Bannerkids<\/a> and was here to make a presentation to our State Troopers about joining the cause. Their aim is to quickly find all missing children and return them home. <\/p>\nAnyway – back to the car, up to Anchorage, and to Ch’s house where we got to meet and cuddle and play with our Nephew for the first time. WHat a doll baby! I had to keep stealing him back from the Asshole and the kids though. Harumph. Trying to horn in on the Auntie Bonding Time, they were! Of all the nerve! We had fun visiting with everyone, and even helped eat a pizza before it was time to head to the airport and the! big! trip! Cab arrived, and we said our goodbyes and headed to the airport and security.<\/p>\n
We were flying America West, which was a first for me. They had the best prices though, so we went with it, simply hoping their service was as good as the prices. To our surprise, it was! They were helpful at the counter, and got us checked in and situated, and directed us to the gates and security. We got through security without a single hitch, and all three kids behaved beautifully. We found our gate in record time, and settled down to wait for our flight with color books, card games, and the snack shack behind us. <\/p>\n
The kids were a little nervous about our first flight, and the Asshole wasn’t being too helpful really because he was nervous bringing all the kids on the plane. Flying alone is one thing – but with your whole family? A stress of another color. So I kept things in control, got everyone situated, and we even got to spread out a little because the flight was half empty. Held the boys hand, and he cut off circulation during take off and landing, but the girls had no problem adjusting and loved the whole experience. <\/p>\n
In Pheonix where we switched planes, we were OH so tempted to take the deal they were offering. THey were overbooked, and were offering $300 vouchers if we’d switch flights and arrive later in the evening. Unfortunately, that’d make well over 24 hours of traveling and with three kids…. nah. We turned them down and got on the very crowded, yet thankfully short, flight anyway. <\/p>\n
LAX. Oy. Vey. Instantly the Asshole is tense, and I wasn’t much better. Alone I’da just pushed my way through, but we had the kids, and people were so goddamn rude. We found our way to baggage claim, and while the boys got the luggage, I talked to a helpful boy who told me who to go to in order to find our shuttle. Then he tried to pimp me for cash. heh. didn’t work. Got our bags, then found the Super Shuttle, and the Asshole grabbed a driver to see who we needed to talk too since we had a prepaid fare. The Curb Side Dude jumped in Asshole’s face, and I’m STILL surprised the Asshole didn’t just deck him. I know he wanted too! We found out later that the Curb Side Dudes make their money by organizing who goes on what bus, and the drivers pay them a commission – some drivers will try to byepass that system and collect the riders themselves, and thus keep all of the fare. This is what Curb Side Dude thought was going on. But at that point in time, Asshole just wanted to get us out of LAX.<\/p>\n
So – I took over and got us on the right list for the right shuttle and we finally were loaded up in the van. Then came the joy of LA driving – omfg. Don’t EVER take the Super Shuttle! Mere inches between us and other vans and things, and then 85mph in bumper to bumper traphic, and several close freeway calls. All with our KIDS in the car…. needless to say, we were not impressed, and Asshole almost decked them…. again.<\/p>\n
Arrived at the hotel, safe and in one piece, and got our room. The kids changed into their suits and hit the ourdoor pool, much to everyones amusement – it was cold, sure, but no colder then an Ak. Lake swim! And they had a hot tub which they turned on for them to warm up in, so it was all good. About 9pm, in strolls TBF and his wife, and much hilarity ensued. We were a bit leery at how his wife and the Asshole would get along, but they surprised us by getting along swimmingly and having a ton of things in common to talk and debate about, making them both very happy. So TBF, the pup and I headed to the store, and got a whole buncha munchies and the like for the stay, and to be made into brown bag lunches for the parks the next day. Pup made fun of TBF’s driving, and even asked mommy to drive at one point, which had us all laughing. Those two settled in together like they’d never ever been apart. It was fun to watch, and be a part of.<\/p>\n
Back at the hotel, the kids finally crashed, and the adults all sat up talking till like 3am, before Asshole and I finally crashed too. TBF and his wife never did sleep, and actually woke us up before the kids got up, sneaking out for breakfast in the office of donuts and coffee. I’m still surprised we had to wake up the kids! Figured they’d be raring to go – but they took some time to wake up first before we charged off to….<\/p>\n
Disneyland.
\n(dundunDUN)<\/p>\n
[TBC]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whew. And in typical fashion, I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! We all had a blast, however, and are home in one piece, safe and sound, and things are instantly back to normal. Asshole is Asshole, the kids are brats, mom’s exhausted. heh. So – here we go: Family Vacation, pt. 1. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myriad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonfalon.org\/eclat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}