Maddie and I flew out of Philadelphia last Thursday. I was pretty anxious about the flight, not knowing how she was going to react to the cabin pressure, to the long flight, just about everything. I was also not looking forward to going through all of this by myself. We had three legs of our trip to get through: a 2 1/2 hour flight to Chicago; a lay-over for 1 1/2 hours; a 4 1/2 hour flight to Portland.
Our first flight was a dream. The length of the trip was just long enough for both of us. We had an aisle seat and sat around some very nice people. The sun was shining. There was zero turbulence. Maddie did not react to the change in altitude at all. She didn't make a sound the entire flight! The flight attendants could not get enough of her. They would walk by and stop just to make googly eyes at her. :) When we exited the plane, I had several people stop to tell me what an "angel" she was, and what a natural flyer/traveler she is. I suppose all of the traveling we put her through at a young age really paid off, huh?
It was nice to get out of the plane in Chicago and stretch my legs. The first bummer of the trip happened when I was unfolding the stroller. I had it checked underneath the plane and brought back out as we were exiting the plane. I unfolded the stroller and one of the handles fell off into my hand. Somehow, the handle was slammed against something in flight and snapped. Luckily, we have a 1-year warranty and can hopefully get that taken care of without too much hassle! So with my two bags in tow, my baby in the stroller, and the handle carefully resting in place, we walked through the airport to our next plane.
The flight to Portland was overbooked. It was tempting (for 1/2 a second) to give up my seat for a flight leaving a few hours later. The "prize" I would have received would have been a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the continental US. Considering we live so far away, this became appealing in more ways than one. But I decided it was too much to wait around an airport with a 6-month old, by myself. It was a good decision to stick with the original plan.
We sat in the aisle again for this flight, next to a brother/sister duo, ages 9 and 11. They were SUPER excited the entire flight to be going home for Christmas. They were flying by themselves, so this made for some interesting moments, when parental control would have been appreciated by fellow passengers. Maddie didn't seem to care when the boy was tickling his sister and his arm nudged her sleeping head. Yes, tickling. Tickling, wrestling, laughing, poking, pinching, you name it; these two kids were going at it! It was alright with me, though. I was on my way home, and I decided not to care. :)
Once again, Maddie was a dream. She slept for about 1/2 of the flight, and the rest of the time, was awake, looking up at me, grabbing my face, talking, laughing, etc. I think she really doesn't mind flying, at least at this point. It was difficult sitting for that long period of time, always holding her and not getting a break. I was missing Brant for many reasons at this point! One of the flight attendants came up to us near the end of the flight and gave Maddie "wings" (the plastic pin that children wear), because she was such a good little traveler. :) The only drama I experienced on this flight was my Sprite spilling all over my lap (while Maddie was sleeping on me), being spat-up on a few times, and pouring milk into a bottle while going through turbulence...you figure that ending out! Needless to say, I felt pretty grimy when the day was through!
We arrived at the Portland Airport to be greeted by my mom and Brant's parents. They were holding balloons that said "Welcome Home!", and were full of smiles and even some teary eyes (including me!). It was such a wonderful thing to see all of them there, excitedly waiting for our arrival.
The biggest adventure, as many of you are aware, was getting Brant home. He was scheduled to take a flight out on Saturday evening. On Friday, he informed me of the weather forecast and both of us just held our breath, hoping it wouldn't come true. A blizzard was to hit the NE coast, slamming Philadelphia and New York. Princeton is located smack in between those cities, and the airport is just outside of NYC. Perfect. Well, the snow came as predicted; fast and furious. Brant was keeping me posted throughout the day, and we were crossing our fingers for the best. He was going to have to take a 1 hour train ride to the airport as well, which was also a bit of a scare, not knowing if the trains would be running through the storm.
We decided he better take an earlier train, just to be sure he made it to the airport in the first place. He had his bags all packed and his ride was ready to take him to the station. As Brant was online getting ready to check-in for his flight, he was denied access because his flight had just been cancelled. LAME!!
Instead of making a tremendously long story even longer, I will spare you every single detail and get to the point! Brant was told by the airline that he would not be getting on a flight before Christmas. He told them this was not an option and he would do anything he had to do to get home. (Good man!) Thanks to the help of Brant's loving parents, who also really wanted to get him home for Christmas, he was able to get the only ticket available for a flight scheduled to leave Sunday morning, weather permitting. Bonus? The ticket was in first class!
Brant hunkered down in the Newark Airport for 12 hours, watching the snow swirl around outside, planes shutting down, people boarding planes, eventually coming back off because the flight was not going to happen, and the departure reader board filling up with cancellations right and left. He slept for about 30 minutes that night, not able to get comfortable, and filled with anxiety and anticipation of making it onto his flight. I did not sleep well that night either, finally calling him at 3:00am Pacific Time, to see if things were looking hopeful. His plane had been worked on all through the night, as they were wanting to keep it from freezing over, and he told me they were preparing to board very soon.
In case you didn't guess it before, he made it home! His flight made it to PDX at 11:15am, without more than a 1 hour delay. Whew!
Quite the adventure, just to make it home for Christmas. But it is all so very worth it. We love being home and are having a marvelous time. We are soaking in every moment with friends and family and having a blast! I will post again soon, with pictures and even more recent adventures we've been having. :)
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