Back From Paradise

I'm trying to catch up from our fabulous trip, the holidays, Cam's sister and soon to be brother-in-laws visit (newly engaged....Congratulations Cinn and Jamie!!!), Sis's birthday and getting back to school. What an amazing two weeks we have had. I have so much to write about to share about Tuba's Make A Wish trip to Maui.

I'll have to start at the beginning and work my way through the week. We spent Christmas as home in the morning and then headed over to my MIL's for din-din. After dinner we headed out to spend the night at the Double Tree Hotel near the airport. Thank you to them for donating two rooms and free parking for our van!

We were up early after not sleeping very well...nerves...mostly Cam's nerves over flying...not his favorite thing;) It was a major undertaking to load up 5 kids, 2 strollers, 5 suitcases, 7 carry-ons (kids each had a backpack), 2 car seats and 2 nutty parents into the airport shuttle. One of the best things about our entire trip was the kindness of strangers! Amazing!!! As Cam was loading suitcases into the end of the shuttle bus I was trying to direct the kids (kind of like herding cats) into the bus, get the wee-ones out of strollers and onto the bus. Two people from the bus came off and helped me pick the kids up, lift them on and then took the strollers, folded them up and held them on their lap. Nice! The shuttle was very crowded.

We got off into an even more crowded airport....major city airport on the day after Christmas! Yikes! I had printed our boarding passes but we needed to check our luggage, which was now teetering on a wheeled cart. Tuba and Mr. P were each pushing strollers while I handled the crowd as leader of the pack. I spotted a woman from Alaska Airlines and stopped her to ask which line we should get in to check our luggage. She started to direct me and then spotted our Make A Wish buttons. MAW had given us each a button to wear on our trip and we all had them proudly displayed on our sweatshirts. "Attention" the woman yelled..."we have a VIP family here today". She had the biggest smile and was thrilled to see us. Nice! She whisked us over to an open computer and again announced that we were a VIP family. She got on the phone and called for a VIP helper to come assist her. Another woman arrived and they began checking in our luggage all the while visiting with the kids. They gathered us all together and took our picture. So great!

Our VIP assistant then carried the car seats and directed us to the security line. If you've been to an airport since 9/11 you know what this line looks like. Not pretty! Our VIP assistant whisked us right past the line, opened a section of the line and took us to the front of the line. Yikes! I wasn't sure how all the people in line felt about that...I didn't look so I still don't know. :0 We did the usual security screening...shoes, coat, carry-ons, etc. off and into the bin for scanning. Sis was rather happy in her stroller with her new backpack and her teddy bear. She screamed bloody murder as I took her bear, backpack and shoes to put into the bin. The security scanner took no pity and said she'd get over it. I then had to take her beloved pink hoodie and remove her from the stroller! OH! You would have though they were giving her shots!!! Ear piercing screaming along with bucking and kicking tantrum. Nice...no, not so nice! We made it through and gathered all our things. Now, off to the gate. The VIP assistant left us at the gate where we were met by another Alaska Airlines employee. She greeted us and gave Tuba a gift to take aboard the plane. Fun things to do on the plane. She took our car seats, strollers and a few bags and tucked them away behind her counter while we went to get a quick breakfast.

After a little food we were ready to board the plane. The same SUPER service followed us on the plane. The kids were all given free video screens, free meals for everyone, free drinks, plus the flight crew was so excited for Tuba and his wish and let everyone on board know about it. Also, more kindness from strangers. The 7 of us were assigned seats all over the plane. After seeing the panic stricken look on my face people quickly began trading seats and moving around so that we could be seated close to our kids. The thought of an in-air emergency makes me so nervous and having my kids far from me would have been impossible. We ended up with Cam, Baby George, and Tuba in one row. Mr. P and Busy Guy two row up and Sis and I in the isle across from them. It worked well. The boys were seated next to some great people who helped them open their food and work the video screens.

I'd be lying to say that the flight was uneventful. It was pretty turbulent...enough so that the flight crew had to sit and be buckled up for over an hour. Yikes, Cam looked like he would puke and die. He laid across Baby George....praying. I got scared too. Super bumpy....blah! After a loooooong 6 hours we finally landed. The pilot let the boys come up and check out the cockpit. So cool! Then, off to gather our huge amounts of luggage and off to find our rental car....we were finally in Hawaii!!! To be continued....