Hello from sunny San Diego! We made it here late Wednesday night with all of us arriving in surprisingly chipper moods, to boot. We got up at 4:30 in the morning, got the kids ready and loaded everything into the car, and then drove two hours to our closest large airport. In spite of some snowy conditions, we got there in plenty of time and found no line at the check-in, plus a very helpful and friendly sky cap. We made it through the security gate without being “selectees” – a first for us, at least in recent memory! We’ve been searched so many times that it leads me to question the randomness of it all… But anyway…

In spite of all of our seat assignments having been lost, the gate attendant was able to get us rearranged and sitting near one another, so this relieved some potential stress, as well. The kids were perfect angels on the first flight, and I started to let my guard down just a little. When we landed in Denver, our layover, and discovered our next flight had been cancelled, I started to panic a little. Miraculously – or so says the woman at customer serveice who rebooked us, anyway, all 11 of us were able to get on the next, and only flight from Denver to San Diego. It was 45 minutes late because it was coming out of the east, and it seems many flights coming/going to the east were delayed or cancelled that day. We saw many poor souls standing in endless customer service lines and I overheard people being told they would have a hard time getting out of Denver that day. We really felt like we were being watched over!

We got ourselves some lunch and then went to sit at our gate to wait. This was the part I was most worried about, but the kids showed their best sides once again. We had no chairs to sit in, so we lined up along the wall and the kids occupied themselves with various activities. This meant that at eyes were focused on us, and although it was uncomfortable being stared at so much, I was proud of the “performance” my kids gave. They really were troopers. It helped that there was a fun candy store nearby, and Curtis made a couple of trips with various children. It gave new meaning to the phrase, “Will work for food.” ;)



The next flight was just as great as the first, and we garnered many compliments from people on the plane who’d likely initially thought us bonkers. One flight attendant in particular kept stopping to ask me how I got the kids to behave so well. Our kids are usually pretty well behaved, but we’d been through quite a bit that day and I was really impressed that they held up the way we did. Once we landed, we found another friendly sky cap who called to me, “Mama! Mama! I can help you, mama!” ;) It turned out she had eight children herself, and her mother had 14! I truly felt like we were watched over the whole way.

We rented our two minivans, got the carseats and luggage put in, and headed for my parents’ house. All in all, it was a pretty great day.

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