Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, we are on the plane now heading to Los Angeles. We said goodbye to great friends, our house, our cars and our coworkers. Of course, moving is horrible, so I was up very late finishing the packing and cleaning.

I'm so lucky to have some amazing friends. So many people came to say goodbye. Rosie came and gave all the kids hair cuts

and cut my wig (which I've been meaning to do for 11 months!). Two amazing women stayed with me until after midnight, packing like champs, and cleaning up the house. I can't express how much their help means to me.We all got up at 3:00 AM to get ready to leave for the airport at 3:30. We had one van stuffed with suitcases, Daniel's car was stuffed with suitcases, and we had another van to get me and the kids to the airport.

When I checked 11 bags and three booster seats this morning at sky cap, they felt so bad for me. Even though a few were over weight, they let it slide. I didn't even have to cry.

The security line was longer than I have ever seen in Denver. The line ended up only taking about 34 minutes to get through and the line to the sky cap took about thirty minutes, so I was glad we got there two hours early.

Security, of course, was a nightmare. The kids had tons of snacks so they had to check all the food one by one. No liquids but whatever. I feel much safer that they inspected my chocolate covered pretzels.

Finally that ordeal was over and we headed down the escalator...only to find that Rivka left her suitcase at security. So I ran up the down escalator and retrieved her bag.

We got on the train two minutes later, yay! Then we almost got trapped in the train when the doors closed aggressively fast. But we were able to get out.

Even though we got to the gate only as they began boarding, we were able to all sit together. We were B5-10, but with security so crazy, most of the A people weren't there to board. Yay!

Sima almost had a panic attack because she thought she lost her kindle, but it was in her backpack the whole time. We were all super tired and edgy.

So we finally sit down, we are about to take off, and the pilot comes on the intercom. Apparently, the co-captain's headset wasn't working. We waited over an hour for that to get sorted out. Happily, we were flying Southwest, so they let us off the plane to go to the bathroom, which was a real life-saver for the kids. Of course, they told the kids to hurry because when they were ready to take off, they would leave, whether we were there or not. Well, naturally, that made Yaakov not even want to use the bathroom. I was able to convince him that we would be fast enough and there was nothing to worry about. 

After all this fun, starting at 3:00AM, we finally took off at 7:30 Denver time. We arrived in LA at around 8:30 LA time. Daniel's dad picked us up in a big pickup truck he rented from Home Depot. It was totally brilliant, since it was able to hold all 11 checked bags and the many, many carryons and backpacks. Daniel's mom came with her car and took all the little kids.

Everyone is super tired now, since no one has slept in ages. We are going to the beach in a few minutes. Daniel is making great time on his drive and he should be arriving today by 8! I was able to get about 5 hours of work in, so that was great. Plus, we got our visas! We are officially ready to go. We have all the paperwork. Yes, they did misspell our names, and amazingly, the shaliach noticed when she picked them up from the embassy, and even more miraculously, she was able to get them corrected on the spot!

Good bye Denver, hello LA!