DAY 6: The Adventure comes to an end!

Well, here we are on the last day. (sniff! sniff!) We've had such a fun time I really hate to see it end. The kids have been so good and it's really been nice to spend time with just them and not worry about work and school and other things going on. We had a real bonding moment with our kids. Even Jason commented on how much fun he had! I don't know about you, but packing up to head home is worse than packing to leave. I'm so worried that we are going to leave something behind. Check out was at 11:30 but we wanted to get an early start on the day. We had to leave at around 4 to get to the airport so we wanted to cram as much as we could into our last day. Today we are going to the California Adventure Park. We had a lot more fun than I thought we would. We went to all the shows. First we went on the Monsters Inc. ride. Such a cute ride. We saw the Disney Playhouse show and that was awesome! So much fun for the kids. We went to the Muppet 3D show. I love those 3D things. I had to leave a little early because Nathan was soooo tired but just wouldn't turn it in. So I took him outside because he was crying and by the time everyone came out (which was like 5 minutes later) he was zonked. We saw the Aladdin show. That was fun, but a really long one. The Genie was trying to be funny...but not. You know how they are. Disney is really cheesey sometimes! We stopped for lunch and had some yummy hot dogs with lots of stuff on them. What else did we do?....Oh! We went to Bug's Life and that was fun. Their 3D show was kind of scary for the kids because it gets really dark and then they hit you with bees and such. It's just air but it feels real. During one of the "scary" moments I looked over to where Maddie was sitting next to me and she wasn't there! I kept feeling around for her and finally found her ducking for cover on the floor. It was so funny. I really wish I could have taken a picture of that! They have some really cute rides for the kids in the Bug's Life area. The kids liked the rollercoaster and bumper cars. Then it was time to start heading back. I had to pick up some hats that were being printed for me over at Disneyland so we needed to make our way over there and then load up for the airport. Like I said, we didn't have a lot of time today. We went to the gift shops so the girls could get their souvenires. Maddie chose a really fun Ariel locket and Emma chose a Cinderella locket. Ok, so now the REAL fun begins! Loading up the car was quite the chore. We didn't factor in how many pieces of luggage we had PLUS the stroller. So we all had to share our leg room with suitcases and such. The drive was fun to the airport. We got to do a little site seeing while we were at it. The Long Beach Airport is really small and kind of po-dunk if you ask me. The kids had to help with the luggage and car seats. Emma decided that she could help best by screaming and crying about it the whole time. I think that things might not have been so stressful if she hadn't been throwing a fit. But she's got such a high pitch ear piercing scream and cry that just really hurts your head. So, that's how it began. There were no employees there to help us get into the right line and they weren't marked very well. There were two very nice gentlemen who helped us with our luggage but when it was our turn to go to the counter the lady informed me (quite rudely) that we were in the wrong line. So I kind of snapped back that this was our first time here at this airport and that there was nobody here to help us. Most of the people there were in our line anyway so we figured there was really only one line. Anyway, after that she was very sweet to me. Turns out that one of the employees just up and left. I overheard the lady talking to someone else about it. Nathan started to get fussy because it was time for him to eat and he was tired. So, we had two screaming children, a truckload of luggage and the two of us trying to get it all situated. We finally got all the luggage checked but the kids were still crying. Then came the security. Man oh Man what a hassle. They took my bottle of sunscreen that we forgot to pack in the suitcase because we had it with us at the park and said that it was too big. She told me I could go back and check it or throw it away. I told her to just throw it away because I'm not that desperate for sunscreen to go and check it! Then we had to all strip down again and the girls had on a lot of jewelry at this point. I had to fold down the stroller and strip Nathan, go through, then set the stroller back up and gather all of our stuff and try to get us to the terminal. Fortunately I'm a wiz at the stroller and can do it one handed! Anyway, Emma is still crying all through this and so is Nathan. We get over to the "terminal", it really looks like a waiting room with a little cafeteria and the girls of course tell me that they are hungry. We sit down and I whip out some minnie mouse cookies that I had secretly bought for them and then they were quiet. While I was trying to get Nathan's bottle ready a man came up to me and said that if it was alright with me he had gone ahead and purchased suckers for the girls. I almost burst into tears at that moment. I told him he was so sweet and gave him many thank you's. The girls loved their suckers. So, Maddie had her balloon with her that we told her could not go on the plane, but we let her carry it as far as it could go. Then another meltdown because she didn't want to let it fly away and she didn't want to pop it either. So I suggested that maybe we could let the air out of it and save the pink mickey balloon in the middle to blow up later. Ok, so mom's know that you say things to get them to just do what you want. Jason kind of gave me this look like "you can't be serious. There is no way we are going to blow this thing up again." I gave him the look that said "just do it and I will deal with it later." So, being the awesome father that he is, he took care of it and you could still tell that it was a mickey balloon when he was finished with it. She gladly took it and stuck it in her bag. Phew! Another crisis averted. Thankfully one of the employees came over to me and helped me get the stroller checked and then we were one of the first ones on the plane. We flew Jet Blue home and I have to tell you, I REALLY liked them. Each seat has their own t.v. and they give you the whole can of soda instead of just the cup and they had a bunch of different snacks to choose from. The girls thought they were so special. And guess who was sitting behind me? The nice gentlemen and his friend who bought the girls the suckers. The kids behaved themselves on the plane and we had a smooth ride home...until the turbulance hit. It was pretty bad. Well, we were coming home to a nice big rain storm! Anyway some of the drinks spilled because the flight attendants weren't able to get to everyone with the trash bags soon enough but the girls did really well during it. The lady behind us was kind of freaking out and I had a hard time keeping my giggles quiet. All in all, the experience with Jet Blue was really good. AAHHH, HOME! We landed and got our stroller which was wet from the rain but not too bad. We got our luggage...except for Nathan's bag. A few other people were missing bags as well. We flagged down an employee and he went off to find someone to help us because the baggage claim office was closed. As he went down the hallway I happened to notice that something opened up on the wall and out came a bag and the employee went over to get it. It was our bag! Phew! The other people were wigging out and asking us where we found our bag and I told them and set the pack of wolves onto the poor employee. Grandma Childs came to get us and we headed home. With only one more stop...McDonalds. We were starving! So we ate, unpacked a little and went to bed. We were so happy to finally be home and sleep in our own beds and dream about all the fun we had. I can't wait to go again in two years for Emma's birthday! **FYI-Maddie did ask me for about a week after we got home to blow up her mickey balloon. I went through the motions of trying to blow it up and then Jason tried and then we had Maddie try, but in the end, we couldn't do it (surprise, surprise). She was a little disappointed but I told her we could hang it up on her wall if she wanted to. Here we are a month later and she's forgotten all about it.**