One of the most magical things that ever happened to me

Several years ago, Adam went to London often.  I didn't like having him gone.  I thought it was because our children were so young and it was hard to physically be the only parent on the continent.  Then a little over a week ago he went to London (and Berlin--he's branching out!) and it was really hard to have him gone.  Even though our kids aren't physically as taxing...they are pretty self-sufficient...I missed Adam.  A lot.  Everything is better when there's an Adam around.

This isn't about Adam though (so sorry about the tangent Olivia--she hates tangents).  It is about London.  A huge upside (besides the chocolate Adam always brings from London) were the trips I got to take to London.  I went one summer and then a year later I flew with Braeden and Emma and met Adam in London.  (Mark wasn't ready for London--or vice versa.)

It was a memorable flight with Braeden and Emma.

First, Emma had forgotten ever flying before and once she saw a plane take off at the airport, she was dead set against it.  She adamantly refused to get on the plane.  Emma has the potential to get irrationally freaked out. (I'm not sure where she gets it from...)  Adam, Calmer-in-Chief that he is, wasn't there so I had to do my best to convince her to get on the plane.  She finally agreed, boarded the plane and clutched her stuffed cat Sally in a death grip.  (Emma didn't ever go anywhere without Sally back then.)  After take-off, she was delighted and declared it was fun and she wanted to do it again.

The second memorable event occurred in Vancouver where we were transferring planes.  We had to go through customs and the official thought I was possibly kidnapping my children and he quizzed them heavily about where we were going and why and where their dad was.  He didn't talk to me at all. They had just turned 11 and 9 and they handled the unexpected interrogation pretty well.  He let us go.

The best thing happened partway through the long cross-Atlantic flight.  I was miserable.  It was late and I couldn't sleep despite how much I wanted to be asleep.  Braeden was asleep and Emma was wide awake.  She was happily holding Sally and writing in her notebook and staring dreamily out the airplane window at the night sky.  Suddenly she turned to me and said, "Look, Mom."

I leaned over her and looked out the window and there were the Northern Lights.  It was the most incredible sight I've ever seen.  The entire window was filled with blue and green and yellow light leaping across the sky.  I looked around and as far as I could tell, Emma and I were the only ones awake (besides the pilots...I'm assuming they were awake).  It felt like the Northern Lights were putting on a show just for us.  I looked at Emma and her face filled with wonder and I thought, "I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life."

It was pure magic.  I am glad I wasn't asleep.  I would have missed the whole thing.

I love this picture of Emma.  It was taken at Disneyland (in Smallworld) but it was around the same age as the London trip and the look on her face reminds me of the night we saw the Northern Lights.

And then a couple of London shots for good measure:

Deep in conversation on the Underground...they seemed like such big kids at the time.  They were babies.  Sniff.

At Trafalgar Square