The Great Texas to Utah Migration, Part 2 (How to Make Friends With Strangers in a Hurry)

Let's see. Where did I leave off? .......Oh yes. Landing in Denver.

Like I said before, the flight itself was pretty unremarkable. The kids were good, nothing eventful happened. We got off the plane, found the train to take us to a different terminal, got some lunch, found our gate, and sat down to eat. Sitting on the chairs across from us was a mom waiting with her 11 year old daughter, who was about to fly all alone for the first time. We visited with them for a little while, and then we boarded the plane. We sat for a LONG time. First, they were having trouble with their numbers, somehow they had more people on the flight than they should have, so there weren't enough seats. I had three different flight attendants ask if I was absolutely SURE that Kate wasn't a lap child. I had to keep showing them the paperwork with her ticket information. Super annoying. But whatever. They finally got that worked out, and we were good to go, but then I noticed something weird. The flight attendants started asking groups of people to get off the plane. They weren't taking their luggage, just purses. Just standing up and hurrying off the plane.

When it was our turn, I didn't know what to do. Kate was sound asleep and Megan and Jared were panicking. I couldn't carry William and Kate and the diaper bag, and they weren't unloading the stroller. That's when I started making friends really quickly. The lady that Jared had sat next to on our flight from Houston to Denver was actually a couple rows behind us, and she and the lady sitting next to her jumped up and came to our rescue. One took William and one took the diaper bag and I carried Kate and herded Megan and Jared. As we got off the plane, the mom that we had met during lunch was still there, waiting to see her daughter take off, so she and her daughter joined our group. It was a tornado warning and they were directing everyone to take shelter in the bathrooms. The first two bathrooms we came to were completely packed, but a airport worker saw us and directed us to a stairwell that was also used as a shelter. It was already pretty full, but we found a place on a landing about two flights down. We all sat down on the floor and waited.

After a while, some airport workers came rushing through, directing everyone to get lower, so we picked up and went down two more flights of stairs. We ended up in the huge cavern of a basement. It was bigger than a gymnasium, with pipes on the ceiling and concrete walls and floor. I think most of the people in the airport ended up down there eventually because it got pretty crowded.

We found a spot and sat down. By this point, a couple other women had joined our group, and they all took turns holding William and entertaining Megan and Jared. My phone was dead, but they let the kids play games on their phones, and just helped keep them calm. The alarms were so loud and constant, I really don't know how Kate slept through the whole thing, but somehow she did. I just sat and held her and tried not to cry. Not because I was scared, but because I was so grateful for all of these kind strangers who took care of us. I truly couldn't have managed without them.

All the while, I wasn't too stressed about the actual tornado - we get tornado warnings in Houston fairly often, but no one really worries about them. I was more tired from all the travel and worried about making my sister wait so long for us at the airport in Salt Lake City. After seeing some of the news coverage and photos from outside the Denver Airport, maybe I should have been more concerned about the tornado...

Here's some pictures from the outside: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-reported-near-denver-airport-20130618

When we finally landed in Salt Lake (about 3 hours late), I left the kids and carry-ons with Charlotte while I went to round up all our checked baggage. Charlotte said that several people came up to her in the airport to check on the kids because they knew that she wasn't the one traveling with them, and wanted to make sure they were okay.

The Great Texas to Utah Migration, Part 1 (The Great Applesauce Explosion and The Bloody Tongue Biting Incident)

Warning: Long, long, long-long-looong blog post ahead.

Yesterday the kids and I flew to Utah. Four kids. And me. And a gazillion bags and backpacks and a diaper bag the size of Rhode Island. With a layover in Denver. During naptime.

Yes, I have changed my middle name to Crazy. Anna Crazy Mansfield. It seemed appropriate.

Travis took the morning off to help us to the airport. He helped us get all of our suitcases checked and our boarding passes printed and walked us to Security. And then he left. He could have gotten a boarding pass and walked us to the gate, but I was all like "No, I can handle it. I'm going to have to do it alone in Denver and in Salt Lake, so I might as well do it now too. You go on to work, honey. It'll be fine."

That's the last time I'll ever utter such stupidity. If I ever act like I can handle it all, ever ever again, y'all have permission to whack me up side the head.

So, Travis left us waiting in line at Security. Security is a lot of shuffling along, waiting in line, cross-your-eyes boredom. Until you get to the front of the line, and then it's a lot of crazy madness, trying to get everything and everyone through the various x-ray machines and scanners without holding up the line and without forgetting anything or losing anyone. We had with us: two big kids who enjoy fighting with each other (they must enjoy it or they wouldn't do it so often, right?) two backpacks, one laptop bag, with a laptop that had to be removed (or dropped by Jared...), one ginormous diaper bag, one camera bag, one carseat, one baby (who must be removed from the carseat and held while shuffling everything else down to the xray machine), one toddler with a propensity for running away, and one monkey-back-pack-leash thingy to keep her from running away. Whew! I'm getting a headache just writing all of this!

So, we get up to the front. And everyone takes off their shoes and starts helping me load things into bins. And Kate starts freaking out because she doesn't have a clue what's going on. And she isn't happy about having to get out of the stroller. Or having to take off her monkey (truth be told, I wasn't happy about that either - did I mention she likes to run away?). She's in full out tantrum mode. So I gave Megan an applesauce pouch thingy that Kate loves and told her to go stand to the side while I dealt with everything else. Um, yeah....That didn't work so well. We are forever more referring to this as The Great Applesauce Explosion of 2013. It resulted in me carrying a sticky, thrashing two year old through security. There may have been some applause when we finally left. A TSA worker may have started weeping with joy. I know there was some rubbernecking from people in other lanes - you know like when you are on the freeway and you see a gruesome wreck off to the side and you slow way down so you can stare in fascinated horror at the carnage? Yeah. It was like that.

We finally made it to our gate, about 45 minutes before boarding.We staked out a row of chairs in the corner. Kate was happy again by then and wanted to explore, so Megan took a hold of her leash (don't judge me - I used to think those toddler leashes were horrible, but after Kate, now I think they are rockin'-awesome!) and let her roam. All was peaceful for about 15 minutes. Until Kate tripped on her shoe, faceplanted on the tile, bit her tongue, and was carried back to me gushing blood.I had another clean shirt for Kate to wear, but not for Megan. She had to spend the rest of the day in a shirt covered in blood, boogers, and chewed up goldfish. She's such a good big sister. She didn't even complain.

Totally another one of those awesome rubbernecker moments, with bystanders stunned by the blood bath. Actually, everyone around us was really nice. Multiple people offered to run and get some ice or a popsicle, no one accused me of being a negligent mother.

So there you have it. That was the first leg of our journey. The actual plane ride to Denver was a a piece of cake. Megan slept, Kate slept, Jared sat across the aisle and talked some nice lady's ear off. William sat on my lap and babbled. Easy-peasy.

Little did I know that that was just the calm before the storm. Tune in next time to hear the rest of the story.

Sightseeing in Galveston

We had a fun day playing tourists in Galveston on Labor Day. It was a little more crowded than it has been other times that we've gone there, but not too bad. Travis, Grandma Suzanne, Grandpa Mark, and Phil hadn't ever been there before, and I think everyone had a great time.

We spent a little time on the beach. The weather was wasn't too blistering hot and the water was pretty warm, but it was too windy. Everyone got sand in their eyes before too long. Jared and Grandpa Mark had fun looking for shells. Megan's hat blew away and we had to chase it down the beach into the water. It was Kate's first time in the ocean, and she wasn't very impressed.

After the beach, we went to the Galveston Railroad Museum. It was a lot of fun. Inside the museum, they have all of these statues of passengers waiting for trains. Megan and Jared had fun posing with them.

Out behind the museum are LOTS of trains - engines, passenger cars, dining cars, mail cars, etc. Most of them are open so you can get in them to explore. Everyone had a great time.

Periodically as we were walking through the museum and around the trains, we saw signs marking the high water mark from Hurricane Ike. It's crazy to be there in person, and to realize just how high the water really was. Some of the train cars were FLOATING in the flood waters. These huge cars were actually lifted off the ground. Crazy!

That sign way up above my head is the high water mark inside the museum. Here's a close-up:

After the museum, we went to lunch at The Original Mexican Cafe. It was really yummy. I ate way too much, but it was worth it. After lunch, Suzanne, the kids and I headed home while the guys went down to the harbor to get a closer look at some of the drilling rigs and ships.

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  Thanks to Mark and Suzanne and Phil for suggesting it!

Travis's Trip to Scotland

Travis went to Aberdeen for work. I asked him to take some pictures for me. For the first few days, this is what he sent me:

Yes, pictures of the apartment he stayed in. And an iron imprint in the carpet (no, he didn't put it there...I don't think).

Finally he sent me some real pictures. Beautiful stone buildings, cobblestone streets, the coast, gorgeous sunsets.

Here's a picture of him while he was out on the rig. Love the color scheme!

He had a great trip. In fact, he had such a great trip, he got his work done early and surprised me by flying home on Friday instead of Saturday. He had a reservation at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant The Savoy Grill in London on Friday night, but he chose to come home instead. Yes, I know how lucky and how loved I am (especially because he brought a bag of fabulous Swiss dark chocolate as well!).

What we've been up to

Travis is out of town (actually, he's out of the country!). He sent us pictures from his plane before he left. I think I should start traveling Business Class! A seat that fully reclines? And not sharing your row with anyone else? A few hours to read a book or watch TV or take a nap? Someone to bring you drinks and food, and better yet, not expect you to do the dishes? Ummm, yes please!

 Megan went took advantage of the empty school parking lot and went bike riding with a friend. It was hot and muggy, but the girls had a lot of fun.

We had Meet the Teacher night at school. Both kids are really excited for school to start next week. I'm a tiny bit excited too. I meant to get pictures, but things were a little crazy with the three kids.

We hosted the girls play group. What was I thinking trying to make clothespin mermaids with 5 girls? It was fun, but slightly insane at the same time. You can see our finished mermaid creations HERE. All in all, I think they turned out pretty cute, don't you?

Megan lost ANOTHER tooth! She's missing 3 on top. I'm beginning to wonder how she'll chew anything if this continues!

Jared and I played a LOT of Lego Star Wars. He told me, "You don't play as good as daddy. It's not your talent. Maybe you could practice while I go to school." Yup buddy. That's what I'm going to do while you are at school...Finally we had to import some help. We called his 10 year old cousin Josh for some hints, and a friend from church came over to play with him as well.

Megan and I finished up the last little bit of school shopping and got her hair cut. She needed a new pair of shoes. I broke my own rule and let her buy a bright pink and silver pair that light up (gasp!). Usually I pick pretty boring practical and versatile shoes for the kids, but she fell in love with these and I didn't have the energy to go to another store.

We talked on Google Chat to Travis every second that we could. The time difference makes it a little challenging, but it's working out. We miss him, but he'll be home before too long.

We only went swimming once this week. It was fun to hang out poolside with friends, in the sunshine.

Baby Kate

Since Travis is out of town for a while, I thought I'd post some videos for him. Y'all don't have to watch them (you are more than welcome, but they might be a little boring).

Kate was going crazy tonight, squealing and cooing and kicking. But she wasn't preforming for the camera very well. Every time I'd get it out, she would stop and stare. Here are the best clips.

Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the pool, 3 days old.

Travis is going to do an audit on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland. Before they'll let him on the rig, he had to have some safety training. Yesterday he came home and said that it was pretty boring - lectures, basic first aid, CPR, etc.

Today was a different story.This morning he got to do fire safety training - he got to get in shipping containers filled with fire and smoke and find his way out. He says it was HOT. Ridiculously hot. He got to use fire extinguishers and fire hoses, all so he'll know what to do in case of a fire on a rig.

This afternoon he spent in the pool. He had to learn how to use a re-breather (kind of a bag that you fill up with air, and then you can breath in and out of for about 30 seconds), and then he got to get into the helicopter simulator. The simulator is supposed to teach you what to do in case of a helicopter crash over the ocean, so once everyone is strapped in, they drop the it into the pool. Once it filled with water, he had to  knock the window out (it takes 80 lbs of force!), unbuckle, and swim out. 3 times. Once he mastered that, they dropped him in again, flipping the simulator upside down. 2 more times. Sounds like fun, huh?

He gets to go back for more fun tomorrow. Not sure what he'll be doing, but he has to wear a swim suit and steel toed boots, so I'm sure it will be "fun"...

4th of July Celebrations

We had a WONDERFUL 4th of July. Fun from sun up to sun down (and beyond). Lots of yummy food and good friends. Couldn't ask for more.

We started the day at the church for a pancake breakfast. Travis made quiche (which was gone in about 30 seconds). Before we left for the church, I made everyone go out and pose for pictures - I knew we wouldn't make it through the day in our festive clothes. :D

After the breakfast, we went shopping for a couple things we needed for dinner later, new sandals for Megan and Jared (how do their feet grow so quickly?!?), and a swimsuit for Kate.

Then we dashed home to start cooking. Travis had big plans for things to take to the Boyer's bbq. Bleu cheese burgers, homemade buns, pasta salad, corn on the cob, and red, white, and blue almond cookies.

Aren't they GORGEOUS? They were really yummy. (although I think they needed more chocolate. ;D)

We had a WONDERFUL time at the Boyers. Someday I hope to be as gracious a host as they are. Everything was fun and relaxed and welcoming. The kids had a blast eating and swimming and playing with their friends.

Even Katelyn got into the pool for about 20 minutes. She absolutely LOVED it.