Off To Chengdu

Happy 4th of July.  God Bless America.

Up and out the door at 8:30.  Headed to Beijing so we could catch a flight to Chengdu.  Poor Kelly sat on a tripod chair in between the seats the whole way. What a trooper.

We stopped at the rest stop.  I was excited because it was every one's first Chinese squatty potty experience.  Kelly opened a door and took pictures.  Grace was filming.  Kelly tried it out and survived.  Grace didn't try it.

Back on the road.  Got to the Filling Station for lunch.  The boys played in the play area like goofballs.  Everyone was able to find food to eat and liked it.

Going in for lunch.

Waiting for our food.

Cameron and Griffin playing Foosball.

Griffin trying his shake.  It was a no go.  It was airy and weird.
Cameron was the only one who could drink it.

There was a sausage left on a plate.  Scott looked at Cameron and said "Do you want the sausage to put in your pants?"  I was taking a drink of water when he said it and I spit a little water out into my salad bowl.  All of us died laughing.  I said "Did you just say that to my kid?"  He laughed and said yes.  We all started laughing again.

This plate of food caused a lot of laughs.

It was around 12:15 when we headed to the airport.  Todd went to check us in.  Our 3:00 flight was delayed until 4:30.  He ran to another desk with all of us following.  He got us on the 1:15 flight.  Ran back to the first desk again...with us all following.

Mad dash to security. Kelly walked through the metal detector and it beeped.  She immediately lifted up her shirt and said it was her belt.  Grace and I started laughing because it was so funny how she did it.  Even the TSA girl was laughing.  Then,  of course, my liquids got checked and so did Kelly's. Griffin had to open his bag because they needed to see the peanut butter and bread that was in it.  The TSA guy touched the bread several times like he had never seen it before.  We were getting irritated because we were in a hurry.  Usually they do not pay attention to anything.

The race was on.  We had a long "walk" to our gate.  If anybody questions how fast Todd walks talk to a Ronnebeck.  It was almost a sprint.  Our gate was 2 floors down and we had to get on a bus to get to the plane.  Everyone made it...sweating and panting but we made it.

Catching our breath on the bus to the plane.

At the plane.  We got on and found our seats.  Next thing water was being delivered.  Not a good sign.    Next thing food was delivered.  Then the announcement we all dreaded.  Bad weather so we were delayed an hour.  Boo.  First time this has ever happened to us.

The boys watched a movie.

Todd moved to a row by himself.  I was with Kelly and Grace but moved back by Todd.  I could lounge in 2 seats instead of one.  Much more comfy to kill time.

3:00 rolled around and it was go time. Went through all the steps to get ready for take off.  We rolled back and started taxing.  We didn't get very far and we stopped.  We had to wait until air traffic control said we could take off.

I fell asleep for awhile.  Woke up and it was 4:15 and we were still sitting in the same spot.  We had now been on the plane for 3 hours.  Ugh!

4:25 we were rolling.  We went about 50 feet then stopped again. 4:30 rolling again.  Closer to the runway but still a no go.

All lined up with no where to go.

Grace was still smiling.

4:45 sitting on the runway.  4:59 finally in the sky.  There was a lot of turbulence on and off for the first half hour. ICK!  At least we were finally in the air.  Made it to Chengdu. The hotel van picked us up.  Off to the hotel.

Checked in.  We were suppose to meet a friend of Todd's for dinner at 7:30 but since we didn't arrive until 8:30 that was cancelled.  Up to the rooms.  It was quite a long process trying to decide who was taking what rooms.  We had 3 rooms.  No more than 3 in a room in this hotel.  We had 2 king size bed rooms and 1 twin size beds.  Todd and I in a room.  Kelly and Grace in a room.  Scott and Griffin in the suite.  The suite turned into the meeting room since it had a living room.

Todd went out to get some drinks and McDonald's.  He also ordered a pizza from room service.  It seemed like he was gone a long time but he finally arrived back with food.  Everyone ate and then it was off to bed.

Enjoying McDonald's.