Our Flight

We always get asked...how do you fly that far with five kids?! To be honest, it's something my kids greatly anticipate. They are super travelers. We have sort of a routine. I sort of stay on alert mode the whole time, not sleeping much at all for the 21 hours. Campbell Clansman falls asleep before they serve the first meal. At one point, I realized both the males were asleep, so I slipped Big Ben in his lap.

Big Ben had. the. time. of. his. life. If we heard, "WOW!!!" screamed once, we heard it 75 times. My girls can attest. Every airplane. Every luggage loading car. Every gas tanker. The whole thing was like living out his "Fisher Price Airplane Set" in real life. I can not tell you how many times all would be quiet on the airplane as we pulled into the airport in our plane and he'd scream (again), "Oh WOW!" and then everyone around us would chuckle and make sure to tell me, "He's all boy, isn't he?"

At one point, we weren't sure we'd make a flight. We landed in Newark (unfortunately unable to see my uncle and aunt who live there, due to our short layover and the inability to leave the airport). CC had to go through a customs line which took very long, so he instructed me to sit with kids and luggage. Perma-Baby decided it was time to unload the sheet of stickers she'd brought for the flight. She put them all over Big Ben, who declared they were all 'boo-boo's.' We were then told to ride the tram to Terminal A. That thrilled my kids. They think the trams are just about the best thing at the airport. We got to Terminal A and were told, "No, actually you should be at Terminal C." We had to go back through customs (think 5 little people taking off all their shoes here. again.) At one point, CC said to me, "Ok, I am running ahead to ask if they'll hold the flight, you just keep the kids moving and get there as soon as you can." Just then, a little Indian man on a golf cart drove by (was he an angel in disguise?). He let us hop on, and we made it to our gate just in time. And the best part was, that since he didn't have a horn, he just kept yelling, "Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep" in his Indian accent to everyone we saw, which made us heartily guffaw in our delirious states. Thanks, Mr. Indian Man, for getting us there on time and making us laugh. The girls had major culture shock in Newark. At one point they asked me if all African-American women had big, beautiful smiles like all the ones here. I think most do, I said.

And so, we finally made it. I was starting to wear thin, so CC assumed the role of Pack Mule and carried all the heavy bags and the big boy. And as we walked through the Nashville airport, I had the same two thoughts I always do...

I can do anything for 24 hours. And it's worth it all.