The Grand Adventure

I think I've finally recovered enough to write about it. Our weekend vacation to California was nice, the drive home exhausting, but that isn't what caused the lack of blogging.

Last Monday, I found out that my nephew and his sweet wife were having a family crisis. He is an Iraqi veteran, and his wife is in the Navy. I'm being purposefully vague on the reason, but J. (the wife) ended up in the hospital, leaving N. (my nephew) torn between caring for his children and house and being with his wife who needed him by her side.Add a sudden transfer to another state, compliments of the Navy, and you can just imagine what kind of stress that young man was feeling!

They live in New York, while the rest of both of their families are on the west coast. With the situation and the distance, they were feeling rather desperate, and it quickly became apparent that there was only one person in the family that was in a position to help - me.

My sister is much older than I am, and married young, so her children are as close to my age as she is. Since they've always lived practically next door (in some cases literally next door) those three boys are like my little brothers instead of nephews. Of course I was going to help if I could.

Tuesday, Danny and I caught a plane to New York. Danny had never been on a plane before, so he was thrilled with the whole thing. I have never been further east than Wyoming, so it was something new for me, too. We stopped in Chicago, and had to catch a connecting flight in Baltimore, before we got to New York. It was a long flight, and Danny was as good as a five year old could possibly be.

We spent one day with N. and his three kids: E, W and V. Danny was so excited to meet cousins he hadn't met yet.

This is where the hard part really started. N. decided that the best course of action was to send his children to thier grandmothers so they would be taken care of by family so he could take care of his dear wife. I had only seen the oldest child, E, when she was three months old, now she was three years. We needed to get to know each other, and help them trust me - and fast.

Thursday, we - and by we I mean myself and four children under five - caught a plane. We were late getting to the airport to begin with, since we'd only purchased the tickets two hours before.

It went something like this:

-Run to the ticket counter
-Argue with the agent about why I needed a birth certificate for the youngest one
-Get boarding passes
-Run to security, where they would not let N escort me past
-Off with everyone's shoes and coats
-Send four little children through the detectors one at a time
-put everyone's shoes back on
-get everyone's carry-ons situated
-head for the gate
-DISCOVER MISSING BOARDING PASSES
-go back to security and search
-go to gate anyway, to find someone had found and turned in our passes
-get tags for stroller
-get to doorway to plane
-wait while stewards rearrange other passengers to get us four seats together
-situate oldest three while trying to hold 5 month old
-have upset 5 year old because he is sitting across the aisle and wants to sit with cousins
-finally take off, while holding 5 year old's hand across the aisle
-wait for seatbelt light to turn off, so I can switch places with 5 year old

IN Chicago we stayed on the plane, but I learned quickly to sit at the very back row of the plane, so kids could be closer to the bathroom. Something about take-off seems to activate childrens bladders. So we rearranged everything to relocate to the back row.

Halfway through the six hour flight between Chicago and Phoenix, V (5 months old) POO'd. She didn't just poo - she plopped a pile to rival a Texas Longhorn! Have you ever tried changing a diaper in an airplane bathroom? It's a fine art, let me tell you! She was so stinky, by the time I was done I threw everything she had been wearing away. I opened the bathroom door to ask for a plastic garbage bag, and the stewardess exclaimed:

"Whew! What are you feeding that child?!"

In Pheonix, we had to switch planes so:

-off the plane
-reconstruct stroller, which broke down into three pieces
-get all kids and carry-ons situated around said stroller
-walk as fast as three year old legs can go to completely different gate in completely different hallway
-repeat last half of first list

Happily, all three of the older kids slept the entire way from Phoenix to Portland.

I could not have done it without two of the most helpful, wonderful flight crews in the history of the world. They let the crews know that I'd be there with four kids. The stewards were absolutely wonderful! I don't think I could have done it without them! Kudos to Linda, Tim and Teisha of Southwest Airlines - you are all fabulous and you have the thanks of a grateful auntie!! And an equal thanks to all the passengers who were understanding and offered a hand!

So, finally in Oregon, we unloaded the kids, handed them off to grandmothers and spent a couple of days with my mother and sisters. Danny got to meet three more cousins, and even go to a birthday party at a park for one of them.

Sunday afternoon, we caught a flight home to SLC - both so tired we could hardly stand it. I've never been so glad to see Utah in my entire life! In five days we had traveled over 7,000 miles - twice across the width of this great country of ours. It was definitely an adventure, and a once in a lifetime experience, but I don't think I'd do it again if I could help it. Once in this lifetime is quite enough...

So there it is - the most extreme excuse for not posting on a blog ever heard! I think next time I'll stay home and settle for "the dog ate my computer"!