travel overseas with an infant, they give you a bassinet that attaches to the wall in front of your seats. Well the bassinet, was directly in front of this man's seat (next to the window). It was right in his face. We asked if he would prefer to be in the aisle, but he insisted that we wanted the window seat. He unsuccessfully tried to scout out another seat, every seat was full. He was actually a very good sport and ended up being very friendly. Harper was perfect for the 12 hour leg of the flight. She slept alot of the time and was happy the rest of the time.