A Total Worldwhind.

Though I carried my huge camera with me the entire journey, are you surprised to hear that I never once paused mid course, traveling from Korea to America, alone with four kids to snap a photo to remember?  I'm not.  There are some things best forgetten, and it's not like I needed photographic evidence to remember the magnitude of the situation.  It was imminently clear to me as I kissed the Major good-bye at security that it was going to be a VERY long journey. 

But what can I say now?  We are here, and mostly all of the travel wounds are healed.  And to tell you the truth, nothing horrendous happened (unless you view the disappearance of a 1-year old DSi as horrendous.  All things considered, I don't). 

But I will tell you something else, when you are the only adult traveling alone with four kids, you don't find many opportunities to fall asleep either.  So the greatest casualty by the end of the journey was my incredible fatigue.  But masked by the jet lag, it wasn't anything spectacular.  I was just really, really exhausted.  After all, we traveled for  something like 18 hours before landing in Seattle.  That's just a long time!

Really though, by the time we were at Baggage Claim in Seattle I was nearly in tears with how well behaved my kids had been.  Not that it prevented me from yelling at someone for spilling the contents of their backpack, or chastising someone else for playing "tag" while we were waiting for luggage.  But when I took a moment to think about what I had just required of my children, I was swelling with pride.  They did remarkably well. 

Our 24-hour layover in Seattle was a welcome relief.  One of my best friends from High School, Kat, now lives in Seattle with her cute family.  When she heard we were headed to an Airport hotel for the day, she absolutely forbade it, and drove her mini van and little ones to come pick us up!  Though I felt terrible imposing on her hospitality, I had to quickly admit that it was the best thing that had happened to me in the past 24 hours!  That was such a fun layover!! 

A quick flight to Utah the next morning (where Jane and Ruby were both bracing themselves that we might not land in Utah until the next day, since that had been their experience up to that point), had us eating lunch at Provo's In-n-Out and browsing the racks of both Gamestop and The Disney Store all by the late afternoon.  Remarkable! 

After two days of serious retail therapy and a much need hair cut AND color (photos to come soon!), we were all starting to feel the joy and triumph of our journey.  We are now happily settling into the real pace of summer vacation. 

P.S.  Nature walks, ice cream on demand, and late bed times are plentiful at Grandma's house.  In case you were wondering!  We are eagerly anticipating the return on the Wiley cousins this week to introduce a whole new level of excitement! 


P.P.S.  WE MADE IT!