After a fun filled, but rainy and cold, 4th of July BBQ (our party animal Taylor, shown here at said BBQ, in her 4th of July get up); we (meaning, Tucker, Taylor and I) hopped on a plane and headed south! Yes, that is right, we went to Alabama without Ben; the one who is actually from Alabama! :)
The original plan was for all of us to spend a week down there, but then me and the kids to stay an extra week. Ben's family always spends the 4th of July together, and his mom is so great at planning all sorts of fun during that week for the kids. Usually a 4th of July parade, and lots and lots of treats are involved. And Ben's sisters come to my in-laws house for weeks at a time during the summer time so there are always lots of cousins to play with. It wasn't until these past few years that we have had a kid at the age to enjoy these events that we have actually taken advantage of this family tradition. Anyway, long story short, Ben decided that he couldn't justify leaving during the busiest time of year for the company, when he makes the most; so we went without him. People kept on asking me if I was crazy for willingly going down to spend two weeks with my in-laws and I had to explain myself over and over again, that it wasn't a mistake. :) I love my in-laws! Ben has 4 sisters whom I absolutely adore, whom I feel like are my own sisters! And I love his brother, and his wife just as much and his parents! They are all great, and I go down there and I feel like it is my own home and my own family. I love it! But
it's hard being the ones who live farthest away, we don't get to see them very often, and especially now that we have kids, we want to especially get them down there as often as we can so that they get to know Ben's family and love them as much as we do!
Anyway... I was a little nervous about a trip across the country with two small children, but I learned that my children are wonderful travelers! Thank Goodness! Because the day didn't start off so great!
Let me start at the beginning. 6am flights mean 4am wake up calls in order to get to the airport by 5. But it also means that our arrival time in Atlanta is 3pm instead of 11pm! Which we will take any day! :) Ben booked these flights for us. I had asked him that week to forward me our itinerary, just so I could have a copy. He kept on assuring me that everything was ok, he knew what the flights were and would make sure that we were where we needed to be! :) Well, we woke up, woke up the kids and were off to the airport. Ben said our flight was frontier so we waited in line, got to the counter, and frontier didn't have a flight that left at 5:55am. After a few rounds of confusion, she looked up and said that United was the only carrier that had a flight into Denver leaving at 5:55. Of course, that is the airline the FARTHEST away from the frontier counter. So, we raced to the United counter, (our return flights were with frontier, and Ben just got them mixed up!) :) and got to the United line at about 5:05-5:10. Of course, we get in line behind the one family that takes ETERNITY to check in. It was like they were doing it for the first time and had no clue what they were doing. And of course, there is only one ticket agent. We FINALLY get to the counter at 5:30. We tell her our names, and luckily we are finally in the right place. She looks at the time and tells us we have missed our flights. We have to check in at least a half and hour before the flight is scheduled to leave, or they won't let us check in at all. I couldn't believe it! We asked her to make an exception for us, did she not see the infant on my chest and the 3 year old by my side, still half asleep, that we ripped out of their cozy beds for this? She wouldn't budge. It was so frustrating knowing that the plane was still here, and we could make it, but she just wouldn't let us because of some technicality! The next flight to Denver was at 11am. So, we headed home, to get a few hours of sleep. Ben let me sleep while he stayed up with the kids, because by that time they were up! So, I went home and took a 4 hour nap until 9:30 and then woke up and did it all over again! It was a bad start to a long day! Because of this delay, or new ETA for Atlanta was 11pm.
Another thing I learned is that Denver HATES me! Many of you may recall my experience traveling through Denver last year with Tucker. He was sick, they wouldn't let me board the plane, etc, etc, etc...
Well, it HAD been a beautiful day, the first leg of the flight went beautifully. Tucker watched a movie, Taylor ate and slept. We land in Denver, and in anticipation of the 10 mile long airport, that I usually have to trek the whole length of, I brought our front pack carrier for Taylor. We get off the plane and our leaving gate is literally right next our arrival gate! It was a Denver airport Miracle! :) We headed to the bathroom and literally in the 10 minutes that we were in the bathroom, a Thunder and Hail storm hit Denver! I am not joking, like rivers on the tarmac!
This picture doesn't even do it justice.
So...they board our flight anyway, thinking that it would just pass. The plane is on the tarmac, ready for take off, and we are denied clearance because of the storm, so our pilot tries the West exit (?-something like that) and denied, tries a few more spots to take off, and denied. They keep us on the plane, on the tarmac for TWO hours! It was misery! Luckily I have the greatest kids on the planet, and I had prepared for the worst and had a lot of extra activities to do! Seriously, when we landed in Atlanta, the people on the plane just kept commenting on how well my kids were. They couldn't believe it!
Tucker decided to color some gifts for grandma & grandpa...
Here he is being silly with his Mater teeth sucker... (the best 50 cents I ever spent!)
And finally, he crashed just like this on his chair:
All the while this one did this:
I seriously don't know how I got so lucky! :) The actual 2 hours in the air were a breeze! We didn't get into Atlanta until 1am and then not into Montgomery until 3am, but we made it! And we even had all of our luggage, which was another miracle for us that day! :)
The rest of our Alabama adventure to come! :)
The original plan was for all of us to spend a week down there, but then me and the kids to stay an extra week. Ben's family always spends the 4th of July together, and his mom is so great at planning all sorts of fun during that week for the kids. Usually a 4th of July parade, and lots and lots of treats are involved. And Ben's sisters come to my in-laws house for weeks at a time during the summer time so there are always lots of cousins to play with. It wasn't until these past few years that we have had a kid at the age to enjoy these events that we have actually taken advantage of this family tradition. Anyway, long story short, Ben decided that he couldn't justify leaving during the busiest time of year for the company, when he makes the most; so we went without him. People kept on asking me if I was crazy for willingly going down to spend two weeks with my in-laws and I had to explain myself over and over again, that it wasn't a mistake. :) I love my in-laws! Ben has 4 sisters whom I absolutely adore, whom I feel like are my own sisters! And I love his brother, and his wife just as much and his parents! They are all great, and I go down there and I feel like it is my own home and my own family. I love it! But
it's hard being the ones who live farthest away, we don't get to see them very often, and especially now that we have kids, we want to especially get them down there as often as we can so that they get to know Ben's family and love them as much as we do!
Anyway... I was a little nervous about a trip across the country with two small children, but I learned that my children are wonderful travelers! Thank Goodness! Because the day didn't start off so great!
Let me start at the beginning. 6am flights mean 4am wake up calls in order to get to the airport by 5. But it also means that our arrival time in Atlanta is 3pm instead of 11pm! Which we will take any day! :) Ben booked these flights for us. I had asked him that week to forward me our itinerary, just so I could have a copy. He kept on assuring me that everything was ok, he knew what the flights were and would make sure that we were where we needed to be! :) Well, we woke up, woke up the kids and were off to the airport. Ben said our flight was frontier so we waited in line, got to the counter, and frontier didn't have a flight that left at 5:55am. After a few rounds of confusion, she looked up and said that United was the only carrier that had a flight into Denver leaving at 5:55. Of course, that is the airline the FARTHEST away from the frontier counter. So, we raced to the United counter, (our return flights were with frontier, and Ben just got them mixed up!) :) and got to the United line at about 5:05-5:10. Of course, we get in line behind the one family that takes ETERNITY to check in. It was like they were doing it for the first time and had no clue what they were doing. And of course, there is only one ticket agent. We FINALLY get to the counter at 5:30. We tell her our names, and luckily we are finally in the right place. She looks at the time and tells us we have missed our flights. We have to check in at least a half and hour before the flight is scheduled to leave, or they won't let us check in at all. I couldn't believe it! We asked her to make an exception for us, did she not see the infant on my chest and the 3 year old by my side, still half asleep, that we ripped out of their cozy beds for this? She wouldn't budge. It was so frustrating knowing that the plane was still here, and we could make it, but she just wouldn't let us because of some technicality! The next flight to Denver was at 11am. So, we headed home, to get a few hours of sleep. Ben let me sleep while he stayed up with the kids, because by that time they were up! So, I went home and took a 4 hour nap until 9:30 and then woke up and did it all over again! It was a bad start to a long day! Because of this delay, or new ETA for Atlanta was 11pm.
Another thing I learned is that Denver HATES me! Many of you may recall my experience traveling through Denver last year with Tucker. He was sick, they wouldn't let me board the plane, etc, etc, etc...
Well, it HAD been a beautiful day, the first leg of the flight went beautifully. Tucker watched a movie, Taylor ate and slept. We land in Denver, and in anticipation of the 10 mile long airport, that I usually have to trek the whole length of, I brought our front pack carrier for Taylor. We get off the plane and our leaving gate is literally right next our arrival gate! It was a Denver airport Miracle! :) We headed to the bathroom and literally in the 10 minutes that we were in the bathroom, a Thunder and Hail storm hit Denver! I am not joking, like rivers on the tarmac!
This picture doesn't even do it justice.
So...they board our flight anyway, thinking that it would just pass. The plane is on the tarmac, ready for take off, and we are denied clearance because of the storm, so our pilot tries the West exit (?-something like that) and denied, tries a few more spots to take off, and denied. They keep us on the plane, on the tarmac for TWO hours! It was misery! Luckily I have the greatest kids on the planet, and I had prepared for the worst and had a lot of extra activities to do! Seriously, when we landed in Atlanta, the people on the plane just kept commenting on how well my kids were. They couldn't believe it!
Tucker decided to color some gifts for grandma & grandpa...
Here he is being silly with his Mater teeth sucker... (the best 50 cents I ever spent!)
And finally, he crashed just like this on his chair:
All the while this one did this:
I seriously don't know how I got so lucky! :) The actual 2 hours in the air were a breeze! We didn't get into Atlanta until 1am and then not into Montgomery until 3am, but we made it! And we even had all of our luggage, which was another miracle for us that day! :)
The rest of our Alabama adventure to come! :)
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