The Adventure Begins

July 21st, 2009.

After a restless night...well...nap...four AM arrived. It was time to get moving, but quietly so Ryan could sleep until the last minute. I immediately went to Emily's door and ready to start pounding. I knocked three or four times and the door opened of its own free will. Emily was in bed asleep and the door knob was unlocked. It was weird. Prayer really works!

Since we were flying out of LAX we wanted to leave by 5AM to hopefully beat the rush hour traffic...why is it called RUSH HOUR??? We were running late and we had to stop for cash on the way. It was okay, we were set and ready to go.

As we tooled down the freeway I realized I had forgotten one of our healthier snacks--the string cheese. Oh well, at least I have the grapes. Nope. No grapes either! Well our snacks are junky then. Nobody is perfect, and it is just one day. We arrived at the parking lot in plenty of time. They unloaded the van for us and piled our luggage into their shuttle and we quickly piled into it. As we drove away from the parking lot, and I had a very confused Ryan in my lap, I realized we had left the car seat in the van! Forehead slap! No worries, we will just call Rob, maybe he knows someone with a seat.

Once at the airport, all we had to do was check the luggage since we had our boarding passes. Next was security. I am so thankful they are so cautious, but let's face it, it is truly a pain in the rear. Especially if you have three kids, one of which is absolutely horrified that you have thrown him into this mass of hysteria that is all around him. We take off the shoes, pile up the carry-ons and so on and walk through the metal detector door. Ryan won't go alone, so I go through twice. Then Homeland Secutriy proves its point when we hear the shout above the dull roar of travelers, "LIQUID VIOLATION!!!" Ooops, I think one of our water bottles was left in my carry on. The guy was being to careful about it...maybe he thought it would blow up. I said, "here, I'll find it." I tore stuff out, and found the offending NINE OUNCE water bottle. He took it, chucked it and sent me on my way.


Ryan was very worried as we took off, "Can we go down now!?" and "Why are we turning?" He went to sleep shortly after take off and slept nearly the whole flight. I tried to sleep, but every time the captain would make an announcement it would jolt me awake. Somewhere in the flight I lost my sunglasses! Our landing was rough to say the least, and in all my years of traveling and flying I had never once seen or heard someone be airsick...until this day. Some poor boy was had his face buried in a barf bag and was puking his guts out. Poor thing. I saw him later and he was back to normal. Still...poor thing.

Rich's brother, Rob picked us up at the airport and had a brand new carseat ready to go in the ESCALADE. We finally arrived at the house and everyone else was there waiting for us to arrive. There was a lot of noise and chaos between six children and 8 adults. The kids all had a blast and were almost instant friends. As well they should be, being cousins after all!

Later we went to the hotel, and the girls got to spend the night with Busi(Boo-shee) and Grandpa. Ryan had a queen bed all to himself. I was a little worried he might fall out of the bed, and as result spent another restless night....

To Be Continued.