We Only Lost One Kid At The Airport

When the triplets were just babies and Ava was four-years-old, she decided that we all needed to go to Hawaii.  I gave her a gentle explanation that sometimes I am a little crazy, but not crazy enough to bring four kids under four years old on a six hour plane ride to Hawaii.

I told Ava that in spring 2012 we would take the entire family to Hawaii.  Upon hearing this exciting news, Ava called 10 different people to invite them on our trip to Hawaii.  She had a lot of takers.

As 2012 approached, Chris and I started to lose our enthusiasm for a big family vacation wore off.  Maybe we could just go to San Diego, we thought.  A trip to Hawaii with all these small children sounded pretty daunting . . .  and expensive.

But when I learned that my entire family and family friends were going to take a trip to Maui over spring break, we couldn’t resist the opportunity.

So here we are on the airplane.  Two adults, four kids, 12 pieces of luggage, three car seats and a booster seat made its way to the airport at 6:30am.  The kids have been very good, minus a few complications.  Preston was having a hard time not swinging his carry on backpack around in circles, subsequently hitting people with it.

We lost Violet in the airport.  We were in line ordering breakfast for everyone when all of a sudden we only saw three kids instead of four.  We did a 360 and could not see Violet.  The really disconcerting part was that Violet was sporting a bright pink polka dot jacket that is easy to see from far away.  My heart sank.  My first thought was what if someone took her for their sex trafficking operation?

I grabbed the three remaining children I hadn’t lost in an airport, and we sat at a table while Chris looked for Violet.  Chris ripped his coat off and got ready to find a missing child.  I was terrified.  Ava began to cry.  Violet is her favorite and she would hate to lose her at the airport.  A couple minutes later Chris arrived carrying Violet and her monkey backpack.

We had a conversation with Violet about staying close to us and not wandering off.  Violet told us that she had gone to the window to look at the airplanes.  She sat there for a minute before returning to the area where we once were.  When Chris arrived back at the spot where we had last seen Violet, she was back looking for us.

Chris and I have set our expectations about this trip appropriately so rather than being disappointed, we may be pleasantly surprised.

Here are our 8 trip expectations:

1. We will be woken up ridiculously early each morning with the 3-hour time change.  Possibly even at 4 o’clock in the morning.
2. I will have very little time to relax and read my book, since there are so many young children to watch in the water.
3. We will have meltdowns in Hawaii (this one is hard to come to terms with).
4. We will have sibling rivalry even in Hawaii.
5. I will be working very hard to keep children fed and clothed and beach equipment organized, just like at home.
6. Even in Hawaii, we will cruise a minivan.
7. The kids are going to have a blast because their favorite thing in the world is playing on the beach.
8. Chris and I are going to drink a lot of Mai Tais.

A week ago I was on the Internet doing some random research on which alcoholic beverage has the most calories, just because I was curious.  I came up with a chart that listed hard alcohol beverages, beer and wine with their accompanying calorie count.

Guess which drink was #1 on the list of alcoholic beverages with the most calorie?  The Mai Tai coming in at 620 calories!  I drank four Mai Tai’s a day when Chris and I were in Kauai last August.  That is 2,480 calories a day. It is no wonder I gained 5 pounds.

Until next time, the Mothership is signing off.