DAY 7....GOING HOME...SO SAD....

well, today is the day....we leave PARADISE for our own personal paradise....HOME!! alex keeps verbalizing what we are all thinking....I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!! yeah, we are all sad to be leaving KNOWING that are 'ONCE IN A LIFETIME' is over!!! but oooohhhhh the joy, fun and BLESSINGS we had and recieved during our stay is what is amazing.....i can't believe that was us and how much fun we had. we lived EVERY SINGLE DAY to it's FULLEST and the kids just had a BLAST!!! they enjoyed it all!! and this AMAZING BLESSING that we recieved was all made possible thru the MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION!!! that post is coming up about them SOON!

sooo, we started our day by making packing all our bags into the van, making sure that we had everything out of the villa before we left....then we packed up the kids and headed out to check out...awwwww....very bittersweet because i sat in the seat that we sat at when we FIRST arrived....after donating the extra stuff we had, we recieved our package and HEADED OUT!!! we were rushing (as usual) because we had forgotten to gas up the night before so we passed where we were suppose to gas up and ended up going to the MCDONALDS and getting breakfast, then going back to gas up and then we were OFF....and we were RUNNING!! yes, we were suppose to be at the airport BY 1000....well, we didn't get there till 1030!!! :( sooo, we were rushing to get EVERYTHING out of the rental van and onto one of those dolly's and then WAIT for the person to come get the keys etc from the rental place.....AVIS by the way....and then we were off!!! did we know where!? of COURSE not! we felt like a couple of chickens without HEADS!!! sooooo, we head off to check in and we are hurrying, not YET running but pretty close....so we finally find the AIR TRANS office and OF COURSE we didn't pre-check in at GKTW....yeah, we are NOT season flyers!!!! soooo, we stand in line with the other 10+ families ahead of us and i am starting to PANIC just a bit...as the time moves CLOSER to 1100....our plane leaves at 1153!!!!! soooo, we FINALLY get all that, check in our bags and off we go towards GATE 18.....so our nurse told us was our gate...so we travel to gates 1-50 and as i am standing in front of security READY to start the process, THANK GOD, james decides to look at the ticket the nurse was looking at and found out that we were in SEAT 18 and acutally.....ready for this.............GATE 97!!!!!!!!!! CAN YOU SAY OOOOOHHHHHHHHHH SSSHHHHHH*******@@@@@@@@@@@!!!! AND it was not just a bit a ways, it was CLEAR ACROSS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AIRPORT!!!!! so, NOW we were RUNNING!!!!! just imagine, 3 adults, 3 kiddos one in a wheelchair another in a stroller, 4 carryons, one camera bag, one feeding bag, a blankie, a stuffed animal alex one AND A CAR SEAT....RUNNING ACROSS THE TERMINALS TO GATES 51-100!!! if that tells you HOW big this place was, nothing else will!! soooo, we FINALLY get to the security check point and we are sweating, freaking out knowing that we have a little over 30 mins before the plane leaves.....we look like a comedy group trying to get shoes off, fold up strollers, get our carry ons off our backs and onto the belt try to get everything done in MINUTES when we KNOW that it takes A LOT of minutes....OMG, it was 1130 and they stopped james carry on because of matthews formula....so FINALLY we are OFF and RUNNING LIKE CRAZY for the gate and OF COURSE the gate is not the FIRST ONE...ooooohhhhh no, it is WAY OVER THERE....so we FINALLY get there at about.....you ready for this......1140!!!! they were waiting for us and you have to remember we have ALL this stuff with us we have to stow AND we have 3 kids, 2 strollers that we had to BREAK DOWN and then put everyone in the plane....ok, did i MENTION we were the LAST ONES ON THE PLANE?!?!?! yeah, we ALMOST missed it!!! as we came down the VERY narrow aisles, we are that family that all you see is the people DUCKING because backpacks, kids feet, etc are going THRU!!! as we all finally get sorted out, everything SHOVED where ever we could and everyone is sitting where they are suppose to be....there we sit, AIR DUCTS BLASTING, faces SWEATING, out of breath.... we are FINALLY on our way HOME!!!!!! and boy, AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME....we were READY to go home!!!!! after all that crazyness, THANK YOU GOD, we made our layover, ended up getting home on time....and the boys were excited to be home....ME TOO for that matthew....we had an AMAZING time and had SOOOO MUCH fun and we just felt sooooo BLESSED to have been BLESSED with such an AMAZING ONCE IN A LIFETIME VACATION!!!! :) THANK YOU GOD FOR GETTING US HOME SAFETLY and THANK YOU GOD for MATTHEW'S MAKE A WISH TRIP!!! :)

JOSHUA looking out the window to the CLOUDS!!


THANK YOU GOD, we made it HOME!! :)


this is ALLLLLL OUR LUGGAGE!!! YIKES!