Semi-surprise trip to the States

I will eventually continue blogging about our previous trip (next: Belgium!), but the blogging world stopped for me for a few months. While Jer was in Florida on TDY for a few months, I decided it was a good time to visit my family in the States. I obviously did not blog while I was there, and a crashed computer prohibited me from blogging when I got back--until Jer came to the rescue and fixed it.
I tried to get a military hop because it's free. It's pretty much a failure to try to fly as a military spouse alone in the middle of summer. Too many families are traveling, and because I'm alone, and Jer is not deployed, I am less important, i.e., I am in category 5 out of 6. This was quite frustrating because Jer was gone on official orders for a long time, but just shy of long enough to bump me up a category. This was my first time trying out the military flight system, and it was definitely a learning experience!
Let me just say that the week prior to my leaving I labeled as "Week from Hell." I was so very ready to see my family and get out of here. It took several tries and fails before I was finally called to board a flight to Maine. I really didn't want to go to Maine, but I figured it was on the other side of the Atlantic, and that's where I want to be, so...
I got on the flight.
And thankfully there was a nice couple that was also wanting to get to Virginia/D.C. area, so we split the cost of a car rental, gas and about $35 worth of tolls(!), and spent the next 12 hours driving south.
My siblings knew I was coming, but I'd asked them to keep it a secret from my nieces and nephews. I did this for two reasons: 1. I wanted to surprise them. 2. In case something happened that made me unable to get to the States, I didn't want them to be disappointed.
I arrived on a Wednesday or Thursday. With sleeping overnight in an airport, then flying the next day (over night) again, and add the time difference, I don't really remember what day it was. But I do remember it was 2am and I was SO excited when I got to see Emily!
Friday after work, Emily and I set out for the 1 hour 15 minutes drive to Julie's house. We pulled up and I asked Emily to shoot video with my camera of the surprise arrival. I'm so glad she did. I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!!
Enjoy!