The Saga of Our Journey East

I thought everyone might like to hear how it went transporting 2 children, 6 large suitcases, 2 carseats and a stroller from Memphis to Oxford.  We had 3 flights, unfortunately.  Flying out of Memphis does not leave you many options.
We bought a lap-child ticket for Archer to the tune of $450.  Yes, that's right.  We paid that much money for the privilege of having our baby on our lap, not taking up any space on the plane, not eating any airline meals, not using any airline accommodations, just using a little bit of oxygen.
So, we were very worried about having Archer on our lap for 3 flights.  Luckily, we were able to score him a seat on the first 2 flights.  The 3rd was completely overbooked, and he had to ride squirming on our laps.
Flight #1:  Memphis to Newark--We were on one of those regional jets, so Jones and Archer sat in one row and Ellie Claire and I sat in another.  Archer does very well when he is strapped into his carseat.  He slept for about 40 minutes and then was up and semi-happy.
Connection in Newark:  We had a short connection, and we didn't have time to do much of anything because we spent a long time in the line to go through security entering the international concourse.  We got to the check in desk and they told us that the flight was totally full and Archer would not have a seat.  I was pretty depressed about a 7 hour flight with him squirming in our laps.  (By squirming, I mean, fighting us tooth and nail to get down and run amok.)
Flight #2: After boarding our flight from Newark to Copenhagen, we realized a few things.  First of all, we were not in coach.  We were in Economy Plus, which is between coach and business class.  So, we had wider seats, more leg room and seats that reclined with a footrest that popped up like a lazy-boy.  We got hot towels, free alcoholic beverages (that we sadly didn't partake in) and lots of nice service.  And, the great thing is that there was an extra seat a few rows back, so Jones moved to that seat, and Archer got to have his own seat with his carseat strapped in.  I was unfortunately sitting next to Archer with Ellie Claire on the other side, which made things a little difficult.  I must say that overall, Ellie Claire was a great traveler.  She had trouble sleeping on the flight though.  I think if we had a carseat for her too, she would have been more comfortable and able to sleep.  Archer slept for probably 3 hours and Ellie Claire for 1.  Jones and I were not able to sleep, which was frustrating.
Connection in Copenhagen:  HORRIBLE!  When we arrived in Copenhagen, we were so tired.  It was early morning there, but on Memphis time, it was like 2am.  Copenhagen's airport is not fun at all.  They have nothing there.  There was one 7-11 and the strangest bathrooms I've ever visited in my life.  (I'm sure bathrooms are stranger in Japan or other places, but these were my weirdest.)  The kids were tired and super-hyper.  We had 4 miserable hours before we got on our flight to London.
Flight #3:  This flight from Copenhagen to London was overbooked, so Archer was in our laps.  He was not happy about it.  Jones had to pretty much restrain him until he finally gave up and fell asleep.  They served a really gross meal of what looked like meat jello and eggs.  It smelled awful.  We were glad to get some rolls and butter though.
We finally arrived in London, and we felt very lucky to have all of our luggage!  We went through customs pretty easily.  Jones pushed all our stuff on 2 huge carts through the whole airport to the central bus station where we got on a bus for Oxford.  The bus was nice, with free wifi.  When we arrived in Oxford, Jones got another huge cart and pushed our luggage a few blocks to a taxi stand.  We took 2 taxis up to our temporary rental house in Cutteslowe.  The house was awful, but that's another post for another day.
We left Memphis at 11am on Thursday and arrived in Oxford at about 3pm Friday.  We were exhausted, but we felt lucky that all our stuff made it, and we survived the experience without completely losing our marbles!