While Jari and I have been able to travel around the world and have refined the way we have done it with kids, we were both pretty nervous about the travel to Alaska. The main thing on our minds was the requirement to be in face masks all the time. I was used to it working in the clinic but the kids for sure were not. Also, we did not have any comfortable masks for the trip. Gratefully, a friend from the ward (Sister Wayland) was willing to make us all masks!
Right before we got on the plane we checked our mail one last time and found that all the kids had received these postcards from my sister, Sabrina, and her 7 month-old daughter, Emersyn (Emmy) that were super cute.
This little guy was the one we were worried the most about. His temper tantrums are challenging to say the least. The senior missionary couple that was serving a military relations mission made us a care package for the kids and gave Zach a bracelet that matched Elder Jensen's which was really sweet.
The 2-hour shuttle ride went well enough after we paid for the ride out of pocket (my government travel card decided not to work last minute so I hoped that was our one hiccup for the trip). The Airport was easily traversed and soon we were waiting for our plane.
We almost had a melt down with Zachary but we narrowly avoided it. I bought 2 pieces of "pizza" in the Frankfurt airport as a snack for the kids. You don't know to know how much they were each... (8.99 Euro! Yikes!)
We bought this little game at the Base Exchange prior to leaving which was a favorite. I was sad when we changed planes and I realized I had left it in the seat-back pocket :(
Saying goodbye to Germany
Camille is on the go most of the day but when she decides to sit and color she is calm and very precise.
We tried to have fun but got in trouble
Jari found these headsets online which made TV fun for Zach and Camille. No, we did not drug him, that is just TV working its mysterious magic on a child.
Here is Zachary listening to Starwars with his left earbud and his movie with the right. I hated letting them watch so much but flying to Amersterdam, then Seattle, then Fairbanks was a lot of travel...
The silver lining of traveling during the COVID-19 Pandemic was that there were only people in every other row in the airplane and spacing between every passenger on the plane so our kids got to spread out when it was time for bed
But we made it! Our friend from Korea (Amanda Christensen) was nice enough to arrange a ride for us from the Airport at 12:30 at night. The Wynns (the friend) is actually in our LDS ward here and she was super awesome. She actually texted me before we left to ask if we wanted groceries from Costco for our quarantine location, and I told her yes. I sent her a picture of our family and she made the assumption we were vegetarian or vegan commenting that we "looked like we ate healthy" which made me laugh. I always thought we just looked normal.
What do you do in quarantine for 14 days with kids? You let your hair grow the best you can being in the military and let your kids put hair ties in I guess.
I don't have exotropia... I just think I was so tired my eyes were going wherever they wanted
And then you let your kids take lots of pictures. Yeah, there was not much to do.
The kids wanted to go to the parks to play but we were not allowed to do so.
So we went on walks and the kids even took turns going running with me.
We also went on walks around the base looking at the styles of homes wondering which house we would be offered
For a huge state, they don't offer a lot of backyard real estate when you live on base...
But the scenery is lovely.
The base has lots of small lakes to see
And oil lines
We went to visit one lake that has a sunken weather plane from the 1950s. Unfortunately, there is no cool story about a crash landing (maybe that is fortunate actually for the sake of the pilot and crew). It was just gutted out for parts and then the base commander had it dragged out to a lake in the winter hoping it would sink in the summer thaw but it was so big it only was partially covered by water. So they had to move rocks and extend this small pond to sink it.
I went on several runs. Every Air Base has old planes on display and Eielson is no different.
Memories of/Lessons learned from Quarantine:
1) Time outs were rough: Zachary spent a lot of time there and managed to break 2 doors battering ram style.2) Kids learned while watching TV what commercials were and every time a commercial came on they would freak out and 'boo' - so funny.3) Be grateful for your carrot peeler and non-serrated knives because cooking without them was not fun.4 ) Alaska has 999 Billion Mosquitoes just at Eielson AFB alone. DEET is our friend.5) Quaratine was hard but nothing compared to what jail would be like. So don't embezzle money and go to jail because it would really stink.6) What happened to that last suitcase?! We are still missing one and we cannot figure out where it went!7) Wifi is a luxury that we often take for granted8) When you buy a prepaid AT&T cell phone card, remember you are likely getting a recycled phone number which means someone before you may have had a clingy lover that might text you afterwards about missing you. If this happens, just roll with it and text him back. I didn't and regret not capitalizing on such a unique opportunity.9) Be glad people you live next to speak English. The process of making friends goes much smoother.10) Alaska gets A LOT of daylight in the summer making sleeping challenging for kids.
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