Day 8 – Today started a little bit earlier than the rest of our days since we needed to get to the airport to fly home! We got dressed, had a quick breakfast at the B&B, finished packing and got on the road. It ended up taking us about 2 hours to drive to Philadelphia since we were driving at the same time as some of the commuters.

We checked our bags and got our boarding passes. The limit weight for luggage is 50 pounds and one of our bags ended up weighing in at 50 pounds! I guess if it had been over, we could have transferred a couple of things to another bag. We made our way to security. Kelsey and I went though one way and Kev and Matthew went another way. We breezed right through and were wondering what was taking Matthew and Kev so long. I guess they looked through Matthew’s backpack because they were concerned about his roll of quarters he still had!!

We were not able to get boarding passes ahead of time since we did not have access to the internet while we were here. Since our boarding passes were letter ‘C’ and we learned from the flight out, Kelsey and I pre-boarded so she would not have to sit next to two strangers. Kev and Matthew ended up somewhere towards the back of the plane. Once everyone was on the plane and we got towards the runway, we ended up waiting for about 20 minutes while 18 other planes took off ahead of us. The pilot informed us that the City of Philadelphia decided to close one of the two main runways that morning so that the grass could be mowed around the runway! He also told us that Philadelphia is one of the most congested airports to fly out of in the country. We will have to remember that for next time!!

Our flight to Las Vegas was over 5 hours long. That is a long time on an airline that doesn’t serve much to eat! Kelsey and I spent the time organizing some of my photos on my memory card and helping her get started making her Storybook from the trip.

The landing in Las Vegas was a little rough so Kev wasn’t feeling too good when we landed. We found some food to eat since we really hadn’t eaten much since early that morning.

Once we got to Oakland, we decided to drive straight home rather than stop for dinner. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up milk, bread, eggs, lunch meat, and ice cream!! Kev had a sandwich for dinner and the kids and I had ice cream. We figured with the time difference, it was really time for dessert anyway!!

Overall, we had an absolutely awesome time on this trip. We were so blessed to be able to see and experience so many things. Seeing places that shaped our country is just truly inspiring.

Now I have a week’s worth of laundry to do and over 800 e-mails to go through!! But it was definitely worth it!!