The week before we left was super busy. I was trying to get things done for the trip, get all the stuff for Mom and Dad's video to the videographer, getting some last minute planting in, and keeping the Littles from going crazy. Pretty much everything worked out. Pretty much. Anyway, on Friday Amy showed up ready to go (bless her heart!) and we were packing between visits from Robyn and Brett's families. I got most things packed and was down to the nubbins (which is my least favorite part). At one point Amy and I were sitting in our shower with a bunch of little activities for Kate and Daniel to do on the plane, organizing them into little bags to be taken out throughout the flights/layover (Caroline gave me the idea). I was also creating bags of activities we would do on the way home. My goal was to be in bed by 10:30pm. By 11pm I thought I was pretty close. By midnight the lights were out and all was quiet.
Matt and I woke up at 4:20am and got ready, woke Amy up, packed the last few things in the bags, put everything in the car, turned off all the lights except the bathroom light by the kitchen. The three of us (Matt, Amy, me) slipped into the Little's room and each took one in our arms and made our way to the garage. As we put them in their car seats, Daniel says in full voice, "Are we going on the plane?!" Kate and Daniel didn't sleep the whole way to the airport (Oliver did). We had a prayer and pulled out of the garage at 5:03am. Not bad. Not bad at all! We picked up Brett on the way (he was out watering his trees when we pulled up :)). We changed the Littles into their clothes when we arrived at the airport. Kate and Daniel had been asking for several days about flying in a plane so they were especially wide-eyed at the sight of all the people and eventually the planes (and trucks and forklifts and moving walkways and extended golf carts and luggage trailers and every other cool machine that can be found at the airport).
Off we go!
When we were checking in the Delta employee said that all the passports had to be signed, even the Littles' passports. She said we could sign for them and then write "parent," which is what we did for Daniel and Oliver. But we had Kate sign her own :) I was proud of her for doing it all on her own. Our flight didn't leave until 8:30am, but we were on four different rows and were really hoping to get new seat assignments. That worked out well (thank goodness), so after we got through security it was wait time. We found a corner next to the gate, got some breakfast, and let the Littles run/crawl around a bit before we had to get onto the flight.
(Kate and Daniel waiting while we got the luggage checked and Oliver waiting to get changed in our little corner spot.)
The flights actually went really well. We went from Salt Lake to New York first. Matt sat with Kate and Daniel and across the aisle were Amy, me and Oliver on my lap. Oliver made friends with the women behind us and the folks around were entertained by D and K's comments such as, "THIS PLANE IS MOVING!!" and "It goes up in the sky??" Brett loaned us one of his Kindle Fires and Matt had downloaded several shows on it for K and D to watch. I'd looked up ways to keep toddlers/kids entertained on planes and one of the things I saw was putting a phone or iPad or Kindle in a ziplock back and hanging it from the tray table clip. It work great! The one problem we had was when descending the change in cabin pressure really bothered Daniel and Kate. They both cried, Daniel was especially uncomfortable. The people around us were so kind. Two offered us gum (we accepted some) and the flight attendant heated up some wet napkins and put them in the bottom of two cups to put over their ears (she said her mom always did that to her and she did it for her kids). It didn't seem to help at all, but the gesture was very kind. Once we were down they K and D settled down and seemed ok. One flight down, one 4 hour layover and another 4 hour flight to go...
Auntie Robyn stopped by to drop off a care package for a friend of theirs who will be at the MTC in the Dominican Republic. She also brought by little backpacks for the Littles with a little dress up outfit in each one. We pulled them out during our NY layober. A fairy and a superhero - cute kiddos. I also got some little cookie sheets at the Dollar Store for some magnet activities like these geometric shapes. They were also fun to play with
On our way to the last leg of the trip! Daniel had a wheely backpack for his carry-on. He was a champ at taking care of it the whole time. There were several employees that complimented him on taking his own luggage.
Oliver had napped for about 30 minutes on the first flight, but other than that no one had napped at all. We were arriving in the DR at about midnight (10pm Utah time). I wasn't sure how the sleeping would go on the trip but hoped they would sleep rather than exhaustion-induced-screaming on the last flight. I didn't need to worry. Before we even started down the runway we lost Kate...
And Daniel...
We admired these beautiful sunbeams as we waited for take-off.
Oliver snuggled into his Daddy's arms and was out a few minutes after take-off.
They didn't sleep the whole flight, but they still did well, all things considered. On the flight Oliver made friends with an older gentleman across the aisle. Matt later told me that the man most likely had had a stroke sometime. Oliver would reach out to him and smile and laugh. The man was delighted. Babies can do magical things. Once we arrived in the DR we were almost last off the plane and therefore last in the tourist tax line. As we stood waiting Daniel pinched his arm in the pullup handle of the carry-on. He really cried (pain and exhaustion collided). I tried to comfort him but he still wailed. After a few minutes an employee motioned for us to go to the front of the line. I felt awkward, but everyone around us said, "Go! Don't question the man, just go." They all seemed to know that it was because Daniel was crying and were ok with us moving up.
Getting our passports stamped was next and took a while. It was still fun to stand there with Amy as she got hers stamped :) Hopefully it won't be the last stamp in her passport. We were met by our cheerful Dad/Grandpa Cornish. Dominican Republic, here we come!!
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