Bill & Diane are Steve's Aunt & Uncle who we adore and admire who truly treat us like their children. We've spent about every third Christmas with them and this year was their year. We got a phone call last January from Uncle Bill asking if we were planning on spending Christmas in seattle that year. We replied, yes, we were and he said, "Great! Would you like to join us in Maui for Christmas?" What?!?! I was in the middle of a debilitating pregnancy, the middle of a dark, cold Jan, and the thought of Christmas with such wonderful cousins in a tropical place just breathed life into our souls! For the entire year. They are the kind of people who envisioned their family doing things like this the first year they were married, then worked like mad to make it happen. Words can't express how blessed we were to join their family for the trip (right now, I would be getting in trouble by Uncle Bill saying - "Stop saying that. You are our family!").
So a years worth of preparation went into this trip for all involved. We planned my maternity leave around Maui. I was scheduled to work Christmas Eve, which would have presented a little dilemma. I felt strongly one day to take a 6 month personal leave of absence for many reasons, but the trip certainly worked into this nicely. The only issue was I literally had to work until my due date (July 1st) to be able to come back to work after the maximum leave time (Jan 1st). The tickets were scheduled to land us in Denver December 30th. Luckily, little Cameron held on until I was induced on my due date. I was scheduled to work on July 1st, so technically that was my first day of leave. When people gawked that I was working 12 hour shifts on my feet during my 40th week of pregnancy, I simply knew I had a reason to hang in there! Yes, I couldn't breathe, walk, eat, sleep or anything else normally, but I was determined to make it. And make it we did!
As before any trip at Christmas time, the weeks leading up were INSANE. Neighbor gifts, ward & class parties, friend gatherings, present buying/giving, caroling and all the wonderful Christmas celebrations still needed to happen - with 4 kids under 8 and one of those an infant!? Santa was notified only stockings in Hawaii, please leave the big gifts at home. Bill & Diane were wonderful to let Anna come along, so she drove us to the airport to embark on our adventure on December 18th, before taking off on her flight the next day. Yes, she missed the San Diego to Maui adventure :).
The travel for 31 people to make it from all over the country to the same flight from San Diego to Hawaii was an incredible undertaking and deserves it's very own blog. The McDonalds have their own style of travel that rocks and has most other people watching in awe :). Diane calls it "traveling McDonald style." This means they travel with as little as possible, spending as little as possible & sleeping as little as possible while having as much fun and sharing as much love as possible. I will explain...
Bill & Diane made it very obvious that we should at all costs avoid the $25 per leg (4 legs totaling $100 per bag) baggage fee and carry on as many bags as possible. Diane sent a detailed list about what we were to bring and what we would buy over there (diapers, sunscreen, etc). So we did very careful packing and between 32 people we only checked 2 bags! We took full advantage of the free diaper bags and strollers as we had 5 babies under 9 months, and carefully packed carry-ons for each of the kids. We flew from Denver to Seattle and began to gather as a family. I tell you what, it was delightful meeting up with each family who was just as excited and had done as much preparation for this adventure. The Mellings were the first ones we saw and oh, what a sweet reunion. Mugs and Mars had made the most awesome shirts that said "On Nona and Papa's Dime and Havin' a Great Time." The word on the street was this trip would delay their retirement at least a year.
As the folks already in Seattle rounded the corner at the airport, the reunion got sweeter and sweeter. It was so delightful to see everyone!!! We flew down to San Diego where Bill and Diane and reserved a motel room per family for all of us. Diane said they got the cheapest rooms that had a shuttle to the airport. Getting all of our car seats, strollers, suitcases and most importantly all 16 kids under 8!! on the shuttle was no small feat. Holy cow. This is a shot of one crew taking a load down the elevator.
This is the first shuttle going with most of the mommies and children and some of the bags, while the daddies and most of the luggage came on the second shuttle.
We did not eat out once. Not once.
After a short sleep, we caught the 5 am shuttle with all bags, gear and children to the airport to catch the 7:15 am flight to MAUI!! We met up with Brett and Sommer who had to leave their house spotless to show during the time they were gone, adding a whole different level of stress. In the airport bagels and fruit was passed out as we waited to check on.
Well, our poor fellow passengers who watched all of our 16 children under 8 board that plane for the 6 hour flight. But the passengers faces were nothing compared to the flight attendant's faces. We threw them for a loop. We had one dear flight attendant who could handle it like a pro, but the rest were frazzled beyond belief. We were introduced to a wonderful new rule that there could only be one infant in an entire row (all 6 seats across). This made for a dilemma to say the least, as no two mommies could be in the same row and if they were someone else had to be holding the baby. This rule alone had the flight attendants flipping out, but then add shuffling of cousins during the flight, distributing our homemade ham and cheese sandwiches and fruit to all 30 of us, restroom trips and passing babies over the seats, I thought they might explode right in front of me. They made an announcement (one amongst many directed at our family) that "Although you may think there are sandwiches for sale, THERE ARE NOT!" Hee-hee. Yes, you can bring grocery sacks of food onto the plane.
This was our one great flight attendant!
The only ones not too stressed out were us! And truly while some kiddos had their moments, overall they did GREAT on the flight over. They had so much fun with their cousins coloring, watching movies, molding play-doh, napping; it really made for a great flight.
This is Blake and Don snuggled up & passed out :).
Kali and Keani loved the orchids the flight attendant gave them.
The true heros of that flight were Bill and Diane. Anytime one of the kiddos started having a hard time Nona and Papa scooped them up and entertained then until things were well again. Then they went onto the next struggling child. Not a break for a minute and they wouldn't have had it any other way. I am pretty sure Uncle Bill never used the restroom the entire flight.
After we landed Uncle Bill worked fast and furious to get rental cars and start shuttling people back to the condos and house. They started with 3 rental cars, but determined after a few days logistically it would be necessary to get 5 rental cars. Oh man, $$$. The 7 of us Allens filled up one whole car, and every time we got in our van I just felt gratitude.
When we all went places this was the scene x 5 other minivans.
The overall miracle about all of this travel was how PATIENT and COOPERATIVE everyone was. There were so many logistics to be worked out constantly and under Bill & Diane's experienced leadership and everyone's cooperation & communication it went off without a hitch.
A couple notes about coming home. Our flights were divided, so on the way back we only had 8 kiddos on the flight. Words can't even express how simple and easy that flight felt compared to going over. I think our "travel strength and tolerance" increased ten-fold on that flight from San Diego to HI. Everything else pales in comparison. Our flight landed around 10 in San Diego and was taking off at 6 the next morning. I told Diane we should just sleep in the airport, but they wouldn't hear of it. I was VERY grateful that night to have a hot shower and safely tuck my kids comfortably in a bed even just for a few hours. She was right. We ordered pizza with the Mellings and Jones and reminisced about the trip after tucking our little ones into bed. Kissing those little ones goodbye as they slept was so sad right then. It had truly been paradise...
But I get ahead of myself....I have a whole trip to record :).
