Oh, boy, I was looking through the pictures for our latest Grand Adventure, and we have so, so many pictures! Like hundreds, no exaggeration. Maybe it's because this was the closest we've come (so far!) to a real, week-long vacation, complete with airplane travel and a hotel room? Or maybe it was because this Adventure was to see CG, and we took tons of pictures because the moments with her are too fleeting and we were trying to hang on as tight as we could? Whatever it was I have tried to narrow it down, I really have. The best I can do is break it up into three parts and try not to overload you at once.
June's Grand Adventure had been planned very far in advance, we went to California to see our beautiful California Girl graduate from high school! Because of time, money, and PTO restraints, we were only able to get away for 2 days, but we decided to make it work anyway and off we went. Our flights were super early on Tuesday morning, June 3, so the evening of June 2 we drove to Marquis's parents' house to sleep over so we would be closer to the airport.
The little girls were super excited, but the early morning flight made them a little sedate.
It was way too early to even put on makeup yet! Sorry people, it's just not happening.
This was Princess's first flight ever, and Marquis got a hilarious series of pictures of her reaction to takeoff:
We flew to LAX Airport to change planes, and hung out for a few hours, snacking and exploring while waiting for our next flight.
After our layover, we boarded the next plane and got ready for the second flight. And this is where things got exciting. Or super boring, however, you want to look at it. Princess immediately fell asleep, which is probably a good thing because we sat on that airplane for about an hour before the pilot came over the intercom and said that he was sorry, but there was a big electrical problem and that plane wasn't going anywhere. Our schedule was super tight that day, we were already planning to drive straight to the graduation, but we couldn't do anything about it so we deplaned with everyone else and went to the new gate number they gave us, only to wait some more while they got a new plane ready.
Finally they let us get on board and we took off. A lady on the flight mentioned to us that she had been starting to get really upset and angry over the delay, and then she looked over and noticed how calm and happy we were, especially the girls, and decided that if those cute girls could be patient, she could too. So sweet!
Finally we arrived, grabbed our rental car as fast as we could, and got on the road. While waiting to deplane we had entered the address into the GPS, and as we started down the road toward the graduation, it said our estimated time of arrival was 3:40 p.m. The graduation started at 3:30. AAaaahhh!!!!! Suddenly Marquis turned into a driving ninja, weaving in and out of cars while I prayed for safe travel and no cops. I kept watching the time on the GPS, watching our estimated time of arrival go from 3:40 to 3:39, then 3:38, and on and on. Marquis kept shaving off minutes until we arrived and parked at about 3:28.
Right as we were getting the girls out of the car, Princess announced that she had to go potty. Of course! We ran into the building as fast as we could, and there was CG all lined up in the hallway ready to go. (Sorry for the blurry pic, we were in a hurry! She's the one in the middle with the long, blonde hair.)
The bathroom was behind her, so Princess and I snuck in a hug as we ran there and back out again. When that was finally done, we opened the doors to the auditorium, and right as we started down the aisle, the commencement music started. The graduates marched down the aisle right after us. We made it by the skin of our teeth! You just can't time it any more closely than that! Thankfully some seats were being saved for us, and we had made it in time to watch our beautiful daughter graduate. We are so proud! (She's the one on the far right, this is when she was called up for having an awesome GPA.)
(Again, she's the blonde on the far right, waiting for her turn. Sorry for such blurry cell phone pics!)
(Picking up her diploma and shaking the long line of hands.)
As soon as they could, the littles grabbed their big sister, knocked off her cap and messed up her hair. She was very happy to see them too, and didn't seem to mind a bit!
This young lady on the far right is CG's other sister from her mom's house, so all the sisters all together. I don't know what Princess was doing with her face here, she was happy all through this, I just happened to catch her one grumpy face.
And that was just the first few hours of our Grand Adventure, more to come soon!
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