We left on a Sunday. We started out by trying to not get up too early, after our early mornings and late nights the last few days. We packed as quickly as we could while the kids played with their souvenir toys. The younger kids took a bath in the dark with the extra glow sticks we hadn't used in the parks. Then we dressed in our Sunday clothes and met up with the family one more time for breakfast - which consisted of gelato with sprinkles for my younger kids as I decided to give them one last bit of vacation fun, and which I regretted just a little when they all ended up with gelato on their Sunday clothes. But oh well.
During breakfast, we began the business of planning the next reunion, which will hopefully be in about 2.5 years. I think that talking about the next time we'll all see each other made it easier for me to say goodbye. Our family found a nearby ward and attended Sacrament Meeting together, then drove to a park where we could change clothes and let the kids run around for a little while before sitting on a plane for several hours. The kids had a great time playing, passing the football around, and completing a playground obstacle course.
We thought we'd arrive at the airport at just the right time but it was a littler farther from the park than we realized, and we stayed at the park a bit longer than we meant to, and then there was a very long line to check luggage, followed by a long line to get through security. At this point we were worried about making it on to our plane.
Once we were finally on our way through security, I was wondering if there was any hope of us getting dinner in the airport before we needed to board when we noticed that we didn't have Jack's backpack. I thought it had been randomly selected to be searched, but we were in such a time crunch that we didn't think we should all just wait. So Ben stayed with the backpack while I took the kids to the bathroom.
When Ben and I met up a little later, he told me that the backpack hadn't been randomly selected - it was intentionally selected because of the unusual things that showed up when it went through x-ray. Apparently, TSA didn't like the idea of Jack bringing a rusty railroad spike and random bones on the plane with him.
Jack had picked up these special treasures when he was exploring around Mema and Papa's house a week before, and though I was inclined to toss them out then and there (right after he'd proudly laid them out for display on Mema's kitchen table) I tried to be a good sport and let him hold on to them. When we were getting ready to fly home, it didn't even occur to me to pack them in a checked bag because they would be considered dangerous (mostly the rusty railroad spike I suppose), but I admit that I wasn't too sad when I found out the sack of goodies wouldn't be coming back to Utah with us, and thank goodness Jack wasn't too sad either.
After all of the worry about getting to our plane on time, the flight was delayed and we had plenty of time to sit down and eat a good dinner before boarding. According to this picture, we also had the luxury of some screen time in the airport while Luke watched himself in the glass ceiling. (Jack did plenty of that too, but in the picture below he's looking at Cat's tablet.)
We arrived in Salt Lake about 45 minutes later that night than originally schedule, but other than that, the trip was very smooth. The kids contentedly watched movies on the plane and when we were finally home, at about midnight Eastern time - which was unfortunately not much later than the kids had been going to bed anyway - we all went right to bed.
The End.
And thus ended a great adventure!
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