flying with Archie

The past few Sundays at church have been great fun and quite amusing. And not just because, for Ben and I, the extent of our spiritual feast has been time spent in the foyer with our two babes, too young for the nursery, and too loud for Sunday School. Everyone has been great about offering and following through on helping us get ready for the move, including getting us to the airport without having to employ the use of a double-decker cab. It's been really nice.

A couple weeks ago while hanging out in the foyer at church almost every time we turned around we had someone inquiring, double-checking, and assuring that we did indeed have a ride to the airport, even if it wasn't clear to us (or them for that matter) who was driving us and whose vehicle they would be using. But this past Sunday it all became clear. We're on the same flight as a dog named Archie, and we're hitching a ride with him in his van.

There is another family moving out to Utah in the next week as well and for some reason their dog is traveling ahead of them. He's going solo. We leave at the same time, have the same destination and the same airline. I didn't know this airline had live animals as cargo and I never thought I'd fly with a dog, but whatever works!

Anyway, this family has a seven passenger van, so the dog's owner, Archie (the dog), Ben, me, and our four children will be heading out for the airport at 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Hooray for Archie. We have a ride to La Guardia with little trouble to anyone.

We will not worry about the fact that my kids get a little skittish around dogs. We will not wonder if Archie will get a little skittish about sharing his van with 6 strangers. We'll just assume that all company will be enjoyed from here all the way to Salt Lake City. Thanks, Archie!