Reality Check

Quick update regarding work......I'm so sad the my pseudo"girlfriend", Alex, at work, is leaving. It's kind of like your younger brother leaving home. I trained him to perform part of the work we do when I was pregnant with Sweet Pea. He was one of the three worker bees in the department. He's the guy I can look to and have a mutual humorous understanding, biatch or whine. Now our department consists of one other full-time co-worker, two mid level bosses and one department head. The good news is that I get along with pretty much all of them. The sad news is, I don't have anyone to BS with. The good news is, that he's leaving for something he'd started pursuing 4 years ago, to be a fire fighter. I'll miss him a lot......sniffle.....weep.....SOOOOBBBBB!


I know, you're already asking, where's the biatch part about the wedding? Well, I thought it deserved it's beautiful description before I got into the details of our 'hardest vacation ever"!! ::wink:: Let me first say this, Handsome is still on a two - nap - a day schedule, Sweet Pea needs a nap on most days. They both wake up so early that they need them. I have to say, I wrote all this down in long hand and I felt better after it was all out, so hopefully, I can look back at this trip a little 'rosier'.


WED

The WED. before the trip was a late night, the kids were bathed, the bags packed, my bags packed......I fell into bed at 1:00 am. Not the greatest start, and I still had some work to do. I had done the on-line (24 hour ahead) pre-boarding passes and thought I was doing great with A51, A52 and A53.


THURS

We woke a little later than normal time, somewhere around 7:30 am, I showered, fed and dressed the kids and as I packed my last few items......Husband strolled out of bed......Nana called twice during the morning and I called her back once. Which, is awesome.......for us!


We arrived at the airport Park and Ride at 10:30 am (I would recommend this to anyone). They picked us right up and right away, Sweet Pea had to know his name (I don't recall his name, but know he was wearing a red shirt). When we arrived at the airport we still had to wait in line and check baggage and to re-do my boarding pass, as we had to prove Handsome was less than 2 years old. There turned out to be a 35 minute wait due to the plane being delayed, which actually gave us some time time sit back and relax. We grabbed a good 'ol Happy Meal for Sweet Pea to enjoy before the flight.


Just as we finished the meal, and some really horribly salty popcorn, we started to board. Although we were in Group A we boarded after many people(eye roll), you'd think they would have kids and families board first (I was told many other airlines do that, but for some reason, not Southwest). We boarded the plane and all 4 of us took up a row with Nana and Papa and an empty seat behind us. Handsome was terrified during take-off and was in Daddy's arms, whom, I really didn't see do anything to help sooth my baby. Handsome does not like when his stomach drops, which is probably why he hates elevators. I take Handsome half way along the 'climb' and sing the familiar Ariel song, during which he seems much more relaxed.


During the flight, we watched The Little Mermaid and some Dora. Sweet Pea popped back to Nana and Papa and colored in her new Princess coloring book. Handsome fell asleep just before landing.......more tummy drops and white-knuckling for my baby boy.


The luggage retrieval and car rental went pretty fast. Fast enough to arrive in rush hour. It wasn't terrible and the scenery was beautiful. The hotel was upscale and on a lake outside Seattle, Washington. Our room, well, our room did have a sliding glass door that opened, however there was no balcony. Our view was the busy intersection of the small, I guess you'd say, plaza, where many wedding occurred over a short period of time. So that meant a lot of traffic was coming and going past our window.........The decor was serene, the beds were lush and the bathroom was one that I want for my own! They had a pack-and play set up for Handsome and it had it's own sheet, blanket, and little towel with a miniature J&J lotion and head and body wash. After we got settled and unpacked DH accidentally ordered a "Dora" on demand......25 minutes and $2.99 later, we found the PBS channel. Grrrrr!

We called Nana and Papa who gave us Uncle D's number who I called to remind him to bring out the box of stuff I had mailed a week earlier. We ate dinner at the restaurant connected to the hotel. Great food, but dinner went too long....Little did I know that that would be a little forewarning to many of the meals we had that weekend. So a tired Mommy and Daddy and kids retired to the bedroom, later it would feel like our 'cell', where the kids stayed up until 10 pm Seattle time, midnight Chicago time. Uncle D had forgotten the box and made a round trip for us so we were ready to hit the ground running in the morning!