Shriner's Hospital Trip: Up And Back In A Day

Lauren and I started our day at 4:45 a.m. at Eppley Airfield.

Eight boarding passes for our four flights: Omaha to Chicago's O'Hare to Minneapolis and back.

Lauren patiently awaited her breakfast at a nice little place we found tucked in the back of one of the food courts at O'Hare.

A plain omelet, lots of hash browns, toast and hot chocolate were on the menu for Lauren and her other travel partner.

When you're as skinny as Lauren, there's quite a bit of seat belt left to go around.

Lauren even got a little reading in on the flights. We had a different type of aircraft for each one. (She liked the flight from Chicago to Minneapolis on an Airbus 320 the best.)

We joked that "Gate Gourmet" is where we are going to eat the next time we dine out.

There was a flurry of action in the lobby behind Lauren. A local high school football team was doing a workshop activity with patients.

Lauren's longtime friend, Dedra, caught up to us several times. It's always good to see her.

Dr. Lael Luedtke is Lauren's new physician,  replacing Dr. Ken Guidera, who had treated her since our first visit back in the early 2000s.

Lyndsey, the X-ray technician, had the same Nike shoes as Lauren.

So many flights out of Chicago ... but only two going back to Omaha.

Here is the cake Lauren designed herself.

Can you tell some of her sisters were pretty jealous of Lauren's birthday cake?

Lauren wasn't the only one smiling about not having an ice cream cake this year. The Cake Gallery creation broke our habit of usually going with something from Dairy Queen.

Can you tell the birthday cake was a huge hit?