Fireworks! (July 5 & 6)

The Fireworks went up... and the next day we were off!!!!

My good ole Dad gave us a ride to the airport at about 10:00 a.m. - We gave the girls a BIG hug and got a little sad that they weren't coming with us. We will miss them... in fact, the second we drove away I was already missing them! We got to the airport in plenty of time (I'm compulsively early - plus SUPER DUPER excited)  ...when they finally announced they were boarding our flight... I think I literally SKIPPED down the path to the plane!!! I yelled at Erik... who was lagging behind to catch up... and we were ON!

We got great seats (bulk head) ...Awesome for Erik's 6'3" frame! :)  ...We land in FRANKFURT, get off the plane then we had to pile into buses to ride back to the terminal, got doubly checked in security to make sure we had no explosives... ugh! - sat down in the waiting area at Gate B60, told to get out of the sitting area, then walk back through as they check all our carry ons... get on a bus for 10 minutes and board the plane for Addis!! PHEEEEEEEEEW! I have to say... The Frankfurt airport is not my FAVE! ...thought about how tricky all of the moving around would be with little M.

Our seats weren't as fantastic on this leg of the journey... we sat right by a beautiful Ethiopian family who had a daughter about M's age... She was NOT happy - I think she must have cried for 2 hours straight... FINALLY... I decided to open my bag of tricks and get out the infamous Gerber Banana treats that Chantel told me about... Gave her the entire package of them and PRESTO!!!! ONE happy lil girl, a quite plane and another attempt to get a little sleep before we arrive in ETHIOPIA. :)

...It was SO weird... we NEVER say NIGHT the whole time we were on the plane... till we landed in Ethiopia at 9:00 that evening. 

....After we got off the plane - there were lines of people everywhere - we waited in the 'Visa Upon Arrival' line for about an hour. While Erik was in line there I went to change some of our Moooolah into Birr. After we got our Visa's we got in another line to have our passports stamped... then off to find our luggage! IT WAS ALL THERE! YAY! ...waited in another line to put all our luggage through an x-ray - and out we go - almost 2 hours later. EEEEeeeeeks! Johannes and Wass were waiting for a LONG time for us... We piled all our luggage into the Van - and talked the guys ears off the entire way to Rivera... I kept asking for a schedule of the days ahead but they couldn't find one for us...  We gave the guys a SEATTLE t-shirt (so they can change from their Tennessee ones they were wearing hehehe)

We checked in to the Riveria and got room 406 - there was no CHARGER strip with all the converters on it so we waited for over an hour till they found one and we could charge all our stuff before we head off for a couple days into the country...  Went to bed about 1:00 and set our alarm for 4:00 a.m. - our driver Tsagwa from ZOZ Ethiopia travel was picking us up at 5:00 to head South and see some COOOOOOL stuff! 

We were not supposed to be to HH till the 10th.  We wanted to come to ET early to see some of M's amazing country! :)