Flying high

This is old by a few weeks.

On Oct. 22 the kids and I flew to Texas so I could attend my 5 year reunion at ACU. I usually wouldn't think twice about going but I found out a few of my really good friends that I had lost touch with were going to be there so I decided to go. At first it was going to be just me going but a little elf offered to pay for Abigail's seat. Eli can still sit in my lap and fly for free since he is under 2 yrs. The flight out went great because the plane was not full at all and Eli ended up getting his own seat. I was so nervous but they did great. Abigail thought everything was so neat and had a million questions about everything she saw. I had packed coloring books, stickers, snacks, DVDs and the player and books. Eli had the window seat and really enjoyed looking out the window.

The kids watching the air planes while waiting to board.

ACU had a carnival as part of the Homecoming festivities. The musical theme was Elvis so at the carnival they had a 20' inflatable Elvis. Earlier in the day Abigail saw it and thought it was so funny. Somewhere between lunch and 6:00 she decided it was scary and uncool. Sarah took her inside the campus center and explained to her that Elvis was there to watch over us so the birds didn't potty on us. After that all was well. Thank goodness Elvis the bird watcher was there! The carnival had several bouncy houses, face painting, a petting zoo and carnival foods. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures of the festivities though.

Abigail after getting her face painted. It's a butterfly. Sort of.

The kids at the petting zoo. And no, that is not my belly. Can't actually tell you who that belly belongs to.


Waiting for the parade to start on Saturday morning. We met up with some of our good friends from San Angelo, Nathan, Andrea and Heidi, and later had lunch with them along with the Tovars, who live in Abilene now. It was so nice to see some of our really good friends again.
Martha and Andrea with Heidi.

Our kiddos, minus Eli who had fallen asleep. Preciosa, Abigail, Heidi and Anthony.

Saturday evening I went to my class dinner. While attendance was surprisingly low I did get to see my good friends, some that I had not seen in 5 years. I loved getting to catch up with them and wish we had more time.

This are two of my best friends from ACU, Angie and Dearing.

Sunday after church we cooked hamburgers at the park with April, Jeremy, Zoey, Lisa, Chris, C.J., and my family. The weather was perfect and despite a few run-ins with bees and trouble with the grill it all worked out and we had a great time.

We got home safe and sound though I wasn't quite sure Eli and I were going to survive the flight. I hate to be negative but I think the flight went just about as bad as it could have. Eli was completely unhappy and tired which made for a very long, loud flight. I was so happy to get off the plane. At DFW I got our boarding passes when I did curb side check-in. They said Gate A38. Once we got inside though they said we needed a new boarding pass that had a record of Eli on it since he didn't have a ticket. Assuming nothing had changed in 10 minutes I headed to Gate 38. It got time to board and nothing was happening so I double checked our boarding passes only to realize that we were supposed to be at Gate 20. I gathered everything up and told Abigail she had to run. Poor thing, she was a trooper. The whole thing was pretty sad and was breaking my heart but there was nothing I could do about it. I felt so helpless. Abigail was going as fast as she could and started saying that here legs and tummy were hurting. One of her shoes started hurting her and I told her to take it off and carry it. So she was running through the airport with one shoe on dragging her little suitcase. I was carrying Eli, my carry on, the car seat and my purse. We got to about Gate 29 and I hear, 'Boarding for Tucson has been moved from Gate 38 to Gate 20. This is the final boarding call.' Now why couldn't they have said that 20 minutes earlier? By the grace of God we made it. Poor Abigail. Bless her heart. She was such a trooper. Eli was exhausted on the plane but wouldn't give in and fall asleep. He spilled our drink all over himself and me before I could get it in the sippy cups. Needless to say I was so happy to get off the plane. He was asleep in the car before we left the airport. I was happy that the kids were able to go but I can't say that I have any intentions of flying with them by myself any time soon!