We were up very early this morning to get the kids dressed, pack up the last of our stuff and leave Grandma Katrina’s house. Mom was coming with us, and since Jenny spent the night with Auntie Laura we needed to go pick her and James up before going to the airport. We would have liked to stay longer, but considering our basement was being finished while we were away I was feeling very anxious to get back. Also Jenny needed to be back before Tuesday, so we all flew out on the same flight.
The airport was crowded this morning. It took the lady at the desk quite a while to get all of our seats situated. We were just glad we called the day before to get tickets for the morning flight. We then went to the long line to get through security. I was so happy to find that there was separate (much shorter) line for families, so we got through much faster than we expected, even though they had to x-ray Adam’s bottle of water. We were running short on time though and we got to hitch a ride on one of the carts that airport employees drive around. We made it to our gate just in time and boarded directly. This time the plane was FULL. There was not a seat to spare. Our seats were in the very back of the plane, and I honestly think there are the very worst seats on the plane. There were windows, but you couldn’t see anything out of them because the engines were right there. And because the engines were right there it was very loud. We couldn’t hear any of what was being said over the speakers, and we couldn’t hear each other either. Mom and Jenny got to sit closer to the front of the plane.
Here we are walking through the Dallas airport. Jenny turned around and used her phone to take a picture of our family. You can’t see Jeremy though, because he got cut off the edge (he is standing right next to Chloe…). In Dallas we had to split up and go our separate ways. Jenny, James and mom had a lot further to go to find their next gate. Our next gate was just a bit of a walk from where we got off our first plane. Once we found our gate, Kyle went to get some lunch for the kids and then he went back to get some lunch for us. We ate, while we watched airplanes landing and taking off outside. Soon it was time to get on the plane that was going to take us home!
We had the same back row seats on that plane, like they wanted to put all kids in the back. We finally arrived at the Salt Lake airport, and we went to the baggage claim to collect our stuff. Now things were going to get tricky. Not only did we have the seven kids, the booster seats, carry on bags, car seats, and the three suitcases, but we now also had the three cases of girl scout cookies to juggle to the car. I think next time we go anywhere on an airplane we are going to bring the stroller! We ended up having the older kids help with suitcases, and set a box of cookies on top of each and we slowly, and carefully walked to the pick-up zone.
Here we sat to wait, while Kyle took the car seats and got on a shuttle to the parking lot to get our van. It took a while for him to get there and get the car seats strapped in, and even longer to get the van out. It had snowed while we were away, so the windows were all covered in icy snow, so he had to scrape all the windows clear. Then, the van wouldn’t move as the ground was covered in a foot of icy snow, but after clearing the ground around the wheels and rocking the van forward and backwards, he finally got out and came back to get us. We loaded everyone and everything up and now we are home!