Travel Day

Yesterday was our travel day to Missouri. And, as you can imagine, flying with 2 kids is going to result in a few stories. So here are mine from yesterday...

We actually flew out of Charlotte (2 hours from home) instead of RDU (15 minutes from home), because: a) direct flights were cheaper on US Air than on American, and you can BET that if we can fly direct, we're certainly going to, and b) we are going to end up back in Hickory (only an hour from Charlotte) on the back end of the trip anyway. So, on Tuesday afternoon, we packed up the car and headed for Hickory, where we spent Tuesday night.

Yesterday morning, the plan was to leave Hickory at 8:30a to drive to Charlotte to catch an 11:20a flight. The thought was that this would put us at the airport by 9:30a, leaving a solid hour and a half buffer to get situated, get lunch, etc.

We left Dale's parents' house at 8:45a. Not too far off schedule. And, right on target, we pulled up to the airport at 9:45a. Still plenty of time to do what we needed to do.

After getting the 2 50-pound checked bags out of the car and safely sent away ($34 later, after checked bag and sky cap fees), I headed inside with Macie in her stroller and a couple of the carry-on bags. Dale kept Ivie in the car and went to park. As I got inside, knowing that it would take them 10 minutes or so, I decided to make great use of the time and head to the bathroom to pump (since I was going to have to do that before the flight, anyway). Got to the bathroom with Mac, got everything set up, turned on the pump, and... NOTHING. Great. Apparently the batteries in the seldom-used battery pack had decided to die on me just in time for this trip. And, of course, there were no outlets to be found in this airport bathroom. Guess I was going to have to go to plan B, which was either find some batteries or find an outlet once we got through security.

Bummed out, I headed back into the lobby to wait for Dale. He arrived shortly and we headed to security. Security with a toddler and an infant is NO FUN. Add in a breast pump, breast milk, medicine, several jackets, 2 cell phones, and 2 laptop computers, and it's even LESS fun. 20 minutes later, we put on the last of our shoes and went in search of the US Air "Club", where the security guy had suggested we go to plead for use of an outlet in a private area...

The lady there was nice, and only hesitated slightly before directing me into the "dressing room" in the restroom. It was super nice, complete with a nice countertop for all my stuff. So I set to work...

About 2 minutes into the 7-minute session, I gasped. Not sure what had made me think of it, but I realized, with a start, that I had FORGOTTEN the base to Macie's car seat. And for those of you that know Graco infant seats, the seat itself is not worth much if you don't have the base to strap the seatbelt through. Wonderful. So, while pumping, I placed 3 desperate calls. First to my dad to make sure he hadn't left home yet to come pick us up. Next to my brother, Scott, hoping that he still had Gavin's car seat base and that it was a Graco. He didn't answer, so the third call was to his wife, Bobbie, to ask the same questions. She didn't answer either. What the heck do I do now?!?

Thankfully, Bobbie called back seconds later. And then Scott did, too. Between the 3 of us, we figured out that we weren't sure what type of seat they had, but that they thought they could direct Dad to it in their house, and that he would just bring along the entire thing so that we could use it instead of ours if it wasn't Graco. Phew. Problem solved. Thank goodness for family...

By the time I finished pumping, this problem was solved and I was feeling a bit better. Nothing else that I could have forgotten would have been this bad, so I was through the worst. Right?

Well, yeah, probably. But by this point it was 10:40a, and we still needed to grab some lunch, walk to the gate, hopefully get moved to a row with an open seat (we hadn't purchased a seat for Macie), and eat. Before boarding, of course, because there would be no extra hands during the boarding process to carry food. The next 30 minutes before we got on the plane were a blur. We choked down hot dogs that tasted like they'd been made the day before, swallowed as much soda as we could, and were 4 of the last people to board the plane. We were actually going to make it to Missouri!

The flight itself was fairly uneventful after the lead-up saga. That is, if you define uneventful as changing 3 poopy diapers during a less-than-2-hour flight. One for Ivie, two for Macie. All three changed while sitting in our row of seats. All three changed without getting poop on any of our clothes. Success.

We landed, found Dad, found the car, got the car seats installed, stopped at Sonic for a Watermelon slush (YUMMY!) and made the mostly quiet drive to Jefferson City. After a fun dinner out with Scott's clan, we dragged 2 very tired little girls back to Mom and Dad's house. One of which went the very first day of her life (all 2 years and 8 months of it) without taking a nap. Based on her attitude by the end of the day, I'm hoping it doesn't happen again for a few more years!

Chalk up another travel day. Glad we don't have to do it again for a week. Let the Christmas festivities begin!!!