Saturday, May 31, 2008

Our Journey Across the WORLD!!! (country)

Our Journey began one week ago with our "Plan of Achievement." This was a schedule Kevin and I created that involved all the cleaning and packing we needed to do. I get travel anxiety and it is worse with kids.
Rachel spent the night at our house on Thursday night because our flight was at 8:30am on Friday. We woke up super early, finished all the last minute packing, hit the road, stopping to get Jamba Juice before we got to the airport. Our flight was packed. We did ok for awhile, but then the DVD player died, the toys got boring, and all the books were read... it was time for some serious intervention.... DRUGS!!!! Yes, I am a parent who drugs their children on airplanes in desperate circumstances. Finally, Gavin passed out... we made a bed for him on the floor.

Hannah would not go to sleep! We hit some turbulence on our decent into the Newark Airport. Hannah fell asleep, of course. It was amazing to see the Manhattan skyline and the statue of liberty. I hope to be back there in July if the stars align correctly.
We were the LAST people off the plane... we just had so much junk, not to mention all the crayons we had to gather. We made our way to our connection. We had about an hour to kill. The kids were happy to get off the airplane. Hannah sat so nicely coloring her new Princess coloring book complete with stickers.

Gavin mooched some soda off Kevin, yes first we drug, then we caffeinate... See Gavin's airplanes? Kevin bought those for Gavin, Gavin loves them.

Our layover was a pleasant time of our trip, we were relaxed and our kids were happy. We got onto our flight with one minor problem... Kevin's carry-on was too big for the tiny airplane's tiny over head storage so we had to leave the suitcase at the gate. Rewind to about an hour ago, I consolidated all our carry-on items because we were traveling with too many bags. I put the diapers in the suitcase that was left at the gate. Fast forward to sitting on the plane waiting to take off... There were so many flights taking off from Newark we literally sat in line for 90 minutes baking on the airplane.... then Gavin POOOOOOOD! NOOOO!

At first I didn't realize the predicament I was in until I looked for the suitcase. It was gone. What was I supposed to do? I went to the bath room, scraped off the yuckiness in the diaper and lined it with paper towels. Call it a ghetto, white trash diaper, but I was DESPERATE. Finally after baking in the airplane for 90 minutes we took off. We landed in Norfolk, got our rental car, and drove to our hotel. We were all happy to get some sleep. The next morning we woke up at 8am (5am our time), got breakfast, and was on the road by 9am. Hannah was still a bit sleepy...

We drove 2 hours to the Outerbanks of North Carolina. We made it in one piece.

10 comments:

Allison said...

Awww! Your adventure here is MUCH more exciting than ours. You didn't tell me about the diaper problem...how funny! Today was fun, even though our kids tried to drown themselves *JK* Let's get through this week in one piece! :)

Jocelyn said...

Sounds like you are having fun. It can only get better. I so luckily that my kids have been fine on airplanes so far. As they get older, probably not as much.

Anie said...

Holy Cow!!! I'm exhausted reading about your flight! I seriously don't know what I would have done if Madi had a dirty diaper and we had NO diapers to change her. Way to be inventive!! Glad to hear that you arrived safe and sound. I'm excited to hear about the rest of your trip!!

The Rex Family said...

Wow! That sounds like a CRAZY day of traveling! I am not looking forward to traveling with 2 kids! I might go insane. Have fun!

Rachel said...

what a day! I just can imagine myself doing the poop clean out too.. ht ethings moms do! I love the outer banks.

Eldredge greatness said...

JOSH and I just laughed and laughed at EVERYTHING you wrote! You are supposed to write comical books! I'd buy them anyway. ok, why were you going to N.C? I loved how gavin POOOD! thanks for being honest abou thte white trash daiper ... I dont htink I would have ever admit that to anyone... then again..maybe I would.. haa.dude, you guys are so funny. I love how hannah is just sitting at the airport being so good with her princess book, complete with stickers! you have the cutest family courtney! I'd be proud of myself if I were you.
Way to handle the travel anxiety. poop and all.

The Peterson's said...

Wow. Is this what I have to look forward to ;). I guess you can say there is never a dull moment. Now that you got there finally in one piece.... let's hope that the trip home will be easier! Have fun and see you when you return!

Allison said...

I hope you guys made it back to LA safely! Let me know how everything went :)

Ruth said...

SO can you drug a 7 month old?

Luisa said...

Wow...fun trip! You guys did so much. I thought that lion sand sculpture was so cool.