We Made It!

A big thanks to everyone who prayed for a smooth trip home for us on Tuesday. God totally answered those prayers - our day was pretty good! Here are the boys right before we left my parents' house. Emmett is sporting the first of three outfits that he would go through (or poop through) that day.


My sister, Becky, drove us to the airport and very, very thankfully was able to get a gate pass (like Phil did in Boise) to escort us through security. On the drive down, Becky was reassuring me that if she couldn't get a pass I would be just fine - that it wasn't that hard to get through security. After the fact she admitted, "Yeah, that would have been pretty tough by yourself." It's pretty crazy to have to... take off your shoes and the shoes of your two-year-old (and not obsess over the foot fungus that you are both now totally exposed to), take your baby out of the stroller and carry him through the x-ray machine while also trying to get your two-year-old to walk through the machine and not run away... and this after taking everything out of the stroller and placing it into those gross gray bins, making sure you've dumped out or separated any liquids that you have, folding up the stroller (while holding a baby) and putting that on the conveyor belt, and oops- getting yelled at for forgetting to take the DVD player out of your backpack.... then having to put your shoes and the shoes of your wiggly two-year-old back on, unfold the stroller and put the baby back in, get all of your stuff off of the conveyor belt and reorganize it, try to get the DVD player to fit back into the already overstuffed backpack... and all this while still trying to keep your two-year-old from running away and trying to hurry because the people behind you are giving you the hairy eyeball for taking too long. So I was, again, VERY thankful that Becky was there to help me with half of that.

I think I said in the other post that Phil had changed our ticket to a nonstop flight to Vegas, and boy, was I thankful for that! Our flight out of Orlando to Vegas was already delayed a half hour when we got to the gate. Our original itinerary had us stopping in St. Louis on the way to Vegas, with only a 45-minute connection in Vegas, so we most likely would have already missed our connection before we even got started. Our new itinerary gave us a two hour layover in Vegas, so we were a-okay even with the delay in Orlando.

The flight to Vegas was a v-e-r-y-l-o-n-g 4-1/2 hours and the plane was completely full, so I had someone sitting right next to me the whole time. When I first got on the plane I put Jackson in the window seat and sat in the aisle seat avoiding eye contact with the other people boarding the plane to hopefully keep anyone from wanting to sit with us. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of this the flight attendant came on the intercom and said that our flight was totally full, so those of us avoiding eye contact with the people in the aisle could go ahead and stop doing that and just let people sit with them. I laughed at that and moved to the middle seat and a really nice man from Melbourne sat next to us.

He was very kind and understanding, even though Emmett decided to find his voice on this flight and let out extremely high-pitched (but happy) pterodactyl screeches every once in a while (I gave Mr. Melbourne a pair of ear plugs, but he didn't wear them). He also had to endure Emmett's diaper blow-out, which smelled exactly like rotten eggs (no joke - luckily, J was sleeping at this point and a flight attendant stood by my seat to watch J while I changed E in the bathroom), Emmett's curdled milk spit-up episode, and little baby feet kicking him in the arm or resting on him while Emmett ate or slept. I tried very hard to not let my business creep into his seat, but that's pretty difficult when you have a squirmy 20-lb baby on your lap. I'm also fairly sure that he saw my nipple at least once. A topless show for free before he even got to Vegas. Oh, well. I think he might have been a little uncomfortable that I was breastfeeding right next to him (under a cover, of course, but still...) but what could I do?

I had to get up and walk the aisle with Emmett once while J was sleeping, and E was much more squirmy, loud, and active than he had been on the way out to Florida. But, overall, he was pretty good for 4-1/2 hours of being basically in the same position and not having a proper nap.

Jackson was truly as good as gold. It was almost as if he wasn't even on the flight with me. He was happy just looking out the window, eating some snacks, feeding me some snacks (he thinks it's hysterical to feed me), sleeping (he slept for about an hour and a half, even with Emmett head-butting him and kicking him in the face and having to be rearranged several times to make room for Emmett), and watching some George. I had bought a battery extender for our DVD player to give us more battery time, but we didn't even need it. He even put on his monkey backpack (leash) in the Vegas airport without fighting it, and kept it on the whole time. I took it off right before we boarded the plane in Vegas because J had discovered how fun it is to fall on the floor and have me pick him up by the leash/harness. This turned into a great game for him, and after a few times I was over it, so I strapped him back into the stroller. Here he is sporting his backpack (and no pants) at home in Ocala.


Our second flight from Vegas to Boise was uneventful. We had a third seat to ourselves, which made a world of difference. We even landed in Boise 10 minutes early and Phil met us at the gate!

All in all, the day went very smoothly. I did learn that if I ever fly with a baby in arms on a flight longer than about 2 hours, I'll buy an extra seat for him. It was r-o-u-g-h to not have an open seat on that long flight to Vegas. I had no less than 12 people tell me that I "had my hands full", which became kind of funny the more I heard it. And Jackson told me about 15 times throughout the day, "Dadoo... port... aypayne... sky... Hank... Heidoo", which I took to mean that we were going on an airplane in the sky to see Daddy at the airport and then Hank and Heidi at home. I kept reminding him that we had to go on the airplanes first and that he had to be a very good boy. I guess that worked!

I'm not sure how soon I'll be making this trip again by myself, but it was totally worth it. We had such a wonderful time with my family in Florida, and I even got to spend time with several good friends from high school (and their kiddos, too!). Special thanks to my parents and sister for putting up with baby toys and paraphernalia all over the house, Emmett's night-wakenings, Jackson's periodic grumpiness, etc. Thanks, also, to my sister, Leslie, for the use of all of her baby equipment and to my sister, Becky, for giving Jackson and I her room and bed for three weeks and letting us drive her car all over Ocala. We love you all so much and miss you already!