Day 7...

We had no plans until it was time to leave for the airport, so we did the usual breakfast in the executive lounge, then took the kiddos to the pool.  Ryne started out playing with a beach ball and throwing back and forth to a lady in the pool. This was because the water was so cold that J hadn't worked up to getting in yet. He eventually did and him, Reese and Ryne had a blast rough housing.   Jeter and I opted to just sit on the top step of the hot tub.  Up until now we had only tried to give him one bath and it was a total disaster and ended in lots and lots of tears (mainly from Jeter!), so I was anxious to see how he would react.  Well, he LOVED it!  He started out just slapping the top of the water and splashing, and it led to him fully sticking his face in the water which he thought was hilarious (it worried me a bit!). The hotel wouldn't allow pictures to be taken in the pool area, so we didn't get any, which J was okay with (swim caps and all). :)

Side note - the "life guard" took several restroom breaks while we were there by simply going to a corner.  It was a little awkward to say the least!  

After the pool it was time to shower and grab lunch.  We stayed close and ate lunch in the restaurant at the hotel for the first time.  They actually made a really good burger and grilled cheese sandwich.  That made the girls happy!  I ordered some noodles for Jeter and I to share, and J got some fried rice with beef (more of an American version). Jeter actually didn't want the noodles at all, and instead wanted J's fried rice.  For those of you that don't know, J doesn't share food very well... (Insert "Friends" comment here - Joey doesn't share food!). 

After lunch we finished packing and headed to meet a new guide who would take us to the airport.  We were all SO excited to be leaving this hotel/Province and continuing our China Adventure!  

It was about an hour drive to the airport so we just enjoyed the ride through the beautiful city!  ha!  It was so foggy/smoggy that you couldn't see anything.  But that's okay because we had a crazy little guy to entertain us!  ;)

 Once we arrived our guide helped us get to the right place and drop off our bags.  We found out pretty quickly that our plane was delayed...NOOOOOO!!! So we wandered around the airport and looked at stuff like this...

fish for the flight anyone?!

 We ended up running into the 2 other families we met at the Civil Service Office and it was fun to catch up with them.  We all ended up splitting up to grab food (we opted for cold-cut sandwiches, not the fish) and going to our gates (we were on separate flights).  

 We ended up being at the airport for entirely too long!  I strapped this boy on and we just kept walking because if we stopped he got really upset.  Jeremy gave him a sucker (thanks babe!) and sweet boy just kept on sharing it.  

 These girls did a fantastic job on keeping themselves occupied.

Finally, it was time to board our flight to Guangzhou.  It was seriously a process!  We had to wait in line to get on a bus that took us to the plane.  We were the last to board, and caused a bit of a scene because the ticket agent told us we could take the stroller to the plane and gate-check it. Well, we since we ended up boarding from a bus, and all bags were already on the plane, this was a problem. The flight attendants had to figure out how to stuff the stroller in the small compartments that they normally put their bags into. I'm sure they had some choice words for us...but we didn't understand them!  lol!

Peace out!  The Francis 5 is leaving!

 Once we got on board we settled in and hoped for the best.  Unfortunately, we did not see this cute happy face as soon as the wheels left the ground.  

Apparently the air-pressure really affected Jeter's ears.  He kicked and screamed for at least 30 mins before we leveled out and he was able to calm down.  We gave him juice, his bottle, suckers, candy, water, nothing helped. Everyone in a 7 aisle radius was turning and starring at us.  They were probably wondering what in the world was wrong with this kid, and why we couldn't get him to stop - he has a piercing cry/scream!  Thankfully he was much better once we leveled off and laughed and played with us while in the air. They fed us dinner and we were all happy that we had already eaten!  ;)

As we began to descend, the crying started again, along with the arching of the back, kicking of the feet, staring from people, etc. and of course, everyone then starts offering parenting advice.  Then we landed (hallelujah!).  Unfortunately, Jeter was so worked up that there was no calming him until we got off of the incredibly hot and crowded plane.  Both girls were asleep which meant waking them up.  Ryne did okay, but Reese was very emotional.  She cried because she had to walk off the plane because I couldn't carry her (J was carrying all the bags). 

So now we have Jeter screaming, kicking, pushing, and Reese crying while trying to get everything off this plane.  Of course 200 people are witnessing the largest melt-down in Southern China Airlines history!  Lol. 

We finally got Jeter to calm down and Reese was okay once she was sitting in the stroller.  We made our way baggage claim, got our luggage, met our guide (Helen), and took a 40 min van ride to our hotel.  By now all the kids fell asleep again, but we managed to keep them asleep (except Ryne) as we checked in and made it to our room. It was now almost 11:00p and the worst experience of the trip so far. Likely just a prelude of what's to come on our 13 HR flight to San Fran, or our 3 HR flight from there to Houston!  We are now in Guangzhou though for the next 8 nights and where we will finish the process. 

funny side story - while waiting for our van Ryne started noticing how many people in cars would slow down and take her picture...so she totally started posing.  We were very thankful for her comedic relief about then!  ;)