Miss Keely's Big Adventure

The Boo left on Monday for her adventure in Seattle. It was a heckuva day. We agonized over packing the bass guitar and amp, hoping they were well enough cushioned to survive being thrown around during transport and postively mummifying them with packing tape. We made lists, checked them twice (okay, maybe more...), looked at the time, and headed off...

Now for some reason, they wanted us at the airport 2 hours before her flight left, and it takes us 3 hours to get to Anchorage, so we left town at 2 o'clock for her 7 p.m. flight. A mind-numbing 3 hours later we plastered the musical equipment with 'fragile' stickers (yup, we were still worried), got security passes for Liam and me, and headed to the dreaded security line.

After having everything we owned swabbed for chemical residue (wow, they weren't doing THAT last year!), Keely's book box came up positive for nitro glycerine, and as the parent (and presumed bomber), I was singled out for a pat-down. It was quick and uneventful, however, and we were on our way.

Behind security lines, we still had to figure out how to entertain ourselves for an hour before Keely could board, so we wandered the airport aimlessly, paid waaaaaaaaaaaay too much for some food and a bottle of water (can't bring the water with you, you might hijack the plane with it!) at nigh movie theatre prices, and walked, ran, skipped and jumped back and forth across the moving sidewalk.

Once Keely was on the plane, we still had to wait for half an hour for the plane to lift off before we could go. Poor Liam- he just sobbed when the plane took off, and we stayed and watched it fly away until the tiny speck faded from view...

Then we headed back to the car, crossing multiple escalators (much to Liam's delight), for the long journey home. It was a quiet trip, without Keely and her iPod. And just after we walked through the door, Keely called to say she was there and Worried Mom breathed a big sigh of relief.

We talked to her yesterday, and her adventure is going well- she got to go shopping, see the space needle, watch an Imax movie, get her picture taken next to the world's biggest guitar and who knows what else all in the first day. I don't think she'll ever want to come home. Except for that whole rain thing...

As for us homebound Stevenses, we've been enjoying the awesome sunny spring weather and eagerly anticipating the melting of the snow. It got so warm yesterday that we even had the front door open for a while! Liam, optimistically, decided he wanted to put together our solar car kit, so we did, but we're just too far away from the darned sun to make it work just yet (we'll keep trying!). As for me, I'm waiting to see if my bulbs come up and dreaming of my garden. Guess I'd better get on that seed order, huh? Before we know it, we'll be digging out the trampoline, sculpting earth ovens and building fort-houses for the kids. And, of course, enjoying the midnight sun...if it ever warms up, that is. It was 0 degrees when I woke up this morning- what the heck?

We're all still having fun playing with our MySpace pages; in fact, Keely's becoming quite the little computer geek! She spent the day at the Jones' house before she left, getting Gramma Peggy and Aunt Krystal on the bandwagon too. Everybody seems to be finding long lost friends and getting back in touch, but I must have goofy friends or something (I know, look who we're talking about!), because they're either not there, or they're ignoring me. Here's a big fat raspberry to all the old friends who've logged in, seen my friend request, and done nothing- not even write me!

I suppose I should accomplish something constructive, though, so that's it for now...

See ya soon!
Those Crazy Stevenses