Getting to Utah

These posts are probably way too long, but there is a lot of stuff I want to remember for myself, so feel free to stop reading out of sheer boredom!! The kids and I left for Utah on July 1st. Since it was my 1st time flying alone with all 3 kids, I was a little nervous and frazzled by the time we got to the airport. Chris and I just curbed checked all of my luggage but not thinking I said I wanted to gate check my car seats. Now normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I had 2 layovers. **Now just as a little side note, my options were 2 layovers or get in at midnight, I thought I would be able to handle my kids if I wasn't so tired. However, the night before we left Kennedy got in bed with me because she couldn't sleep. She talked to me for like 2 hours and everytime she said I can't sleep I tried to explain to her that even if she couldn't sleep she couldn't keep me awake. She matter of factly told me that it wasn't fair if she couldn't sleep and I could, so all of my not so tired plan blew out the window due to a chatty 7 year old**. So anyways, I had to haul 3 children--2 of whom rolled their own bag--, a stroller, a gigantic backpack and a stroller through the Birmingham, Dallas, Denver, and Salt Lake airports. The kids did okay on the flights. Addie was kind of a nightmare the 2nd leg, but slept the other 2 so I guess I should count my blessings. When we got the Salt Lake to the baggage claim--surprise surprise, guess whose luggage wasn't there??? Ours!! So it actually was kind of blessing I had gate checked the car seats. But to make a long story even longer, I had had a feeling all week that something was going to happen to my luggage, so I had packed enough stuff in our carry on luggage for a few days--including swimsuits. So even though it was a huge annoyance and it took 2 1/2 days to actually get out luggage, we made it. The airline however, did give us their "essentials" kits. Now anyone who is familiar with the comedian Brian Regan could probably find the same humor in this that we did. The essentials kit consists of a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and conditioner, deoderant, and a razor. Now anyone traveling with 3 small kids can probably see that of course those are the essentials that any mother would need for 2 1/2 days. Forget diapers, clothes, bathing suits, blankets that your children cannot fall asleep without--they'll be okay because they have their razor!! Now like I said, I was actually prepared for this so we had enough stuff and the kids thought the kits were great. Spencer carried his "safety kit" around for a week.