Korea

We left Bakersfield at 5:00 in the morning. We made it to LAX with time to spare.  They were going to let both my parents go through security with us but my Mom didn't bring her purse 

 in so my Dad went with us through security, she waited for him at the check in counter. It was very hard to say good bye to my parents. I am going to miss my family so much. We made it on the plane with out any problems. I had a layover in San Francisco we made it there 15 min early. That's great I thought I only had an hour lay over I could use the extra 15 min. To bad we weren't able to land because of weather. We ended up landing  30 min. late we circled the airport for 45 min. The kids and I ran our hearts out to catch our next flight. We made it to the counter 25 min before departure but they had already shut the gates and wouldn't open them. We missed our flight. I got mad, I cried and then I decided that we weren't suppose to be on that flight for a reason. We tried to get onto a latter flight with out any luck. The airline did comp us a hotel stay and they wouldn't for the other travelers who were stuck with us. The manager said she comped mine because Spencer is military and I was flying with my children.

They put us up in the Embassy Suites. It was a really nice hotel on the bay. The weather was hazy so we didn't go out and enjoy the bay but they did have fish ponds inside and we had fun walking around. The boys wanted to go swimming but wouldn't you know it the swim trunks where 20 a pair. I said sorry I can't afford that and the boys were great and didn't throw a fit about not swimming. We ordered in pizza for dinner. Then I read in there brochure that they not only had a breakfast in the morning but a mangers reception in the evening so we decided to see what goodies they would put it. The place was packed with the mangers reception and there was a wedding reception in one of the big rooms that you can rent. We walked around and found the refreshment table pretzles and gold fish crackers. They had a open bar so we filled up our little bowls and headed back to our room for some more TV. We were all a sleep by 8:30 and ready for our flight in the morning. For breakfast they cooked omelets to order. They also had  pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, muffins, cold cereal and tons of fruit. It was the best hotel breakfast I have ever had. The other people staying at the hotel were awesome, one lady helped me find a table and carry my plates of food over and then she went and filled up cups with apple juice for my kids. Then another lady came over to comment our our family and said I see that you finally got your girl I have a friend with 7 boys and 1 girl. She is a sweet Mormon girl I said so am I and then she got her friends and brought her over so I could meet her. it  was nice to see how many wonderful people around. We each took  a box of cereal and a piece of fruit for in the airport.  Then we headed over to the airport 2 1/2 hours before our flight. We got our tickets and headed over to security we waited in line and when it was our turn the people behind us in line waited until we got all of our stuff up on the belt and went through it takes a while when we have to take out our Nintendo DS and my laptop. We found where we waited to board and then the boys had to use the bathroom so back up the stairs we headed. 30 min. later we were back and waiting to board our plane they ended up boarding early and then we sat on the plane and waited. On the plane they feed us 2 meals and brought around drinks and snacks. The kids did great and enjoyed watching movies and being the boss of what they ate and drank.  Christina took a 4 hour nap which was great. I couldn't seem to relax enough to sleep on the plane. We landed a hour early which was great. We had to wait to taxi in because a plane was at the gate we needed. We finally made it after waking up the kids we were ready to head to custom's. A long walk through the plane. I am so thankful for moving walk ways and escalator's. We had to take a train while on the train we had our picture taken with some Korean women they couldn't believe Dillon's bright red hair and everyone else blond hair and how many kids I had. We made it and customs was a breeze after waiting in line. It seemed that my kids where so tired that every line we got into they all laided down on the floor. We got to baggage claim and sat down to wait for Spencer (remember we landed an hour early) and then I realized that I had to go through another security point so to the gate we headed thankfully there was no line and we were able to go right through. There was Spencer and everything fell in to place he had made us a welcome sign and everything (later I found out that they had all the supplies at the airport to make signs) The kids ran and hugged their Daddy and even Christina would go to him. Then came the drive home the kids all fell asleep in the car and we made ok time. We did see one accident where a bus has side swiped a car. The bigger you are the more right of way people have to give you. We arrived at our house and put the kids to bed thankfully Spencer had those all set up and ready to go.