We were up at 4am, for our 4:30am taxi pickup! In true Mummy style, I was still making my peanut butter on toast and a Contigo flask of tea (which I would later regret having to carry through the airport) as Sanjay pulled up, but by 4:45am, we were off! A speedy hour and a half later, we arrived at Heathrow T2 and Russ hugged us goodbye for his walk (with the 2 huge suitcases!) to T3.

We found a fantastic soft play area where I told the boys that no, they would not be allowed to stay and mush at CBBC, when there was a perfectly good area for them to let off steam before we sat on a nine and two hour flight. They then proceeded to spend the next hour getting very hot and sweaty but came out very happy. Mummy made friends with a lady from Boston and her baby and then a couple with a three-year-old and 10 month old who had already spent 8 hours travelling from South Africa, then had another 2 flights to get to Ohio! Mummy was glad her boys were older and more self sufficient and that she only has 11 hours of flying ahead and not 16!

Elliott was an absolute trooper carrying one of our large heavy rucksacks, as well as a carry-on suitcase. Nate worked hard on his very own pink suitcase (thank you so much to Libby and Linda for allowing us to borrow them last minute!) and Mummy brought up the rear with two large rucksacks and the final carry on case, as well as her very trendy black bin liner of car seats. On arriving at the gate Mummy requested help with when it came time to leaving the plane (we had a short 1.5 hour layover) at Charlotte Airport, where we had to clear security and passport control, before heading to the gate to board our second flight of the day to Detroit! Mummy was concerned that we may miss our flight, like Mummy and Daddy did 12 years ago. My request was fruitful and although they said they couldn’t help us leave the plane any earlier (we were row 34) she said she would try to move our seats further up the plane. We ended up in row 18, where Mummy had no seat in front of her, leaving her legroom that an NBA player would be more than happy with!

Because we had boarded the plane in group 9 (as we were originally sitting at the back of the plane) when we then boarded for row 18, all of the overhead lockers were full, except for two in the seats in front of us in premium economy one in business class and one the opposite side of the plane. Mummy spent the rest of the flight concerned about how quickly she could sprint across the extra legroom seats in the centre of the plane to get to the dejected blue Tach case on the other side and wishing she had the superpower of flight to do so. She asked one of the very positive American airline stewards if he would be able to take said case and place it in one of the empty lockers in business class, but he was more interested in animatedly explaining to her, that he was sure it would be fine when she landed in Charlotte with the 65,000 pieces of luggage she was carrying and her two children, to make the flight to Detroit. This was not what she was asking and she left feeling dejected and going back to her original plan of leapfrogging the four passengers in the middle to get to the case. After several (seatbelt sign on!) trips to the toilet with the boys and a pot of ice cream each later, we landed and as the seatbelt sign ‘bing’-ed, Mummy was off like an Olympian along the triple jump track. She had the case in hand before most people were even out of their seats and after a polite ‘so sorry’ and ‘excuse me’ to the Chinese couple, complete with two year-old screaming daughter, she returned to a seat greeted with a hi-five from Elliott and Nate!

We hightailed it along the gate walks to border security and joined the minimal queue. Someone was commenting on the fact that they regularly have sniffer dogs at Charlotte Airport and that today was one of those days. Elliott decided to confidently answer the passport control policeman’s question, ‘What brings you to Canada?’ With ‘My daddy is here working and we’ve now joined him, but he doesn’t have to work anymore.’ ‘No, no Ell, we’re all here on holiday aren’t we? That was just a trip with his work friends!’ I swerved that bullet thank goodness, only to be faced with the question, “Do you have any fresh fruit or vegetables in your bags?” It was at that point that the sweats started. I have an apple. An Apple. Kill me now. Why didn’t I just eat it on the plane? The reason being, was that I brought two and I didn’t fancy a second. How foolish of me. Our passports were then waved in the air and collected by a beefy looking airport passport/border control/police looking man and asked to wait in the holding pen with the other sheepish looking (idiot/tired) travellers. We sat for about 10 minutes, which felt like an hour, before we were called forward by the same beefcake and followed him all the way to the passport control exit doors…just before we managed to break free through the exit doors, he swerved to the left and took us to the offices of the detained. ‘What is it you have?’ ‘An Apple. Just a tasty English apple.’ ‘Do you have the Apple?’ ‘Yes, yes it’s here.’ He picked it up. Threw it in the air and caught it with relish and said ‘That’s fine. You’re free to go.’ Thanks for that officer, one of the most stressful experiences of my life so far. We then sped through Charlotte Airport and made it in time to board the flight to Detroit where our saviour, Stacey, would be waiting to collect us! 🙌🏻

The boys were now pushing 10 hours of screen time switching between watching various films but Mummy was happily buried in her Kindle (iykyk) for most of the flight (bar her 2 hour trip to Oklahoma to chase Tornadoes in Twisters! Who doesn’t love a good ol’ disaster film!?) and by the time we landed, Mummy was unsure as to why she thought it was worth saving a grand, to be put through the stress of the last 17 hours…but that mattered very little when she saw Stacey’s Explorer pull up!

Elliott and Nate finally fell asleep 20 minutes from South Tipsico Lake Drive where Oliver and Beth greeted us with a welcome to Michigan sign. It took several minutes to rouse the boys, but then they spent the next few hours seemingly wide-awake, despite the fact that it was gone midnight for us! Nate slept with Mummy in the basement and Elliott got to crash up top in Oliver’s double bunkbed! We had everything crossed that the boys wouldn’t wake up at 2am ready to start their day!