Day 1–Airplanes

We started our trip on Thursday, the 26th.  It was cold and rainy so we were excited to be heading to the warm South!

We are not morning people so we opted for a later flight that would get us into Atlanta at 11:30pm.  We reasoned that with the time difference that would only be 8:30 for the girls and they wouldn’t be too tired.

We didn’t account for delays.

The girls did wonderful on the plane!  They read books, colored, did puzzles, and stickers.

They were thrilled because since S doesn’t chew gum I told them they could suck their thumbs on the plane to pop their ears.

T and I did not fare as well.  On the 2.5 hour flight to Phoenix the Captain was able to turn off the seat belt sign for about ten minutes, and much of that time the flight attendants were even sitting down.  I don’t know if it was the rainy weather below us or what but it was one of the bumpiest flights I've ever been on. 

The girls didn’t know any different so it didn’t bother them, other than once when I had to take K to the bathroom and she was getting thrown into the walls.  Not fun.  I’m not a big fan of flying anyway, so I was pretty miserable.  T and I were both sick for hours after we got off.

Fortunately and unfortunately when we got to Phoenix we heard that our plane was delayed almost two hours.  That combined with our already over two hour layover gave us plenty of time to get back on our feet! 

I had been planning for S to nap on our second flight but since we were delayed so long I knew I had to try for an airport nap. They both laid down for over an hour but neither ever went to sleep.  The wait actually wasn’t that bad, but by the time we got on the next plane S was exhausted.  It was a little over 3 hours for that flight.  We read some books and then I turned on Curious George for them.  I had the movie sitting on the seat between them but a little ways into it I figured looking down might make them sick.  I put it up on the tray and realized S was still looking down.  She’d fallen asleep.

I tried to help her into a more comfortable position while K finished the movie.  A little while later I realized I wasn’t expecting her to fall asleep so she wasn’t wearing a pull up.  I tried to tuck one around her but couldn’t get it on well without waking her up.  I managed to tuck it close enough that when she did pee it only soaked the pull up and her dress.  Which was enough to wake her up and make her cry pitifully while I tried to get her changed in the dark of the airplane.  By that time the movie was finished and I told both girls they needed to go to sleep.  Eventually they did and slept hard for the last hour of the flight including the landing.

Boo didn’t even wake up when we unbuckled her.  T scooped her up and carried her through the Atlanta airport, which was HUGE, we didn’t know it was an international airport. 

We landed at 12:45 and the flight attendants said, “The plane train stops running in 15 minutes and if you miss it you have a LONG way to walk.”  So we all ran off of the plane and made it with literally 90 seconds to spare on the second to the last train.  We were on it for at least five minutes and that thing was really fast so I’m sure it would have been quite the walk.  Especially since T and S were like this…

We finally made it to baggage claim and got all our bags and both carseats (I was very happy everything made it!) and then we had to drag it all and both girls through the airport to take a monorail to the car rental place. 

Once we finally got in the car K fell asleep but S, who’d been woken at baggage claim, stayed awake.  We drove the 30 minutes to our hotel, checked in and walked into the room just as the clock read 2:45am. 

It was a LOOOONG day.  I was totally wondering if the trip was worth it.  We were all exhausted.  BUT the next day was one of the best days of our trip and totally made up for it.  More about that tomorrow…