Day 5: The Plane

With Mary’s van in the shop, we decided to change our plans a bit.  We cancelled seeing Gordon, Krystal and Kylee (which I’m still bummed about, those guys are awesome!) so we could take Mary back down to pick up her van when it was ready.  As much as I wanted to spend the day with the Hunts, it’s probably a good thing we didn't.  Packing up at Mary’s after just 2 nights was a nightmare!  It took several hours and I melted down at one point.  So many kids with so much stuff!!  Several people expressed concern when I told them we were just taking a carry-on size suitcase a piece.  Oh how glad I stuck with what I originally thought!  It was insane how hard it was to corral and re-pack all of them!  We did finally get it done and the call finally came that Mary’s van was ready. 

It was going to be cutting it close, but it would have been fine—we totally would have made it.  But Mary sweetly opted to ask ward members for help.  I know that’s what they’re there for, but I don’t often have the chance to serve my little sister so I was a little sad—she’d been so sweet to let us come and stay and to take a few days to play with us!  I know she’s fine with how things turned out, and I know she knows how much I love her…I guess I’ll just have to find another way to show it J

Instead, we picked up a great friend, Tonya, who is going to park our van at her place for the summer and headed out.  Rush hour in LA is iconic so we were glad that we had so much extra time.  Visiting with Tonya on the drive was fantastic.  I love catching up with friends in real life!   Thanks again, Tonya, for helping us out!

At the airport we learned the one thing we hadn't thought about…weight!  We’d packed everything sparsely but most of our bags were dense!  With a 7 kg weight limit for carry on items, we had to alter our plan.  We checked all the bags but the two lightest and headed to the gate only to realize that Cody’s medicine was still in his bag and he desperately needed to take it .  Luckily we were 4 hours early so we had them bring back just Cody’s bag so he could get it.  We got to our gate with 2 hours to wait.  Really, the hardest part was the first two hours, waiting for Cody’s bag to come back up.  Once the kids were all sitting, ensconced in their various electronic entertainments, it was smooth sailing.

They had us board first as we would “need a little extra time to get situated” hahahaha that’s an understatement.  At least I thought it would be.  It was weird.  I’ve been planning and planning and planning this.  We walked on the plane and everything went exactly how I’ve visualized it every single time.  Oh how I hope this is how the whole trip goes!

Since getting on the plane, things have been incredible.  The buddy system we’ve set up has worked like a charm.  The older kid has taken care of whatever the younger kid needed.  Cody and I fell asleep and both slept for a good 6 hours! Most of the kids slept for quite some time too and when they woke up, just started watching movies or playing games that are provided at each seat.  K commented that she feels like we’re flying first class because they keep bringing her drinks and snacks—and with dinner there was shrimp cocktail! Each seat had a pillow and blanket AND a toothbrush and toothpaste so they’ve been traveling in complete comfort the whole way.  

We’ve only got 45 minutes left of this 11 hour flight and aside from tucking the kids in once and taking pictures twice, I haven’t even had to get out of my seat!  Singing the praises of Fiji Airways right now!  Good food, free entertainment, comfortable, roomy seats even for us fatties, in seat electronic charging (and 110 V plug under your seat).  I honestly can’t think of a single way this flight could have been improved.

Okay, gotta put the computer away so we can disembark and go explore Fiji!  Let’s go build some houses!