To start the holiday season, we took a trip to Tucson, AZ to visit the Reed family, Mike's mom and dad. I will admit I was really nervous at first- but when you have babies and live far away from your parents, you come to the reality that it is just mean to NOT fly to see them, since they want to spend time with their grandbabies and all : )
So we had a Thanksgiving get together at our house with our friends here in Louisiana on Thanksgiving day, and later that night I worked hard to get the millions of baby things packed for our big trip the next morning. We had made one trip before to Austin, TX in September, so I was a little familiar with all of the "necessary" things to bring. But this was our first flight with Sean, so you have to think things over a little differently- what can go in the checked bag that might get tossed around a bit, what do you need access to while you fly, because getting extras out of the checked bag later would not be an option, traveling with liquids, etc. We left around 7 am the next morning to catch our 8:52 AM flight out of Lafayette. Our layover would be in Houston and we planned on being in Tucson by about 1 PM.
Well of course Mike kept telling me everything would be fine, because I was all jittery and nervous- a combination of not liking to fly in the first place, and then bringing my baby boy into the mix just made my nerves that much more on edge. We check in for our flight, and they tell us that our plane will actually not be leaving until 10:10 AM, which will bring us into Houston at 11:22 AM. Our connecting flight was scheduled to leave at 11:30, so they told us our only two options were to catch the later flight to Tucson (at 6:15 PM) or come back the next day. Well, we were only going to be in Tucson until 8 AM Monday morning, so we really did not want to shorter our trip by another day. So we decided to tough out the long layover and just see what happened.
Sean was a total rockstar on the first flight- He was fighting a really tough cold since the previous Sunday, so he was all snotty and yucky. His doctor said to go ahead and give him some Benadryl right before the flight- it would help with the cold, his ears, etc. for the flight, and maybe even help him sleep. So he fell asleep about 10 minutes before we boarded, and slept for the whole 40 minute flight.
When we got to Houston, we realized it was just 11 AM. So maybe we could avoid the 7 hour layover and catch the 11:30 flight?? We checked the screen for our original flight and gate number, and made our way as quickly as we could across the Houston airport (which is HUGE btw) in about 25 minutes. When we got there, a flight attendant was standing right there, "are you guys going to Tucson?" YES!" "Oh good, let me get your boarding passes...." I then explained to her how they wouldn't let us keep our original ticket at the Lafayette airport but that the flight was shorter than they planned and we made it there in time for this flight, so we were hoping to get our spots on this flight back. "Oh, you don't have tickets for this flight? Sorry. The gate is already closed. There's nothing I can do." WHAT?? The plane was still there! I showed her our 10 month old son and explained to her that I was really not looking forward to spending the next 7 hours with him in the airport, especially since I followed TSA's instructions and only brought enough bottles/food for our planned 5 hour trip. She didn't care, of course. I am just another pissed off passenger who didn't get the flight they wanted on a holiday weekend. No big deal, no skin off her back. Whatever.
So I took her advice and spoke with someone in customer care, to see if we could get another flight. Which I knew we couldn't- they already told us the next flight out was at 6:15. But I went to talk to her anyways- Mike was thinking maybe we could catch a flight into Phoenix and get our rental car there and just drive to Tucson, if it would be much quicker. After going over the flight times, drive times, time zone differences, etc. with her we figured out we would shave about 1.5-2 hours off if we could do it that way. So as I am getting the Phoenix tickets squared away with her, I remember that Sean's car seat is checked, and on it's way to Tucson already. Bah!!! So I call Enterprise to see if we can rent a car seat when we get the car in Phoenix, blah blah blah..... after getting transferred 3 times and still waiting for the right person to pick up, I finally gave up and told the flight attendant to just keep our 6:15 flight into Tucson. Defeated.
But it really wasn't that bad. We ate lunch at Ruby's Dinner in the airport, and then I took Sean for a walk around the airport to see if I could get him to nap. After he woke up, we mostly just hung out and used the portable DVD player we borrowed (thanks Katie!) to watch Super Why and kept Sean occupied. I think he enjoyed the change of scenery anyways ; ) About 45 minutes before our flight was boarding, I got Sean to fall asleep again, and he ended up sleeping for the first hour or so of the flight to Tucson.
When we got into Tucson, we got our rental (he talked us into the Chevy Tahoe because he gave us a good deal on it, haha) and made our way to Mike's parent's house. By this time it was about 9 PM Mountain time (10 PM central time!) so Sean was exhausted!! We let him explore the house for a minute, and then put him right to bed.
The next day, after getting some much needed sleep, we were all ready to start our vacation! As the sun was coming up, we got some good pictures of the view from John and Susan's backyard.
When Sean woke up, we brought out all the baby toys and let him get used to the new environment, and meet n' greet with Grandma and Grandpa Reed.
John and Susan have a bunch of bird feeders, so their backyard was always full of birds. Sean really enjoyed watching them from inside : )
Then we went to breakfast- we wanted breakfast tacos, but the place we planned on going to was closed for the holiday weekend, apparently they were renovating. So we went to Joe's Pancake House instead : )
After breakfast, we took Sean back for a nap. After he woke up, we went to go meet up with some old friends of ours- my good friend Kassie used to work with me at the Montessori in Issaquah. She and her husband Leif moved to San Tan Valley (formally Queen Creek), AZ a few years ago. It 's close to Phoenix, only about 2 hours from Tucson, so they drove down to meet us. I was not only excited to see Kassie, but also to see their 5 month old son Blake : ) He is SUCH a cutie!!!!!
After lunch with the Nordlinders, Sean was ready for nap number 2. We took him home and while he napped I went to Safeway (oh how I miss Safeway!!!) to get him some cold remedies and some foods that he liked.
After nap number two, we went to Mike's cousin Lori and her husband Kevin's house- they live really close to John and Susan. We had a leftover Thanksgiving dinner, and had a great time watching Sean interact with the Coffin's four kids. Their youngest, Ray, is only about 18 months, so he and Sean really enjoyed playing together : ) Of course, by the end of it all Sean was ready for bedtime, so we didn't really get a good picture of him smiling ; )
The next day was Sunday, and Mike's parents were going to be at church for a decent chunk of the day. So we took advantage of the alone time and RELAXED!! We also took Sean out in the backyard to play a bit, and for a stroll around the neighborhood. He went down his first slide, and got to see the cacti in AZ ; )
After playing at the house and in the neighborhood, we got Sean home for a nap. Mommy took a nap too ; ) Then we really wanted to get out to see the big cacti, so we drove down to Saguaro State park and drove the 8 mile loop around to see the desert. It was so beautiful out there.
Later that night, we made a trip across town to visit John's brother Jim and their mother Grandma Bern. Sean got to meet one of his great grandmas!!! It's always interesting to spend time with Mike's uncle Jim- he has very interesting taste in decorations around his house, and spending time with him always makes for great stories : )
Four generations photo- Sean, his daddy Mike, and his grandpa John, and his great grandma Bern
Unfortunately our vacation had to come to an end at some point. Our flight left Tucson at 8:15 AM, so we stayed up packing everything that night, and got up early the next morning to account for dropping off the rental and going through security, etc. I am happy to say that none of us received any pat downs or body imaging scans at the airport!! Our flight home went MUCH more smoothly than the flight there- we were home in Lafayette by 1:30 PM!! Here is a picture of Sean saying "bye-bye" on the Houston to Lafayette flight.
Now we are looking forward to our next trip- only 3 weeks from now, we will be getting on another plane to Portland, OR. We will be visiting my parents who live on the Oregon coast. Keep checking back for updates on that trip!!
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