A Post 4 Months In The Making

It has been a looooong time since our beach vacation in July, but I still want to post about it. For posterity's sake.

July 12 I flew from Dallas to Raleigh by myself with the girls. Jaina was still at the "sleep all the time" stage, so I popped her in my pouch sling and put LIbby in a little harness with a stuffed monkey back-pack on it. I packed tons of activities for the flight to keep Libby occupied and three changes of clothes for each girl and one for me in case of blow-outs. For a few weeks before we left, Libby had been obsessing about airplanes ("panes!"), so I was looking forward to seeing her encounter the real thing again.

John dropped us off at the airport and helped me get all the bags checked. We were able to fit both car seats in one car seat bag, which totally resulted in me high-fiving John right there in front of everyone. Then, with butterflies flying to burst their way out of my stomach, I proceeded to security with the girls. We got to the gate and I had to take Libby's harness off. Because my sling was all cloth, I was able to keep it on and Jaina asleep in it while I went through. I got all the shoes off and everything up on the belt, and proceeded to the metal detector. Libby went through first, said "Hi!" to the security guard, then took off running down the terminal. The guard looked at me and said "you better run!" By the time I got back to security, barefoot and dragging my barefoot two-year-old, all the guards were laughing and cheering. I had forgotten to remove my laptop from my carry-on, so they had to "search" my bag and send it through again. The security team were all very friendly, patient, and understanding of my situation. Thank goodness!

We got to our gate, and Libby went nuts seeing the planes taking off and landing. While we waited to board, I just had to sit and watch Libby watch the planes while Jaina coninued to sleep in the pouch. I remember thanking my lucky stars that my little girl just happened to be in love with planes that week. During a lull in plane activity, I took Libby on the escalators for 15 minutes. That's a lot of up and down!

Another round of sympathy got me on the plane right after first class boarded. I got Libby settled and nursed Jaina while every one else boarded. The flight was so uneventful it was scary. The whole time I was thinking "Is it really going so well?" I kept waiting to have an Evelyn travel moment with children throwing up and screaming and turbulance and all that. But it never happened. At one point Libby was getting restless, so I looked around and saw a grandmotherly lady sitting behind me. I asked her if she would mind holding Jaina for a few minutes. I think that made her day. I got the computer out and turned on "Finding Nemo" for Libby then hung out in the aisle and talked to the lady while she loved on Jaina. We arrived at RDU with no delays and no problems. Heaven was smiling on me that day!

I called Mom and Dad as soon as I landed, and by the time I got down to baggage claim they had arrived. Mom dragged my bags out to the curb, Dad installed the car seats, and we were off for my sister's house. When we arrived Jaina was freaking out and refusing to nurse, so I pulled out some of the frozen milk I had brought from Texas and someone fed her while I ran up to my room and pumped. I think that milk is still in Lauren's freezer...

Lauren made Dinner and everyone loved on Jaina while Libby played with the kids. It was a great first day.