Alaska Trip Part One

Whew! Sorry for the lack of posts this past week... we decided to be adventurous again and took a trip with the kiddos up to Alaska! We had heard a while back that we could pretty easily take a "hop" (jump on a military transport plane that was carrying cargo up to AK) for free from Travis AFB near Sacramento, CA, so we decided to take advantage of that great opportunity.

So last Friday afternoon, we loaded up the car and drove down to Travis AFB. The boys were pretty good for the 4 hour drive (naps and Thomas on DVD helped a lot)...

Towards the end, though, both Emmett and I were getting a little grungry (grumpy/hungry). We always say that Emmett has my personality, and Phil made sure to point out that fact again... saying, "Um, do you notice who are the only two people in the car that are upset right now??" :) Anyway, we ate at an In-N-Out burger, made a stop at a Target, and found a hotel right outside the base for the night. The boys had lots of fun in the hotel room just running around, jumping on the pull-out bed, making their pinwheels spin in front of the air conditioning vent, and showing "muscles".

Emmett woke up fussing in the middle of the night and since we were all in the same room I wasn't sure what to do with him. I ended up bringing him into bed with Phil and me (something we never do) and, unbelievably, he laid his head down and fell right to sleep for the rest of the night. Crisis averted! Jackson slept right through the whole thing, too.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and drove over to the base for the 6:40 A.M. "roll call" (the time that passengers have to show up to put their names in the hat to get on the plane). They check people onto the plane in order of priority - people on emergency leave get highest priority, people who have been on leave the longest have higher priority than those who just started leave, retirees have lower priority, etc. Most of the check-in process was just like the airlines, except for the fact that baggage was free and you could have a lot more (and heavier) bags per person. Unfortunately, we showed up at 6:40 and the plane didn't end up taking off until around 10:00. Yuck. The boys were about done by the time we got on the plane, and they both fell asleep right after takeoff. This was the plane we took, a C-5:

It was built in the 1960s, but was actually pretty comfortable inside. The seats leaned way back and there was lots of leg room. The seats actually faced backwards, so we leaned forward during takeoff, which was extra weird because there were no windows. The passenger area was at the top of the plane back near the tail. This wasn't such a big deal, but we did have to climb a really tall, steep staircase to get up to our seats. And we had to climb it carrying the kids! I tried not to look down, but I did get a little sweaty and nervous. It was pretty high up.

Down below in the cargo area there were a bunch of Hummer-type trucks and other cargo that the plane was taking overseas. The plane stopped in AK for a few hours and then continued on to Japan and Korea.

Look at the box lunch that we got for $4.50! Quite a deal compared to what the airlines give you for almost $7.

Jackson slept for about two hours on the plane (it was really loud and I think the droning helped keep him asleep), but Emmett only slept for about 45 minutes.

He was a complete nightmare pill for the rest of the trip, but somehow Phil and I managed to keep him from screaming the entire time. He was soooo squirmy and not happy with anything we tried to give him. He was even able to get up and walk around most of the time, but even that didn't make him happy. Stinker!

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and started trying to get a flight home again the following Friday. What a total mess that was! For security reasons, the schedule of flights isn't posted online and is only given out over the phone for the next two days. We soon found out the hard way that the best thing to do is call the office every few hours to check to see if flights have changed.

The first time we tried to leave was Friday morning, and after loading all of our luggage and kids into the car and driving to the base at 7:00 A.M., we arrived to find out the the flight that morning was rescheduled for 7:40 the next morning. Okay, kind of a pain, but not that big of a deal. So before bed that Friday night, Phil called the office to check to make sure that the 7:40 flight was still leaving the next morning as scheduled. Lucky he called, because they told us that the flight had been pushed back to 3:45 A.M.!!! There was also another flight leaving at 1:40 P.M. and we debated whether or not to get up and try the 3:45 A.M. flight or just wait until later, but decided to try the early morning flight anyway.

Soooo, we woke up at 3:00 A.M. and Phil tried about 8 times to call the terminal to make sure the flight was still leaving as scheduled before we woke up the kiddos. Of course, no one answered the phone, so we loaded up the car again, woke up the kids, put them in the car in their pj's, and drove to the base, only to find that the flight left early!!!! AAGGHHH! Luckily, the boys were complete angels this whole time and went right back to sleep as soon as we got home.

Phil found out when he went into the terminal that morning that the 1:40 P.M. flight was... you guessed it... rescheduled to 4:25 P.M. So throughout the whole rest of the day, Phil called about every hour to check on the time. And every time - "Yep, the flight is still leaving as scheduled!" Finally, at 3:45, he called again right before we left and again heard that the flight was on time. We got to the base at 4:10 P.M. (15 minutes before roll call), and Phil ran inside to check us in. He ran out a few minutes later and said, "They called roll early! They're going to see if they can get two extra seats for us. Help me unload!" I was just shocked. We had called ALL DAY to check on the time, and they decided to call roll 15 minutes early with no warning! There were only 9 seats for passengers on this plane (a KC-10) and a family of 5 and two retirees had taken up 7 seats. We needed 4, so they were checking with the crew of the plane to see if we could get 2 extra seats.

So we drug all of our stuff inside and hung out with the kids running around crazy for an hour only to hear that, no, they couldn't make room for two more. We were livid!!! I know we probably shouldn't have been mad since we were getting 4 free seats on a plane whose mission is not to carry passengers, but still!! We were so frustrated! In our opinion, since we showed up on time (early!) for the original roll call, they should have honored us and bumped the retirees off of the plane. But, no, we just had to load all of our stuff back up in the car and prepare to wait until Monday for the next flight to Travis. Ugh! We decided to visit Humpy's, one of our favorite AK restaurants, to make ourselves feel better. Beer-battered halibut chunks and microbrews did the trick. We felt much better after eating and made plans for Sunday. Here we are at Humpy's...

Hello, Wide-Eyed Psycho! After looking at that last picture I realized that I must have still had some leftover crazy-eyed frustration, so I had Phil take another.

So Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 with Jackson, and Phil slept in until about 8:00. We had the whole day planned... Phil would go to the store and get coffee when he woke up, then he was going to mow the lawn for Chad. I started a load of laundry and vacuumed and was planning to make cupcakes later and take a shower and wash my hair. Then in the afternoon we were meeting up with our old squadron commander and his family. A great day!

Thing didn't go exactly like that. Phil had taken Jackson with him to the store and I had just finished vacuuming and feeding Emmett breakfast. It was 9:20 A.M. Phil called just then and told me that he just called the terminal and the flight that was supposed to leave at 2:25 P.M. on Monday now has roll call at 9:55 A.M. TODAY! AAGGHHH! Phil raced home and we threw, and I mean literally threw, all of our stuff into suitcases and bags and shoved it into the car. I had a load of wet clothes in the dryer, no makeup on at all, I was still in my early-morning sweatpants, neither Phil nor I had showered or brushed our teeth (we were waiting to drink our coffee when Phil returned from the store, but he never had time to get coffee!!), and Emmett was still in his pj's. We figured that we'd have at least an hour to get changed and cleaned up after we checked in before the plane left. Not so!! As soon as we get there and lug all of our stuff into the terminal, the workers rush us through security because the C-5 crew wants to leave as soon as possible. What a mess!! Luckily, we made it onto the plane and had a decent flight (aside from feeling a little gross). The boys actually both took good naps this time! Phil and I even got naps! The crew was really pleasant, too, which was nice. This plane was completely empty of cargo, so Phil figured that since they had finished their mission and dropped off all of their cargo they were anxious to get back home to Travis AFB.

Phew!! Sorry - I know that was a long post. I don't mind if you checked out halfway through. :) I'll be posting about our favorite parts of our trip tomorrow. We had a totally wonderful time and were so thankful that we made the trip, even with all of the hopping drama. We also learned several lessons from this trip - when taking a hop, call at least every hour of the day to check on the schedule, have everything totally ready to go at all times (including brushing your teeth), try to focus on the fact that you're getting a free trip, and remember that flying with kids is like labor... while you're in the thick of it you think you'll never, ever do this again, but as soon as it's over you're ready to go again! Well, maybe not as soon as it's over, but we do quickly forget the pain!

Here's a little sneak peek at one of our favorite parts of the trip...

More Random Happenings

We sure do love our spaghetti around here...

And a certain someone likes to get crazy with the hair gel during his naptime...

Seriously, though, that is exactly what his hair looked like when I got him out of his crib after his morning nap the other day. And it was smoothed down and combed over to the side when he went to sleep! What goes on in there??

Jackson and Phil love to look at trucks for sale online. J now points out "big trucks" and different color Jeeps all over town. And he loves to to tell Phil, "Buy new truck, Dad!"

Phil and I actually got to go out on the town together two weekends in a row! The weekend before last we went on a really fun double date with our friends Michelle and Weave, and last weekend we went to the "Taste of Klamath" festival with a group of friends. We were pretty impressed with the food and beverages that were offered there. And can you believe that one of our favorites was the food from the nursing home here in town? Fo' real.

Last, but not least, here's a video of Jackson cracking Emmett up on the drive to Medford the other day. We have no idea what J was saying, but E thought he was hilarious.

A Break in the Monotony and a Little Success!

We had quite an exciting day today! Emmett was scheduled for his 12 month checkup today. I considered canceling it because of potty training, but Jackson has been doing really well with the potty the past few days so I decided to chance things and just go. I figured after being cooped up for more than a week we could all use a trip out of the house!

I put Jackson in a pull-up (for those who aren't familiar, a pull-up is kind of a cross between a diaper and underwear... it is absorbent like a diaper, but is shaped like underwear so kids can "pull it up" and it still sort of seems like they're wearing underwear) because I wasn't sure how he would do holding "it" away from home, and I just didn't want to deal with a mess. I'm chicken, I know. I made sure to tell him not to "go" in his underwear (I call the pull-up underwear, too) and to tell me if he needed to go potty.

Anyway, he stayed dry through the whole doctor visit! I asked him a few times if he needed to go and he said no, and when I checked his pull-up when we got out to the car it was still dry! As a reward, I told him that we would stop at McDonald's for some french fries (one of his favorite things). As I drove there, Phil called and asked if we could meet him at the squadron for lunch. I wasn't sure if we should go or just head home to be near our toilet, but I really didn't want to go back home just yet! Jackson had been going potty for Phil really well this past weekend, so I figured if he had to go at the squadron it was pretty likely that he would go in a strange toilet with Phil there.

So, we get to the squadron, eat some lunch, and hang out with Daddy a little bit. Emmett was loving toddling around all over the place and Jackson made a bee-line for the pool table in the bar. As soon as he heard the jet engines start up for the afternoon take-offs, though, he was glued to the window watching the jets. Our friend "Klepto" was supervisor of flying today, so he offered to take us all out to the flight line in his supervisor truck to watch the jets take off. Jackson was so excited. I knew he wasn't about to sit on the toilet with all of this going on, and we really didn't have much time before the jets took off, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped that one time of wetting the pull-up wouldn't set us back to square one.

We drove out to just a few feet from the runway and got to watch eight jets take off right in front of us! It was really neat, even for me... I hadn't done that in a while and I love to watch the jets. I also like hearing our friends (and Phil) on the radio talking in their serious pilot-lingo and getting to see and hear what they do every day. As we were getting ready to head back to the squadron, one of the pilots radioed back that (and this is where things got foggy for me... there was a lot of technical talk going on between Phil and Klepto and the radio and I couldn't tell what was going on most of the time, but I tried to have them translate to laymen's terms for me) a light came on in the jet that some hydraulic-thingy-majingy malfunctioned, so basically the brakes on the jet weren't working. That jet had to turn around and come home, so we had to stay out on the flight line until he landed. This was extra exciting for Jackson, because, since this was technically an emergency, four fire trucks raced out to the runway with their lights flashing and parked right next to us to wait for the jet to land. The jet was going to have to catch a cable across the runway to slow down after landing, since the brakes didn't work. I was a little nervous because a student was flying the jet and one of our good friends was in his backseat, but Phil said that everything was most likely going to be fine. He was right, of course... the jet landed safely and everything was fine. It was really neat to see the cable landing, though. There were big sparks when the jet first landed from the hook dragging on the ground, and it was amazing how fast the cable brought the jet to a stop.

After all that excitement the boys were definitely ready for naps, so we headed home. Right before getting into bed, I took Jackson's pull-up off and sat him on the toilet. The pull-up was completely dry!!! He had stayed dry for over three hours, and then he went potty right after I set him on the toilet! I was ecstatic, but he was overtired and extremely grumpy and was not in the mood for my happy song and dancing, so I kept the excitement pretty short. I know that we aren't at the potty finish line just yet, but this has rejuvenated me a little and I feel like I can see some light at the end of the tunnel! Or maybe I just needed to get out of the house. Whatever - I'm happy! :)

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures... the squadron trip was unexpected and I didn't have my camera.

The Lost Pictures

Oops... I totally forgot about this post! These are some other cute pictures from our trip to Florida over a month ago.

Here we are waiting in the Medford airport...

Jackson was entertained for quite a while by this retracting belt-thingy...

Here's J contemplating earplugs on the airplane...

And here's E trying to figure out headphones...

Here's Cameron giving Emmett a ride on the school bus...

And Jackson enjoying the awesome swing at my parents' house...

Walking out to visit Charlotte and Gus...

Sweet Char...

Catching J in mid-run around the yard...

And some cute ones of Emmett...

Cameron loved Jackson's blankie... but could only do this if J wasn't looking. That blankie is private property according to J!!

The boys loved this sandbox. The soft, clean white sand was a nice change from the coarse, dark, dirty sand that we get out here...

Here's Emmett enjoying some pasta...

... and in the afterglow of a chocolate chip granola bar...

... and looking cool at Moe's. Oh, how we miss and love a Moe's burrito!!

And last, but not least, here's J with his "un-birthday" present from Phil's Aunt Betsey. He absolutely loves this book, Betsey! It is now one of his very favorites. He calls it "the brudder book". And this was finally one time when, "Hold up your book, look at Mommy, and say cheese" was actually completed successfully!