Our Summer

This summer we ended up traveling 3/4 of the way around the planet. No Kidding. We started out in South Korea and all 10 of us flew to San Francisco spent about 10 days (including driving time) in the States and then left from San Francisco for England. The trip was not uneventful. The Air Force, in their "infinite wisdom" put the eight kids and I on one plane bound for the States and put S on another plane, by himself, which was leaving about an hour later than ours yet arrived in SFO an hour before us. The kids and I had a 3 hour layover in Narita (my favorite airport...NOT). SO, I had eight kids, 12 checked bags, carry-on luggage including 3 carseats, AND a cat which we carried on with us. S had 2 checked bags, 1 geriatric dog (checked), and 2 carry-ons. He wanted to take more but due to airline restrictions his hands were tied. This Military wife wanted to deck the dude who made up the stupid rule that AF personnel had to travel on a specific carrier. All went well though. Once we got past the layover and onto our long flight things went well. The kids and I had done this before by ourselves and the kids knew what to do. I told them to each take care of their "buddies" and they came through for me. The flight attendants all commented on how well behaved the kids were and how impressed they were that the big ones took care of the little ones. YEAH Fishers!

We had reserved (6 weeks prior) a 15-passenger van that had the last seat removed so that we would have enough room for luggage and pets, however, when S got there to pick it up it had been vandalized and couldn't be rented. The kids and I, along with all of our junk and pets for almost 4 hours at San Francisco airport with no way to contact S or find out what was going on. Finally, he showed up and they had given us a 12-passenger van for 10 people, 2 pets and 15 pieces of luggage. We had to get creative but we managed to STUFF it all in. After spending most of the day at the rental car place they ended up locating a 15-passenger van for us and had their mechanics yank out the back seat. Nine hours after we landed in San Francisco we were loaded up, pretty comfortable (other than the lack of sleep), fed and on our way to Idaho.

We spent 4 days in Idaho with S's family, 3 days in Utah with my family, a day traveling to/from the airport on either end, and boarded our plane bound for the UK on the 29th of July...TOGETHER!!

We had a great time with family in both places. There were several things that we really wanted to do but simply ran out of time. Hopefully next time we can stay longer and not be so rushed.