I'm leaving, on a jet plane...

HA! And you thought you were not going to be bugged for 2 weeks! Ryan's mom brought her computer! But, internet access will be limited, so don't get too excited. Anyways, I wanted to share our VERY EXCITED flight to Seattle. Let me preface this by saying, Ryan flew separately on a frequent flyer ticket, I flew with the kids (and lots of carry-on luggage) on a different airline, different route... let me see:

First Lesson Learned: When your husband offers to have YOU fly alone and HIM fly with the kids and carry-on luggage, don't be all "I think I will keep up with the children better than you". Seriously. He hasn't lost them yet, so WHY would today have been any different? And climbing up the flight of stairs after 2 "outdoors" shuttles to the "new terminal" while totting said carry-ons and 2 children will not be too fun... BUT we WALKED outside in California, so it COUNTS for going there!

Second Lesson: There's a reason why our tickets were "cheap". It goes like this: Tampa to Chicago to Los Angelos to Seattle. Long day. I feel like I COULD be a bird.

Ben and Carly are VERY SAFE flyers. Yes, they did read over the emergency instruction card before each LEG of our flights. Every time. And asked questions about EXACTLY where those floatation devices were located. And have YOU ever tried to actually find the "extra life preservers tucked into the side of the seats"? I really saw no "secret compartment". I'm just saying. And we are all VERY clear on how the oxygen masks fall out of the ceiling, even though we never got to witness it. Thankfully. Also, from Chicago to LA, there were 2 pilots sitting BEHIND us (just along for the ride to their next "job")... a little something I like to call "insurance". I'm thinking a few extra can never hurt, right?

We believe this could be the "Painted Plains" or something like that, just before getting to California. I'm going to have to verify that at some point, but still, a cool picture. Obviously out the plane window... we were NOT parachuting.

Special THANKS to the stewardess who gave Ben and Carly FREE $3 gourmet cookies. That was kind... and fortunately did NOT make them hyper. That would NOT have been kind.

Also, a very special shout out to the VERY NICE gentlemen who gladly swapped their middle and window seats for our 2 aisle seats so we could all be in a row together. They were thrilled, and I was thrilled, so everyone wins in that situation.

The Rocky Mountains, which we had never seen before... I'm telling you, this flight might have been LONG, but it had very exciting scenery.

The FIRST time we THOUGHT we saw Mt. Rainier... but turns out, this was near Portland, so NOT what we were looking for... I won't bother posting photos of all the OTHER mountains we THOUGHT were Mt. Rainier.

We were all pretty excited to see this volcano, and if you look closely in the background, THAT volcano is Mt. Saint Helens... Of course, this information was given to us by the pilot, so I'm going to have to trust him on that... But, cool picture, right?

Ok... this actually IS Mt. Rainier... can you see how I got confused? But, right outside of Seattle, so I'm pretty sure about this one.

We all made it safely and are getting ready for our next big adventure...