We did it! (again)

People who have been through emotional trauma shouldn't be allowed to travel by themselves. My brain has felt disconnected to my body for several weeks now which is not a good state to be in when two small children are relying on me to get them to the other side of the planet.
Despite my handicap, there were only a couple mishaps. While standing in line to check in, I realized I didn't have my carry-on suitcase. I asked the nearest stranger if I could borrow his cell phone, practically ripped it out of his hand, and called my mom who discovered the suitcase was still at home. (My dad had loaded the luggage in the car which is why I hadn't noticed it didn't get packed). After some aggressive driving by my mom, the suitcase arrived in time. We made it to our gate being weighed down by Ethan in the stroller, Marcus on top of the carry-on (holding on for dear life), the backpack, and diaper bag. I set everything down to get out the boarding passes and discovered I didn't have them just as I heard my name being paged over the intercom. I gathered up boys, carry-on, back-pack, and diaper bag to go back to security to retrieve the missing boarding passes. We finally made it onto our plane with my nerves frazzled and my body dripping with sweat and we hadn't even left Utah. The rest of our 24-hour journey was miraculously uneventful and we're happy to be home, sort-of.
I should write a book with traveling tips for single parents. One of those tips is to use Kleenex packages to keep adult-sized headphones on children-sized heads. It worked great!