Trip to the Lone Star state...

Ahh, back at home at last. Seth is down for an early nap, and I'm doing mountains of trip laundry. You know the kind; it fills your hamper to overflowing after you've unpacked your suitcase. But I digress. This Friday through Monday, we made the trip to Texas to see David's baby bro and his family. We had a great time, and we got to see the newest member of the family, baby Judson, for the first time. He's like a little sack of sugar at this point, since he's only three months old, and somehow, I didn't get a picture of him. Arrghh! You'll have to go to Kelli's blog to see him.

One of the best things about the trip was that we did nothing but hang out and talk and experience daily life together. Sometimes those are the best trips, y'all. We played with the big girls, and David became a contender for Uncle of the Year by patiently reading them tons of books. Seth slept great, since the girls had vacated their room and huge closet for us, located on the opposite side of the house from everyone else. It's hard to imagine another scenario that would work as well for housing 4 adults and 5 children under the age of 6. =)

Dan is a youth pastor at a local church in their small Texas town. We got to see him in action, and he does a great job! He's got the perfect combination of fun and serious. He plays hard with them, but he also expects them to cultivate spiritual maturity and to serve others. They have planned service projects, and on Sunday nights, they have discipleship group. They read a chapter on one of the spiritual disciplines each week for that. This week it was on fasting! Imagine... teens planning to fast as a spiritual discipline. We were impressed...

A note of warning to all travelers out there. If you're using paper tickets, HANG ON TO THEM, even if the person at the ticket counter or gate tells you that you don't need them anymore. Expedia sent us paper tickets for our flights, and they came in one big packet. On the morning of our flight to Texas, we gave the packet to the U.S. Air rep, and she gave us our boarding passes. She did not gives us anything back that was in the ticket packet. On the way to our gate, we realized all we had were boarding passes for the flight there, so David went to the gate agent and asked where our boarding passes were for the flight home. He explained we'd had paper tickets. She said they were probably made electronic and not to worry about it. We got on the plane...

We got to the airport at Fort Worth an hour and a half before our flight was scheduled to leave. We had plenty of time, right? Nope. Because when we got to the ATA counter, they wanted to know where our paper tickets were. We didn't have them. Why? Because U.S. Air had taken them. So David gets on the cell to Expedia. While he's on hold with them, I go over to U.S. Air. The rep there gets on the phone with the main office. It's looking like we'll either have to buy all new tickets or miss our flight. We were not happy. Expedia can't do anything. The ATA reps are nasty and mean.

Finally, David asks for a manager, and the ATA manager has us filling out forms for lost tickets. That's going to be $60 a ticket, but at least, we might make the flight.. Just as David is filling out the forms, the U.S. Air rep comes running over. They've found our tickets somewhere. We rush to make the plane through the slowest security line I have ever experienced. We have to wait for the ATA rep to get to the gate with this pathetic looking handwritten note so we can get the connection in Chicago. We are the last ones on the plane. Once in Chicago, everything is fine. Apparently, the sad looking form he gave us had the Magic Formula on there for us to get boarding passes back home. We were super relieved, and we are thrilled to be home after a harrowing day... Yeah! But be warned, people, paper tickets are something you have to be very careful with, and don't let anyone dismiss you if you ask questions about them until they show you exactly how you're getting home, even if they are short and rude with ya...

But I digress... you want to see pictures of cute children now...

David has been tossing Seth in the air since he was so small that I probably shouldn't even mention how small or some of you would be horrified. It's a family trait, as you can see from this picture of Dan balancing Elise in the air. She got higher than that, folks. Please don't report us all to DSS. =)

On Saturday, we had a visit from the Eidson Crew. I found Shannon's blog from Kelli's blog links, and we've been keeping up with each other through that. Seth and Ian were born one day apart, and they have been tracking each other's development pretty closely, even down to height and weight. I think they look kinda similar, too. It was great to meet someone that I've only known before through a blog. Sort of like internet dating for friends, I guess. =) Aren't they cute buds?

Ahh, all the chilluns except Judson ready for church on Sunday. I figured I'd better work fast before someone spit up or started crying. =) Seth LOVED playing with his big cousins. They were so sweet to him, and he found them endlessly entertaining. He did wonderfully on this trip, even with missing naps and being in cars, on planes, and in airports for two full days. I figured it was a miracle of miracles when he went all day from 4:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. cheerfully, while only having about 1 hour of nap in there. I guess everything was entertaining enough to keep him happy...