Bye Vancouver

Well, we made it to Maui.

I don't know how we will do it when it is just me and Cyp. As it is, it took my mom and Johnny to entertain Ellis (and hold Rowan on the plane). I won't even mention the luggage. I'm hoping the toilet paper I brought from home (to use in Hawaii as last year we had to buy it) takes a lot of space. Did I mention I'm cheap?

Yesterday feels like a long time ago.

The morning started out fairly similar to the past few weeks. Wake up - butterflies in stomach and shoulders tense. I finally managed to get every piece of detritis into a suitcase and headed off to the store to get plane supplies and wash mom's car. Ran into Margaret (what are the odds of that) and got to say goodbye again and then circled Richmond to try to get to a car wash that I could see but could not navigate too. It was painful.

Finally got home to a mom that had started to imagine me and Ellis scattered all over 2 Rd. in an accident. I inherited the worry gene from my mom. Sigh.

Had turkey lunch at Aunt Susie's so got to say goodbye to the cousins again (and Stanley).

Tracey et al arrived and we decided to head to the airport early (good thing). Our luggage barely fit into Tracey's truck. I think that is when it dawned on my that I had too much stuff.

List of stuff:

2 big suitcases

My clothes

Ellis's clothes

jolly jumper

swim float for Rowan

shoes

sling for Rowan

booster seat for Rowan

2 beach balls, one beach ring, one frog

bathroom lotions and potions that I could not bear to toss

one turtle halloween costume

one spiderman halloween costume (no Halloween in Australia)

US coins

Assorted batteries

2 purses

flashlight

sunscreen

wipes

oh yah - toilet paper

2 med suitcases

All of Ellis's clothes

All of Rowan's clothes

2 small carryons

toys for Rowan

toys for Ellis

Diaper bag

Backpack (books, jewelry, makeup and plane food)

laptop

2 Extra bags checked by parents

more clothes

one bag carrying marbleworks donated by Susie, RJ and Jiuna (yay)

Plus - diapers went into my dad's checked luggage.

Bob the stoller

baby backpack

2 huge carseats

Hmm.

The people that were behind us in the check in line had this look of disgust on their faces. It seemed there were a lot of people with kids.

Their look seemed to say "that family is the reason why there is climate change"

The Westjet staffperson didn't bat an eye - she was great! She even offered to help us cart our luggage to where it went down the chute. I did try to say in a really loud voice "We're emigrating to Australia directly after this trip - that's why I have all this stuff" but I don't think anyone was buying it.

I should mention that I had Ellis strapped into Bob and Rowan in the baby backpack on my back. Both children were being very vocal in their dissent.

There was a sense of relief as our stuff got sent down the chute, yet it still seemed like we were a traveling cargo train. Thank goodness some of my family travels light so I could pawn off two carryons to Johnny and mom.

US customs did not bat an eye about no husband going with me and we went sailing through. I phoned Cyp to let him know that he could leave the airport grounds only to discover that he had left. He did not inherit a worry gene.

Plane ride was mostly uneventful - some turbulence (during which I imagine plane going down). Other than that I sat there for 6 hours counting down - wasn't wearing a watch so would wait a while and then ask - what time is it? Only to find out there were still 5.5 hours to go.

How many hours is it to Sydney?????

Ellis managed to keep himself awake the entire ride until about the last 10 minutes.

Disembarked plane. Ellis discovered that there was a yellow brick line to follow. Information board in the way? Don't worry - commando crawl under it. We were the last to the baggage claim.

This was when it got more circus like.

I had Bob stroller (baby backpack balanced on top - Rowan inside)

One luggage cart - $3!!! (I decided the Maui airport could use the money) upon which were piled 2 large carseats and one large bag.

Dad carted big suitcase, medium suitcase and his own suitcase.

Mom had 2 med suitcases and one extra bag.

Johnny had carseat, carryon, big bag and was minding kids

Tracey had her bags.

We were congratulating ourselves on being able to get everything to the shuttle when mom piped up "where's the blue bag with the marble works?"

#@$@#%! Dad went running back to get the one lonely bag circling on the baggage claim. Yay mom - hey - that's a pretty good feat of memory especially as it was about midnight.

Shuttle came (of course it was long after all the other car rental shuttles had come and gone) and luckily we were the only ones on it as it was full. I think this is when we were contemplating how much it would cost to rent another car.

We managed to fit (Johnny had to dismantle Bob and carry it on his lap) and Ellis and Rowan finally fell asleep.

We made it to the condo (I was a tad worried - I think dad was pretty much asleep too). My stuff got carted in first - hooray.

Ellis slept right through. I managed to cart him upstairs to the kingsized bed before passing out myself.

This morning he woke up and said "Grandma and Grandpa's house changed"