Trip to So Cal--Day 1 We Made It! Barely.

We've lived up here in Paradise for a year now and we've made short trips down to So. Cal for holidays, but never really had enough time to see all of the people we wanted to see or do all the things we wanted to do. So my cousin got married in July and it was the perfect excuse for me to come down and spend some real time visiting people and hanging out--just the girls and I--Bo couldn't get time off work. :( We spent almost two weeks there and it was quite an experience. Traveling with two kids went pretty smoothly...that is, after we got to the tiny Chico airport 5 minutes after their 30 minute deadline and had to beg for them to let us on the airplane that I could clearly see still sitting right there through the window. If any of you have seen "Meet the Parents"--it was reminiscent of the scene where Ben Stiller is trying to get on the airplane in the empty airport to go back home in the middle of the night. Anyway, they let us on. (I think the crying baby, the excited 3 year old, the stressed out mom look, and the prayers helped my case). The plane ride was fun for Melia. She was so excited--this was the first time she was old enough to really know what was going on and because the plane was so small, we actually got to walk out and climb up the stairs into the plane. We made it to LA and somehow in the year that we've been gone I completely forgot about traffic. I mean, I knew it was still there, but I totally forgot how to plan for it. For example, our flight arrived at LAX at 6:15 and I thought, "Ok, we can be at my mom's house by 7pm so I can feed Naiya and put the girls to bed on time." Silly, silly Laura. By the time my friend Vero, who was giving us a ride, finally got our stroller out of the oddly shaped baggage section (who knew that existed?!), we got two car seats strapped in her car, two kids in the car seats, suitcases in the trunk, and got through the line of cars to pay for parking, we emerged into good old Wednesday evening traffic. But not to fear, we ended up arriving at my mom's house with two crying children just in time to get Melia to bed and to start feeding Naiya at 8:00pm. Only an hour off of my projected time. But really, the only thing that matters is we made it just in time to see "So You Think You Can Dance". :)