Our Trip-E-mail to Mike if some of this doesn't make sense

Hey, I'm sorry. We got to the hotel at 9:00 last night and I tried to log in with the info. they gave me and it wasn't letting me and Ellyn was getting worked up and Sawyer was crying and I hadn't slept more than three hours in 48 hours, for real.

That was the most exhausting thing I have ever done in my life. Two totally jam packed international airports, a whole new ball game. I am so lucky that Emily came in with me at Frankfurt. We were three hours early and we almost missed our flight. Lifts were broken, we were pushing a loaded jogging stroller and towering luggage cart up escalators or waiting forever for the lift that did work. We had to stand in three different lines and THEN someone (I had talked to about 4 different people with the dogs in their crate balancing on the jogging stroller right in my hand) noticed the dogs and sent us to yet another line where some American school trip was lined up and by now it is 45 minutes before our flight is supposed to leave and I am getting panicked. I went up to a chaperone and a few of the kids and explained the situation and they let us go ahead. So the guy rushes through everything, they take the dogs but don't even have time to charge us for them :), he gives us our stuff and tells us to run. So we ran up another two flights, get everything through security, go through boarding outside the plane, get on, and then look at the tickets.

I had arranged with SATO to have us sit with two kids in front of me and then me, Ellyn, and Sawyer behind. They have us all in single seats all over the plane. So... while the stewardesses are trying to rearrange people Ellyn is getting close to meltdown so I am bending down singing to her and Sawyer is fussy because he's starving and ready to nurse. Finally, they rearrange us, no one except for one guy had readily given up their seats. The guy was really nice, he told me to just start strapping the baby into his own single seat and tell the people next to him they have him for the next 12 hours;). Then... we get all situated and there is an hour delay because they have an extra passenger not accounted for. Yes, it ended up being us, Sawyer to be exact. Sawyer had been given a seat but United had billed Sato for his seat under my name so he wasn't showing up but he had a boarding pass and a seat. AHHHHH!!

We finally took off, the kids did absolutely fabulously. Ellyn let out several happy screams and never slept but they all did so well. Everyone around us totally loved them and by the time we got off everyone was asking to help and playing with Sawyer and complimenting me on my wonderful children. Pretty funny.

Okay, then we go down to baggage claim and wait forever and discover the booster seats and Jane's bag and the two little girls' bag didn't make it (why, with an hour delay?). They have to arrange to get us booster seats, get the name of our hotel, etc... It will all be here today. We pick up the dogs and they are all wet (pee) and miserable. I ask the porter if he will help us get to the car rental and he says he can't, that it is on the air train, but if I will take care of him he will wait for me to go get the car. This is all in English that I can barely understand. I call Hertz from the info. desk to see if they will bring the car to us and that is a big "no." Again, a HUGE international airport, no lovely Charleston hospitality. So the girls and baby and stroller and I take off to the air train which you then ride to the last stop, the car rental center, which is like the check in counters for the airlines. The place is packed, like 25 people in each line, and I have the porter waiting with my stuff and expecting a big tip. Ellyn starts crying because she has pooped and has this mean diaper rash going right now that totally stings, and she is looking at me with these sad eyes and so I tell Jane to wait with the stuff and Sawyer and I'm getting Ellyn out ( she understood right away that we were going to go change her and she was so happy). As I am getting her our a Hertz guy comes up and asks if I am by myself and I tell him yes. He tells me that as soon as I come back from the bathroom to get him from behind the counter. So we change Ellie and I find him and he had already gotten my info and he has everything ready. I ask for a NEVER LOST system that they said online they had available at our airport and they are all sold out. He tells me to start heading south on 101. So we load up in the SUV, down four floors and across the parking lot, and drive back around, to the airport and to our waiting porter. Load up, hand him $25.00 which is all the U.S. currency I have and he is pleased luckily. Then we start to drive. I decide that I definitely need to go get the Odyssey because I have no idea where I am going and so with a stop for a map (when did gas stations stop selling Road Atlas?) and another quick stop for directions that finally put us on the crummy map that I bought, we make our way to the dealership. Jane was my Navi and she did a great job.

Louie had just left for the day, but they called him and he came right back (he had told me on the phone that he would really love it if we could come in on Saturday because Sunday was his day off but he would definitely come in for me- this is when I had told him last week that I was going to try for Saturday). We filled out all the paperwork, Sawyer crawling with Sadie all over the floor, Jane taking care of the puppies and Ellyn in the car. Then Louie followed me over to Hertz to drop off the SUV, he drove us back, giving me a tutorial on the way. He asked if I was ready for the full tutorial, which would take about an hour, and I told him no. He said we could set it up for any time but then we did a quick run down of everything and I think I got most of it. IT IS AWESOME!!!!!! Mike, this car is amazing. So we drove straight to the hotel, checked in, gave Ellyn her meds, Jane took care of the dogs, I tried to get on and couldn't and crashed.