Big trip

 So we've been saving for a big family trip for years now.  We decided that we wanted to take our kids some places before any of them left the house and now that they're all old enough to remember some of it.  We had put together a list of places that we wanted to go as a family and then watched prices of tickets on some sites.  That coupled with the fact that my Aunt and Uncle are serving a mission in Lisbon, Portugal we ended up going to Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco.  

When we left Utah, we got this picture... we were glad to go.  But now that we're back... 45 degree weather is freezing compared to the 95 degrees that we left.  One of the things that was nice about being out of the country was being away from the politics going on right now. We saw one gay pride flag the entire 3 weeks... we didn't hear a peep about how horrible the right or left wing people are... and most of the men that we saw are real men... none of the dying your hair and painting your nails kind of thing. It was mentally refreshing.

My amazing parents got up early to drive us to the airport.  First we flew through Houston, TX... then to Paris, France and into Madrid, Spain. The kids took turns doing their online and paper worksheets for school.  Overall, everyone was able to stay up on their schoolwork except for Ada's math class.  She has 4 tests to make up and he has yet to send her any materials to review for the tests. Frustrating.  

Houston was lots of walking, but they saw that we might miss our connecting flight in Paris because our plane was late so they helped us get a new flight that would give us time to get there.  They also noticed that Jer was walking with a cane and offered him a wheelchair.  They put it in their notes for all the other flights that he needed some assistance.  That was nice because they streamlined us getting through lines and customs quickly.  Jer was not up for standing the whole day.  We didn't have enough time to leave the Paris airport and with all the riots going on, we had little inclination to leave it as well. In Paris, the assistant was all business and didn't care that Jer had a whole family following him through the airport. I had to work hard to help Seth and Evelyn with their bags and walk as fast as I could to stay within eyesight distance of them.  Jer had to remind the guy to wait for us several times. We got to our next flight with 3 hours to spare, so we took turns wandering the shops and looking at the food.  We did get some yummy chocolate pastries and some macaroons while we were there. In Madrid it was a different story.  The guy paused at the bathroom to let us take a break before taking us all the way across the airport and talking to several people to find out where our rental car company was located at.  He was amazing and kind.  He was tickled pink when I asked what we should see and eat while in Madrid. 

Houston

Paris

Paris

The flight from Paris to Madrid was smaller, so they bussed us from the terminal out to the plane.  We did the whole climb the stairs into the little plane on the tarmac thing.