Spring Valley

WE.ARE.HERE.! Boy oh boy, what a journey. We've been so blessed with just being able to hop on a plane and it goes right where it was projected - pass go, collect $200. No problem!!! Of course, the majority of that travel was 2 of us. And we are old enough to know what is happening!! But I have to hand it to the kids - they were real troopers. The excitement over being on "a arepane" palled but they still were complimented much for thier pointy heads were better behaved than the one in the front of the plane WITH ALL THE PEOPLE who cried, screamed, or whined the entire 2nd flight!!
I am a habitual organizer. I do not do written lists. My lists are in my head. One of the reasons my lists are in my head is that my Dear, Dear Papa reads lists that I do write and then reminds me that this "isn't on the list" or "you didn't put this in and it's on the list". Once it's written, there is no room for compromise - but if I keep it in my head - then I can moderate and edit it as I go along~But of course, we all know that I'm needing a complete memory transplant as well as the hip, shoulder, and hand. So this "list in my head" can get rather interesting~~

So, that said, let's start at the beginning of the SAGA.

I cleaned house, did laundry, and packed almost all day Friday. I decided that I didn't need to take extra changes of clothes and a million extra diapers as carry-ons as I haven't used all of that since I started taking kids on these trips. I did decide to replace those articles with things like: granola bars, fruit roll-ups, an extra can of formula, special kiki's (blankies), etc. You know, the stuff we USE. I got most of that stuff together first, so I know what we were dealing with space wise. I had already decided that 5 suitcases were the limit. I could've packed 8 since we had 4 ticketed but I am a thrifty sort :~< ha ha!!

So after I arranged all of the carryons, but meds in baggies, collected the right crayons and color books, found the nipple and covers for a couple of bottles, found a matching baby spoon, got the baby food for a day picked out and made sure my camera and phone were charged and the chargers packed, went thru my purse to make sure I surrendered all my lotions, creams , lip gloss, nail clippers, lighters and or anyhting else that could possibly be on the banned list and slow us down, I settled down to fold and organize clothes. Papa packs his own ~ actually does not usually unpack the clean clothes from trip to trip. I talked it over with Papa and we (he) said I always pack way to much so 3 short outfits, 3 long pants sets, and a church outfit for each child would suffice. So, I folded and folded some more, put my choices of items to pack on the dining table and put the rest of the clothes in closets, drawers, etc. I finally dropped into bed about 11 pm dreading the idea of getting up at the 4 am alarm that Papa set. (Oh, by the way, Papa put away items from the shed, reorganizing it so he could get everything from the screen room shoved into it, put the new tags on the vehicles, checked the mail, etc. so he wasn't exactly inert).

Got up with the alarm, jumped into the shower, and went to wake kids. THEY WERE SO EXCITED ~ GOIN' ON THE AREPANE~~ was the chant we heard for the entire time I was dressing and feeding them!! It was funny - cute - that they were that excited about going. UNTIL Papa went out to the care and didn't take them!!!! Ooooh nooooo. What a bunch of whining and crying!!!! Like we'd really build them up like that and then leave them home by themselves!!!!

Got to the airport in record time, checked our bags, Papa went to park the car, got back and met up with us, the security lines were REALLY, REALLY short and when they saw us coming, they opened the side so I didn't have to navigate the double stroller thru thier maze. Really nice. Gonna be a nice trip. Got to security and took off my shoes, 3 pr kids shoes, put the cameras and laptops on the belt, diaper bag, carry on, purse, got Papa to go thru to herd (direct) kids on the other side of the detector, which left me with baby and stroller. I got baby under 1 arm and folded the stroller with the other hand. BUT I COULDN'T LIFT IT ONTO THE BELT. Papa could see my problem but he couldn't come back thru and help (he tried tho'). Finally the passenger behind me lifted it onto the belt (I guess he figured if he didn't help he would be there all day). Baby and I went thru detector, grabbed bins with misc crap in them and started putting shoes on kids with 1 hand - stroller got wedged in the xray machine (I did tell them it was big) so it was a bit before I got to put baby down. Stroller showed up, I unhooked it and put Baby in, Boo in, and put my shoes on. Packed up the cameras and helped Papa with the rest of the shoes and laptops so we could get out of the way. In all - about 5 minutes from the time we took our shoes off. I thought it went pretty smooth. The guy 3 people behind was nasty and loud about his thoughts tho'. Doesn't think people with "that many kids" need to be riding on planes. It holds others up to much". To which I THOUGHT "ok, next time I'll let you stay home and babysit" and "I bought 4 tickets, that means I get 4 times as much time as you do" and "why are mean people like you allowed to breathe?". He got some really nasty looks from some other people too!!! Actually, most people offered thier assistance or let us go ahead or butt in line. It was heartwarming to see how many people really don't have the NASTYS attitude.

We got reassigned seats that were perfect. All in a row and right close to the bathroom. The plane took off right on time and that's kinda where things fell apart. At this point I hadn't eaten and had chugged a nasty cup of coffee to fast (we can't take them from the terminal to the plane anymore) so I was fast getting heartburn and a headache. The Attendant came thru with juice and coffee and "biscittis" to which I added a granola bar from my stash. I gave the kids granola bars to go with their juices also. Then we got some water to mix the baby formula with and I fixed Baby his cereal. He ate, the kids ate, I ate (I think Papa did to, but I really wasn't watching) Mary carpeted herself and her seat with crumbs and I got my crumbs up under my teeth. Papa took the meds out of the ziplock so I could put my teeth in it. The liquid medicine then leaked all over the carryon instead of just into the baggie. Had to toss the fruit snacks as they had amox all over them. Felix had to "pee" about 50 times and Baby decided it was nap time. The tv screen finally came on and the kids nodded off. It was really actually an ok flight - until we got to DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth Airport). DFW was closed because of weather. We circled. The weather didn't move. We circled. It didn't move. Finally the pilot says - We are running out of fuel so we are going to drop in over at Houston and fill up and then come back in get in line again. Sooooo, we drop (literally, the weather wasn't real wonderful there either) in to Houstin and it took about an hour to refuel, get back on the runway and get back into the air. Then we landed again at DFW. 3 hours late. We just knew we missed our flight - we only had a 1 hour layover to start with. BUT: the announcement told us to go to the first gate we found with our destination city on it. We found one and headed for it. We passed McD's and Felix said "Look, there's dinner". I told him we'd eat as soon as we figured out where we needed to be. Of couse, Papa was about a 1/2 mile ahead of me and the kids. I lost sight of him once - only to have him reappear waaaay down the concourse waving his arms hollering hurry hurry hurry. Well, I got the little 2 yr old legs going and we hurried - as fast as we could - they were actually holding a plane for us - and it was 1/2 empty!!! The people behind us were wanting on it too - but they closed the door so fast behind us that I didn't even get a chance to call S'te to tell her we made it to the last leg before they announced that cell phones had to be turned off!!! But we MADE it!! A couple that had been on the earlier flight was seated back near us and complimented us on how well the kids behaved - as they moved to other seats :(. The attendants were really nice on that flight too. I'm sweating even now, reliving the run from plane to plane. Felix asked if we were going on another plane? and I answered that we ARE ON a different plane. The change was so quick that he didn't even notice it!! We bought one of the AA snack packs and divvied it amoung the kids and had more granola and juice. Then the baby had his food, another bottle and kids went to sleep for a bit.

AND NOW WE ARE HERE. Our luggage and car seat didn't land with us so they gave us a "loaner" (kinda makes you wonder just how often this happens!) and we loaded up into S'te's van. Her and Jaleel were there to pick us up before Papa finished the delivery paperwork.

We called Rod and they met us at Carnitas Uropan to eat. We were hungry, hungry, hungry!!! Jaleel helped the pretty waitress clear the table when we were finished. He is so helpful!!

Our luggage showed up at 11:00 that night - - -