Goodbyes never get easier.

Goodbyes are something I strongly dislike and despise. It's one of the few parts of the military life I just loathe. I'm not good at them. To me they are awkward. They make you completely vulnerable and you are forced to say goodbye to something you've enjoyed doing or those you've enjoyed spending time with and you know you won't get to see them anytime soon. So I do my best to put them off until I am forced into them. I try to act as if it's not happening. Real smart right? That's okay, I don't claim to be smart. Not all the time anyway.

We got in a last visit with Aunt Kylie before heading overseas and it never fails the girls always have an amazing time with her. We thoroughly enjoyed the two trips she got make since she's been away at college. When we dropped her off at the airport at the end of the weekend, the girls kept saying "Just one more hug". I know the girls have an incredible connection with her and it broke my heart to hear them say that. Therefore leaving with me tears as I gave her my last hug and dropped her at the curb. Hopefully we can get her out for a visit to Korea, but only time will tell. 

 Nichole and Emily got to have last hurrah's with their friends and the last few days of school were spent getting in as much time with friends as possible. 

The girls made frames with some of their friends and were happy to have a picture to put in them. I'm guessing these are the first things that will be put up in their new rooms. They sure do miss their friends and I was more emotional watching them say goodbye than they were themselves. They have met some amazing friends (with amazing parents) and I'm going to miss them as well.

And of course I couldn't leave without saying goodbye to Chipotle. I really hope they don't go out of business while I'm in Korea.

My father in law and Cathy drove into town to drive the truck to FL and keep it running for us while we're in Korea. So we enjoyed our last few hours with them toasting to new adventures on the horizon. Hopefully we'll see them in Thailand :)

The morning of travel started off bright and early with a 3 am wake up. Everyone's stuff was laid out and ready to go. Good thing the airline told us to arrive at 4 and yet no one showed up until 420. Oh well. We said our goodbyes to our pup and sent him on his version of the journey to Korea.

  

We said our early morning goodbyes to Giga and Miss Cathy.

We said our goodbyes to Uncle Ricky who 3 years ago when we arrived in KS, dropped everything he knew and moved to Kansas City to be closer to us and enjoy the last few years with us. I'm so thankful for a great relationship with my siblings. He even baked us homemade chocolate chip cookies to bring on our trip!

Soon it was time to say our final goodbyes and walk through security. That's when things really started to settle in for me. This was real. It was happening. Tears began to flow as I again pushed off the goodbyes until I absolutely had to and while I knew it was only a "see you later", that thought didn't seem to help. My family is my world. 615 rolled around and we boarded our flight for the beginning of our new journey. We got through our first flight and arrived in Detroit. We settled in for a few hour layover but by the time we carted all our stuff around a bit, sat down to eat a late breakfast and made all the phone calls we could, to include one to shut off our cell phones, we made our way to boarding our flight that would take us to Korea. I again got a few weird looks as I said my final goodbyes to my dad and couldn't manage to keep it together. It was the one of the goodbyes I had tried my best to avoid but knew it would be one of the hardest. I'll always be a Daddy's girl. Thank goodness for technology is all I can say!

 Once we got in the air, we were amazed at how many movies were set up on the in seat entertainment. What's better than watching Pitch Perfect? Watching it with Japanese subtitles of course. :)

 We had saved some Chipotle chips and guac so naturally I had to get a picture before I dug in. As you can see, we were about half way into our flight before I took a taste.

 13 hours after take off, we landed and rushed to immigration to make sure we had enough time to get ourselves through customs and pick up the dog before we missed our opportunity and he was left for the weekend with the animal quarantine office closed. Luckily, it didn't close when we originally thought and after getting our visas situated and grabbing our luggage, we snagged our last piece of luggage, Aspen. He was excited to see us for sure. The people in the airport were so helpful and friendly. Emily shared her tid bit of Korean language knowledge with them so maybe that helped :) I couldn't believe we had finally arrived and after sending the quick messages to family and friends (sorry for any that we woke up since it was middle of the night), we began our bus ride to Osan Air Base where we'll reside for the next 2 years. The ride was fairly uneventful minus getting a slight taste of the crazy driving around here. Nichole crashed for most of the ride as she had waited until the last few hours of the 13 hour flight to finally get some sleep. Our sponsors had everything all set up for us upon our arrival and made the transition as smooth as possible. Thanks Tank and Leighann! With a home cooked dinner in our bellies and Eric having been kidnapped by the squadron within an hour of being here, the girls and I settled in to get some sleep.

 Everyone woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning. We hit up the downtown area right outside the base and began exploring.

 Emily was busy entertaining friends she had just made. She didn't seem to believe me that she'd make more friends and have a good time. Now I think she does. 

So now we are still busy settling in. It's weird to go through our daytime hours and know that everyone we know is busy sleeping. Makes for a lonely feeling since we've only hung with a few people so far. I'm sure once we get into the fun of things this week though that will change. Many adjustments are being made but we roll with each of them. We've only been here 36 (Harrumph!) hours and already we've heard a good bit of jet noise (and it's the weekend). So I can only imagine what it will be like this week. We've seen a few U-2's ("why is YouTube taking off Dad?") clearly they didn't hear him correctly and who knows what else. I can't always get to the window fast enough. All I know is it's the "sound of freedom". With that, I'll do my best to update this and keep you informed on our latest Korean adventures. For now, it's time to get these wild animals I sometimes call my children out to play before we all go stir crazy in the one bedroom hotel room. Hoping to get our house this week, but we'll find that out tomorrow.