Mother Nature Meets Father Time

Did you miss me?

The children experienced their first trip to the clouds, and were completely mesmerized! As we entered the plane, my daughter, who had been vomitting repeatedly all day at the mere thought of leaving the safety and security of the ground, peeked her head inside the airplane with her feet firmly planted in the gateway corridor.

"Do we have first timers?" the flight attendant asked in one of those preschool sqeaky cute voices. Upon affirmation that my children were stepping onto an airplane for the first time in their short lives, the flight attendant ushered them into the cockpit to meet the pilots.

"Where do you push to fire the missiles?" asked my eight year old son, Mason. He showed them his new Mickey Mouse hat, which showcased a huge glitter "M". One piot asked if it stood for "Marines", and of course, all the kids responded, "No, my mom's in the Army, not the Marines."

The pilots would push the buttons and tell the kids to listen as the computer on board sounded, "Check terrain features. Check horizon. Check altitude," and so forth.

"That's stupid," said my little girl, "The plane tells them what to do. Even I could fly this thing!"

Now the flight attendants were just out of site, hanging onto every word as they eavesdropped on the children's conversation. Then the visit to the cockpit came to an abrupt end following the only question my oldest son asked the pilots.

"So you were in the Marines? Did you ever kill anybody?"

The former Marine kind of laughed, but I could tell it bothered him, and then the kids were politely excused from the cockpit to take their seats. I don't know how many times I have told him not to ask people that question, but I guess there is just something about being an adolescent in America these days that makes kids so insistent on asking such things. Of course, I apologized to the pilot, and he said not to worry about it, but I could see the grimace which remained reluctantly on his face, even at the end of the flight.

My youngest took some awesome pictures from his window seat, but his camera was new, and somehow I lost all his pictures in my attempts to download his camera. A few pictures from the trip were salvaged, because they were taken with his sister's camera, which was much easier to download. At least not all was lost.

I forgot to remind the children of the bump at the landing, and they all panicked for a minuted when the plane touched down to the runway, but when they saw we were on the ground again, and in one piece, all was well. I am not sure I will ever be able to get them on a Greyhound Bus again, without much complaint, that is!