Marana Grays Invade Orlando, Florida

May 31, 2012
We arrived at the Tucson International Airport ready to take off and begin our Summer Vacation.  We had our boarding passes in hand, we had our luggage and carry-ons packed and ready to check and we were all ready to escape the Tucson heat.  We enter the airport and make our way through the Priority (A-List) check-in line at Southwest airlines and the counter employee asks for proof of identification for our lap child Emelia.  I look at Tony, he looks at me and we each ask each other if the other one brought her Immunization card to which we each responded..."I thought you packed it."  DOH, our first travel foul!!!!  We both forgot her birth certificate and/or Immunization card.  The whole time as we were preparing and packing for our trip, I kept asking him "Do you have our boarding passes and park tickets?" assuming that he would have remembered to include items for Emelia.  He kept asking me, "we are bringing Emelia's Immunization Card, right or are we bringing her Birth Certificate?" to which he assumed that I was going to pack one or the other.  But neither one of us asked the most important question of all "Did you pack the Immunization Card/Birth Certificate?"

What to do, what to do?  We were leaving in about 1 hour.  Do we try to pay for her ticket?  Do we try to use points that Tony had accumulated?  Does someone stay behind and go back home and get her information and then take a later flight?  The flights were completely full and sold out.  We slightly began to panic.  Fortunately, the counter employee asked if we could get the Pediatrician's office to fax her immunization card over to us.  Fortunately, our flight left at 9:30am and we didn't take the 6:30am flight out like we normally would.  Fortunately, the stars aligned and the travel Gods were on our side.  So after making 4 frantic calls to the Pediatrician's office they got the information faxed to the ticket agent and we were able to get through security and board our plane with time to spare!  We completely need to send the office staff a care package for our gratitude!

Take-Away from that experience:
1.  There's no use getting mad at each other.  We had a complete breakdown in communication.

2.  Always carry the Pediatrician's phone number AND fax number with you when you travel.

3.  Always double check that you have not only the boarding passes but also all proof of identification for EACH child.

The remainder of our commute was uneventful.  We made it safely into Orlando, Florida.  The kids did great on the plane.  Emelia slept on both legs of the flight and didn't cry at all due to the pressure build up in her ears and the older kids were cooperative and helpful with her.  We then drove to our hotel, Springhill Inn and Suites, ate dinner at Denny's, got showered up and went to sleep.

We Flew Through Six Months of Time!

School is almost over for the older 3 kids.  Anthony gets out on May 25, while Jackson and Taylor get out on May 24.  Emelia is running and talking now.  Life is busy busy busy and non-stop.

Recently on May 18, Jackson and Taylor each participated in their school's talent show.  Taylor sang "Part of Your World" and Jackson did his part of his TaeKwonDo form and double Soel Joel Bohng's set to music.  They did so well and got many compliments from the parents and kids at school.

Anthony turned 11 years old on the 19th.  It's hard to believe that my scrawny 6lb. baby is almost as tall as I am and weighs 100 pounds!  He must have grown 1/4" over night between his birthday and the day after because when he went to bed I could look directly at his forehead and now we are almost seeing eye to eye!

Here are some pictures of what the kids look like now and videos of the kids from the talent show.: