Visit to Grandma and Grandpa

A few weeks ago we took a short plane trip to see my mom and step-dad.  We flew on this tiny commuter jet, and had only purchased two tickets thinking we could handle Evan on our lap for just an hour flight.  And yes, while we did handle it, it was ONLY because it was just for an hour!  Here are some stories from our trip...

Getting there

For some reason the night before our morning flight, Evan decided to wake up at 1:30am and not go back to sleep until 4:30am.  Should I also mention this was the beginning of daylight savings time, we were all already going to lose an hour of sleep for that reason, and we had to wake up at 6am to get ready to leave for the airport.  Alas, we were a tired bunch by the time we got to the airport, especially to find out our flight was delayed an hour and a half!  Using our smart phones we were able to trace the source of the delay to weather in Lincoln, NE...and that plane that started late there had to fly to Denver, then to Grand Junction, and then back to Denver, before it could take us to Amarillo!  Thus, we spent much more time in the airport than we had planned.  At least Evan found some entertainment in the moving walkways.  When he turned around and started walking backwards on them, people nearby were getting a good laugh out of it.  What made me and John laugh hysterically, though, was what happened in this video John took.  It was the first time Evan had stopped on the moving walkway, and he froze like a mannequin while he assessed why he was still moving.  Priceless!  Unfortunately, he threw a complete and embarrassing fit when we had to take him off the walkway to get ready to board.  :(

Once we got on the plane, he enjoyed moving the window shade up and down, flipping through the in flight magazine, and having snacks.  We did our best to keep him from pulling, pushing, or kicking his feet into the seat in front of us, and then of course about 5 minutes before we landed he fell asleep!  He slept all the way during deboarding and getting our luggage (which was delayed a good while for some reason...probably due to the 45 mph gusting winds outside, which was why we couldn't get our gate-checked carry on bags at the jetway).

While we were there

Evan loved having a dog to play with...one of my parents dogs was very friendly and gave Evan lots of kisses and chased him around.  The dog even showed Evan how to use the doggy door!  We played outside in the nice Texas weather, blowing bubbles and running around.  He did have a face plant fall into the gravel in their driveway though, which left him with a few scrapes on his face.  We also played a game of Yahtzee, which Evan absolutely loved helping daddy at.

He didn't fit, but sure tried to get through it!

"shatzee!!!"

We didn't have a pack n' play (i.e., a porta-cot) for him, so he slept with me in the queen-size guest bed, which we had pushed up against one wall of the guest room (John slept on a twin air mattress on the floor next to us).  He slept really good the first night (probably because he had a very short nap, and little sleep the night before).  However the other couple nights he woke up, sometimes for at least an hour or more, wanting either daddy or mum-mum, and just not falling back to sleep easily at all.  Thus, we ended up giving him some tylenol to help, because while we were in Texas I got a chance to stick my finger in his mouth and low and behold, he's getting his other three first set of molars in all at once!  His first molar is nearly in, but to have three come in at once must be painful and disruptive to one's sleep! 

The trip home

Luckily there were no flight delays on the way home, and yet Evan still didn't sleep on the flight at all. We were in the very back row of this little jet (our seats were always changed at the last minute when we boarded given they moved us into rows where there was an extra oxygen mask for the in-lap infant, and this time it meant the last row).  At least it wasn't as windy as our trip to Amarillo, because the back row I'm guessing would feel a lot of bumps!