I thought she had pretty much resigned herself to these facts when we pulled up at Bellingham airport....with me being all packed for the trip and Molly having nothing but but the clothes on her back and her Nexus card for the return drive home with Les, Lucas and Fin. However, when I checked in and picked up my ticket, Molly still thought there was some lobbying to do and made sure she let the Allegiant Air ticket man know how much she wanted to go. When I let slip that my main objection was the cost of the ticket, the friendly agent Johnny disappeared for a few minutes after uttering "let me check on something". With Molly by then in the car, Johnny came back to me with the offer of only having to pay for the return trip and I couldn't say no. I took the tickets back to the car, handed a disappointed little girl my ticket to hold, and got the satisfying screech when she read Butler, Molly Clare on the ticket.
For the next three hours, Molly just talked and talked, in the way that only over excited kids do. We had time for a quick trip to Bellisfair Mall for some shorts, t-shirt, flip flops and a bite to eat. As excited as Molly was, it was equally evident that Finny was pretty bummed at the whole turn of events. She handled it remarkably well for a five year old..... but it was pretty clear that despite her age, Fin was able to project herself mentally out into the future to the moment where her Dad was taking her onto the plane and she would get to smugly wave goodbye to her sister.
Although Molly had flown a couple of times before, this was the first time she was old enough to actually remember the experience. Everything was awesome......"they even have a potty on the plane Dad!" It was great to see the wonder in her eyes, taking off, going above the clouds, even being able to order candy was special. We each read our books for a while and then Molly made her first plane friendship with an elderly lady sitting beside her.
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