Ka-blooey

I traveled without my camera. 

Le gasp!

Yes, I did.  I've never done it before.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, that time being packing.  My camera would be one less bulky thing to carry along and I figured it would be nice to minimize the bulk what with three kids and all their accompanying gear.  Besides that, my camera has been around and around and around and it's really showing it's age.  I want it to hang on as long as possible, and a trip is unlikely to help that.  AND, my Mom has a fancy new camera that I can shoot with here.

But I miss it.  That camera is like an extension of my person and it feels like I'm missing a limb or something.  Also, I missed so many good photo ops along the way.  Scenes like Evan zonked out, spread-eagle, on the floor in the very crowded Denver airport, or Jonah studiously following along in the safety information card during the in-flight safety demonstration.  ("Mom!  Did you know that the seat bottom cushion is useful for flotation?"), or the big stroller that carried my babies and randomly dropped a wheel once in a while along the way.

However, even though I am short actual photos of the actual event, I have managed to find a few stand-in images that will help to illustrate my journey from Michigan to Oregon alone with my three children.

After arriving at the airport at oh-dark-thirty in the middle of the night and getting my progeny and stuff through security, we boarded a fairly average jet-liner, something like this, but with Carl the Coyote (and later Jack the Snowshoe Hare) on the tail and wing-tips.

We found our seats waaaaay in the back of the cabin.  ("Walk, Evan!  Keep walking!  Go!  Evan... keep goooooing!")

We settled ourselves.

The plane took off.

Then this happened:

I've always sort of prided myself on being the Mom that has it all together.  On never leaving even so much as a peanut wrapper behind.  That's actually not too hard with one kid.

I got my comeuppance when I had no choice but to walk (or rather, drag my crew) off the plane at the end  of our flight with our seating area looking something like this:

 

I was wishing I had packed a neat little Dirt Devil hand vac.

Sigh.  No camera, no Dirt Devil.

And then we got on another plane and did it all again, same song, second verse, a little faster and a little bit worse, and left the aircraft in ruins.

"Your kids have been so great!" the stewardess said.  Then she narrowed her eyes and looked at Evan and said, "Well.  YOU are a little boarder-line."  (Someone else said, after asking the ages of my kids, "Well!  You have been a very busy lady!" which is actually very different than saying "You ARE a busy lady" if you catch my drift.  Just sayin'.  I got a lot of interesting looks and comments yesterday.)

But we made it!  We're here, and I could happily sleep for several weeks, but I don't get to because I have to join in the game of Mommy Ping Pong (Mommy's the ball) that my little guys have initiated. That's okay, though, because if I slept I would miss out on so much fun with my family!  It's gonna be great (if I can keep my eyeballs propped open).