Let me tell you about the Longest Day Ever.  It started at 4:45a.m. central time.  We rose, gathered children and luggage, and drove about 20 minutes to O’Hare Airport.  Our flight was a little after 8.  We thought we were good.

However.

Instead of our usual habit of Josh dropping me, the children, and the luggage off at the front doors, we decided to go with him to economy parking and take the train back.

And, in case you were wondering, this is how our family of five packs for a week:

(Notice the orange glow of the sunrise on his face. T’was early.)

And let’s not forget this precious cargo:

What we didn’t realize was that dragging that much baggage from parking to bag check takes twice as long as does one lone man sans children.  Because of the two baggage carts and double jogging stroller, every time we encountered an escalator (um, which was A LOT), we had to take the elevator.  And we didn’t all fit in the elevator.  So it took two trips.  Every time.

But we finally made it to the check-in area.  Josh went to check us all in using those Handy Dandy Computers.  But those Handy Dandy Computers only accepted his ticket and refused the other four.  So we stood in line for half an hour to talk to a Real, Live, Handy, Dandy Person.

But we finally made it to a Real Live, Handy, Dandy Person.  And handed her our tickets.  And something beeped.  And she frowned.  And she told us we were too late.  Even though it was still 40 minutes until our plane would take off, we had just missed the deadline for checked luggage.  And, ahem, we had too much for all carry-on.  But!  She said we could go stand in That Line Over There to talk to someone about possibly checking our baggage anyway.

So we went and stood in That Line Over There.  Twenty minutes later, we discussed our problem with another Real Live Handy Dandy Person Who Had Slightly More Pull Than The Last One.  And she said it was too late.

We kinda figured by that point.

But she told us we could fly stand-by.  Which would mean going from gate to gate trying to squeeze onto any plane flying to Denver that day.  And possibly flying separately.  She told us that our chances were excellent for flying out that day.  However, the best odds were with the flight taking off at 8pm that night.

Hmmm.

Well, we checked our baggage and gave it a shot.

We didn’t fit on the first one.

And one of the smiling children in the above photograph had already had a toy thrown away (yes, thrown away) for repeatedly hitting his sister with it.  (It was just a Happy Meal Toy.  Relax.)  And another one of those smiling children was going absolutely berserk with excess energy from riding in a stroller all morning [slash] severe nap denial.  When I put him down, he would run screeching through innocent by-standers legs.  When I picked him up, he would crawl over my shoulder and I would have to grab him by his foot to keep him from falling on his head.  And then he would giggle gleefully while dangling upside down in that position.

And in that position, I carried him to the closest Starbucks.

Mama needed a latte.

And we headed for the second gate.  Praying all the way.

And we got on!  All of us!  Praise be to God.  Even better, Levi and I got economy plus seating!  Perfectly spacious enough for me to nurse the little crazling (Pronunciation: CRAYZ-ling.  Definition: Crazy child.)  into a coma that lasted until we touched down in Denver a few hours later.

We managed to make it with all our luggage and all our children to the rental car place:

(Which is more than we can say for the return trip….)

(I can see you’re not going to let that one go until I give more detail.  Don’t worry, we didn’t forget any children.  Just that pink bag with all Olivia’s clothes in it.  And all our movies.  Every.Single.Movie.  And it was all our fault, too.  When we got off the train to return to economy parking, we left it in that little building.  When we called about it upon our return to our house, nobody had found it.   We figured it was a lost cause.  But when we called a week later, they had it in lost and found!!  We just got it back yesterday.  Again, praise be to God!)

So!  We were finally in Colorado.  And ready to tackle the mountains.  And not in a minivan:

Oh yeah.  Into the mountains!  We made a couple impulse iTunes purchases in the name of John Denver and we were OFF.

One stop to the grocery store and three hours later, we had doubled our elevation from the Mile High City and rolled into heaven, just in time for the sunset:

Bonus Picture:  Josh is confused why the bag would vacuum seal itself.  Apparently elevation is supposed to have the opposite effect?  Any answers?