Argh -- jetlag and the small child

I. am. so. tired.

The kids woke at 4:30 yesterday and didn't nap until 2 p.m. And then slept until 6 (only because John and I fell asleep at 3 and didn't set an alarm. Doh). And they didn't fall asleep again until midnight despite taking a subway for the first time, having dinner out, walking to the big grocery store, thoroughly enjoying the small, very fast carts in the grocery store, and bringing many groceries home. And then they only slept until 4 a.m. This is not good. At all.

They are loving it aside from being cranky and overtired. Well, Livie hates the food. She actually used the word hate to describe how she feels about formerly fine foods (rice, bananas, orange juice, chicken, yogurt). Jack is disappointed there were no mini bagels although he likes the raisin nut buns from the store. Katie loves it all.

As for me and John. We just need sleep.

New home

Well, we are in Sapporo! And it seems great. The kids got through the last flight with only one puking incident from Jack (this time I folded and opened the airsick bag in the nick of time... why would ANYONE create an airsick bag that needs several steps to use? Definitely a design flaw...) and a bit of fussing from tired girls who wanted to be held and not strapped into seatbelts. But they made it and we arrived in Sapporo at 9 p.m. local time (6 a.m. in Lethbridge) having been awake for more than 26 hours. Two very nice people met us at the airport, helped us manage the luggage, shepherded us into a sort of mini-bus (where said luggage actually fit!) and drove us an hour to our new home, known as the Guest House. It's at the edge of HGU campus and wonderful. I'll give a better description later (and hopefully photos) but Jack's comments this morning sum up some of the fun: "What the... the toilet has a place to wash your hands on it on top" (and that's not all buddy, from what I've heard). And last night Liv was running around shouting "it's so cool, it's so cool!" It's far more spacious than we expected with lots of good and clever storage space. There seems to be a green space out back and someone from HGU stocked it with food for the morning. I am SO glad I brought my coffee and coffee pots... I don't think coffee has tasted this good in a long time as it did when the kids woke up at 4:30 a.m. local time (after John and I had had about 5 hours of sleep) and coffee seems to be the one thing the university person didn't provide (lots of tea, of course, with this being Japan and all). We have been unpacking and the kids are so excited and we are tired but excited too. Hopefully I'll be able to add something less rambly and more interesting if we catch a nap this afternoon. Thanks for all the good wishes that got us through yesterday!

In Japan! And so is our luggage!

NARITA AIRPORT, Tokyo

Just a quick note to let anyone who is checking here know that we AND our luggage made it to Japan. We are in Tokyo waiting for the flight to Sapporo. The kids were stars on the 10 hour flight (although I can fill you in on Jack's puking in the bathroom (didn't get him the Gravol soon enough) and on how I completely took advantage of my adorable identical twins so that people would be nice to us... it worked although I feel a little dirty for having done it) and they hardly fussed at all. Such the world travellers. They loved the letters and stickers and notes from friends, and the individual TVs and music, and napping. They are completely exhausted now (it's 1 a.m. their time, 4 p.m. in Tokyo) and tripping over themselves -- but we are almost there. Will post more once we are settled in the new place.