On Wednesday, December 18th, we started our adventure back to the United States! We had 3 legs of our journey. Our first one was from Okinawa to Tokyo. As we were getting off the plane for Tokyo, they were holding up signs and announcing for any passengers going to Washington D.C., which happened to be our next flight. They rushed us through security, and then we had to get to our gate, which little did we know was at the other end of the airport. As we were fast walking through the airport, there were several airport attendants who were looking for us and other passengers on the flight. They would radio ahead and let the people at the gate know that we were on our way. I had to add this story into my blog, because I just thought it was so nice of the Tokyo airport workers to get us as soon as we got off our first flight, escort us through security and pretty much all the way through the entire airport. I'm pretty sure we would never experience that kind of customer service in the United States. End of story is that we made it to our gate before the plane took off, even if I was sweating a little bit from running through the airport. It was a 13 hour flight to Washington D.C. and I barely slept a wink, which made it very long and tiring! After being delayed a couple hours in Washington D.C., we finally made it to Detroit where both of our parents were there waiting our arrival! It was so nice to see them all again! :)On Thursday, Chad and I went out to lunch at Panchero's with my best friend, Brittany and got to meet little Miss Audrey for the first time!
On Friday night, we went out to dinner at City Limits and met up with a lot of friends we hadn't seen in awhile!
Before we knew it, Christmas Eve was upon us and the festivities with our families began. My brothers, who live in Kentucky, came up for a few days around Christmas. It was nice to see them, even if Adam left us all with his sickness! I was so happy to be home for Christmas this year! It just isn't the same celebrating without family around. My Mom and I went on a shopping spree and she bought me a ton of clothes for Christmas! It was nice to go shopping again, especially with my Mom!
One of the things that made me miss home the most was hanging out with our friends. It was so nice to just hang out, laugh, and have fun with our old friends. Brittany and Eric got stationed in Hawaii, while Chad was at basic, so it had been a long time since the 4 of us go to hang out. I am grateful that they were able to be in Michigan as the same time as us! We got to catch up with Amy and Kyle a lot while we were home too! Like I said, it was so nice to be around friends. It didn't feel like we had been gone for a year a half, it felt like just yesterday we had left them.
Another thing that I really miss while I am over here is Mason Cheerleading! I am happy that I was able to make it to a couple of their practices and a competition while I was home! I miss those girls so much! And I got to catch up with my good friend, Becca, who I used to coach with/work with/do everything with! It was really nice, but it made me miss cheerleading even more!
And a third thing that we both missed was all the scrumptious food here! I think we ate out just about everyday. We got to eat at all our favorite restaurants and we totally pigged out! (I'm happy to say, I got back to my pre-vacation weight a week after being back in Okinawa).
Toward the end of our trip home, I made a day trip up to Frankenmuth with my Mom and Greg. It was a fun day! We ate lunch, walked around all the little shops, toured a brewery museum, went to Bronner's (aka the World's Largest Christmas Store) and bought some customized ornaments and then ended the day at the outlet mall.
Another thing to mention about our trip is the horrible weather we experienced! We obviously knew it was going to be cold in Michigan but we got to experience first hand one of the worst Michigan winters in history. The first week, there was an ice storm that left us without power for about a day and half. We literally slept without any heat one night. The next week, we just got dumped on with snow! Tons of snow! We were snowed in for a day, but at least we had power and heat!Despite the weather, we had an amazing trip home! The only reason we wanted to come back to Okianwa was for the warm weather and our dog, Myah! We had an awesome flight back to Okinawa. On our longest flight, we had a row all to ourselves so I was able to lay down and sleep for a few hours! It was a lot more comfortable than on the way over to the states, so we were happy about that! I could write for days about our trip home, but I'm sure it would get boring to you all. We have a year and half left in Okinawa and we're hoping we get stationed stateside after this! Seeing the world is great, but being closer to family is priceless.
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