The Trip Home

I've been enjoying time at home, so it's taken a week to get this up. I am very happy to report that we made the trip home safe and sound with little incidence. I was just hoping that everything would go well flying with the three boys by myself!
We left at 4:45am on Wednesday morning and made it to the airport in plenty of time. We actually had some time to kill, so we enjoyed a little 'kiddie' play area for a while before we boarded the plane. The boys were so cute with their little backpacks. I packed them beforehand and had all sorts of books, crayons, little toys, and snacks. It's helpful when the kids get old enough to help carry some of the baggage too!
Our first flight was only 2 hours long. We had the row to ourselves, and everyone did pretty well. It's always fun to change diapers on the plane, and do your best to keep kids and baggage contained, while trying to keep your legs from falling asleep. Matthew had some moments during the trip, but for the most part he was pretty good and didn't scream too much. :) I thought for sure that he would sleep; especially since we put them to bed late and got them up so early. He ended up only sleeping 20 minutes right at the end of the flight of course. When we boarded the plane, the stewardess was nice enough to invite the boys up to visit the pilot in the cockpit; they thought that was awesome!
We had about a 2-hour layover between the two flights, so after gathering up all our things, we made the trek across to the other side of the airport. When we got to our gate, the seats were already filled with people. Keeping three kids contained in an open, crowded area didn't sound like much fun at that point, so I decided to check and see if there was a kiddie play area in this airport as well. It took a little while to walk back down the terminal to the play area, but it was so worth it! It was awesome! It was like a giant play land designed after a real airport. It had a big plane with the cockpit, a play baggage area with pretend baggage, a big slide out the back of the airplane. There was an air traffic control tower with a phone connection to the airplane so the kids could talk back and forth; a play helicopter, and so many other things. There was a little wall that went around the whole area so I could let them run and play to their hearts content; after the first airplane ride that was heaven! Matthew especially loved his new found freedom. We stayed as long as possible before making the trek back to our gate where the passengers were starting to board.
The 2nd flight was 3 1/2 hours long and I was starting to feel ready to be done at this point; especially since it was a smaller airplane with only 2 seats per side. Originally I had Jacob and Caleb sitting together while I sat next to the other passenger on the other side with Matthew on my lap. The stewardess then informed me that the extra oxygen mask was on the other side, so I ended up having to swap Jacob places. I wondered how it would go for him and the elderly lady who was sitting next to him, but he did well and I'm pretty sure they had some entertaining conversations. This flight was a little rough for Matthew, at this point it was 11:30 our time, and he had been up since 4:45. It's hard when they're so tired, but have no room to stretch out and sleep. He only slept 20 minutes of the entire flight! Caleb on the other hand, conked out for about 1 1/2 hours which I was very grateful for. I had to do bathroom trips, change diapers and keep everyone entertained so it was nice that at least one of us got a decent nap. The boys really were pretty good and pretty much were entertained with books, toys, and snacks. I didn't even end up using the DVD player at all. The boys really didn't need it. I was definitely glad when the trip was done, I'm not sure Matthew could have taken much more of being confined on a lap in an airplane! We were all pretty excited to see Grandma. It's been fun to be home again. We've really enjoyed the past week with family. Now we're just anxiously waiting for Daddy to be able to join us!

(And yes, Jeff and I will NOT being going to Mexico after all....bummer...oh well)