And So It Begins

Hey Friends and Family,

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on how Byron and I are doing! Right now, we're in Minneapolis, waiting to catch our next flight, which leaves at 4pm. We're connecting to Paris and then off to Ukraine. Our hearts are heavy from leaving Colorado, but at the same time, we're filled with anticipation and eagerness as we head out to Ukraine. 

This morning, we were blessed to have Byron's family and my mom at the airport, cheering us on as we went through security. My dad, Byron's brother, and my two siblings weren't able to meet us at the airport, so we want to send you four a special shout out... We love you guys and will miss you lots. 

Our morning began at 5am and we arrived at the airport at 6:30am. It was a pretty leisurely morning for the most part. When we checked our bags, the desk clerk was surprised to see that all of our bags were 65-68 lbs (15-18 lbs over weight) and one bag was 77 lbs! We were pretty surprised too... Our home scale apparently wasn't as accurate as we thought it was... Or maybe it was faulty math on our part because we weighed Byron, then we weighed Byron again with the bag and subtracted Byron's weight from the joint weight. We also did all of the calculations in our heads haha

 

Once our bags were checked (We had to take some things out of our bags and leave them with our parents to bring down the total weight), it was time to say goodbye. Lots of hugs, lots of tears. 

And then we entered security.

I'm not sure what it is about security, but I can never make it through in one fast swipe. Since I brought my guitar as a carryon item, it had to be scanned, and TSA thought that my guitar capo was a weapon.  Their first step in dealing with the capo was to send me through the "hands above your head" body scanner. Now, I still had my shoes off, so when I stepped into the little container, there were two yellow footprints that I was told to put my feet onto. Unfortunately, in my effort to not be suspicious with the whole capo thing, I kind of jumped onto them quickly, and they were surprisingly slippery with my socks on. In fact, I DID slip - and to prevent a full fall, I grabbed onto the opening of the container. It was fast movement for sure, and TSA didn't find it as humorous as I did haha

After I passed the body scanner test. I was moved over to the "full search" counter, where I had to dump out everything in my bags to let TSA go through it. I passed the "full search" phase and was sent into a little room, in which the "serious pat-down" began. No joke, this was a pretty legitimate pat-down, but I passed with flying colors. All in all, we spent about 40 minutes in security.

Once Byron and I made it to our gate, we tried to think of reasons as to why I seemed suspicious in security. Our conclusion? My little sock mishap. I accidentally packed all of my socks except for this one purple pair, and I packed all of my shoes except for a pair that are not designed to be worn with socks. 

So, we finally made it onto the flight with no problems, except that my carryon bag wouldn't fit in the overhead. It was enough to make all of the morning's emotions catch up to me, and as the flight attendant told me that it wouldn't fit and that they had to check the bag, I actually burst into tears. And once the tears started, I cried really hard. The Delta flight attendants felt really bad for me and dealt with me in a very kind manner. They even made space for my bag in the first class closet (even though we weren't sitting in first class) so that I could keep the bag on the plane with me.

I'm believing that the rest of our travels will be uneventful, but if it isn't, I'm thankful to say that Byron's great at helping me to see the humor in everything. 

Next stop, Paris.