Our flying day started early on a Wednesday morning. We had driven down to Concord to stay with family friends the night before our flight and our friend drove us to the airport and let us park our van there. When we got to the airport I couldn't believe how nervous I was! It was like it suddenly hit me that I was mom and these babies are flying with me. I was in charge. It wasn't until we got through security (which was a breeze) that I started to relax. I had them running all over the place before our flight which was perfect. Levi was passed out by the time where we moving on the runway he was gonzo.
 |
| making friends |
 |
| keeping occupied |
 |
| Walking on the first time! |
 |
| SO excited! |
The great thing about Scott's work is that Addilyn has sat in airplane seats before, so that was one less scary thing for her. It was wonderful. She held my hand only for our first take off and landing and all our other flights she was a big girl and didn't need to.
 |
| Gonzo... |
Her "kid" size headphones that didn't fit. My scarf came in handy for that. And actually, she only watched a movie for the last hour of our 5 hour flight. I thought we'd be utilizing all our movies but she was having a blast entertaining herself on the plane.
A big event on the first flight from Charlotte to Salt Lake was a woman who had a medical emergency. Long story short- the last hour portion of our flight the lady two rows in front of me had a seizure, went unconscious, needed oxygen and chest compressions because her blood pressure was almost non-exhistent. (I know these details because, hello, it was right in front of me). She aspirated a LOT of blood. They landed with her still lying in the isle and we parked and immediately EMT's were on board taking her off. I later found out that she had passed away. And honestly, it was probably while we were still in air.
Our second flight both of the kids were passed out while people were still boarding. It was AWESOME. Or so I thought... The pilot announced that our plane weighed too much so they had to remove fuel and it'd take about 15 minutes. After that time he came back on and said, "I just want to start by saying that it's not my fault..." He proceeded to tell us that this particular plane's fuel is in the center of the plane and cannot be done with anyone on board. Ok, remember my sleeping babies? Ya...I passed Levi to the lady who was sitting with me (she was heaven sent) and I held Addilyn. It was rough. It wasn't until we were boarding again I had the stewardess buckle Addi (by this point she was awake and I was holding Levi) and it was me trying to buckle myself that was when Levi woke up. We had an additional 2 hours of flight which was spent watching movies and playing with stickers.
 |
| an overcast Seattle |
 |
| Driving through the city |
It was a long, long day. We got into Seattle about 3pm and got to my mom's house about 5. The first thing we did was order Teriyaki. You seriously haven't had good teriyaki until you've gone to Washington. It totally hit the spot and I'm craving now....ugh
 |
| the view from my mom's room |
 |
| dinnnnnerrrrr |
One of the many highlights of our trip was hearing all of the "choo choo trains" that go by my mom's house. She lives up on a hill that overlooks downtown Stanwood, farm fields, an equestrian center, the Puget Sound, Camano Island and Whidbey Island, and a train track. We finally found out after some great debate that they have a total of 19 trains going by during the day. Four are passenger and fifteen are freight. Every time we heard a train it was a great event.
 |
| Getting ready with Grandma |
We were up at 4 am. FOUR IN THE MORNING. We were bored! There's not much to do in a small town on a drizzly morning. So luckily our good friend Pat was up so went to her house that morning and stayed until about 10:30am (because Levi was just about ready for his
afternoon nap).
 |
| He really wanted to play with her |
 |
| Pat Powell holding Levi |
 |
| Small town...we hold flags to cross the road so people can see you |
Before we went home, we were trying to extend nap time as much as we could, we went to Wayne's Cafe. It's a new place that is in a building that has had a million different restaurants. They last for a couple years and then they die out or something like that. This place was GOOD! And it's seriously like 2 seconds from my mom's house and outside the window is the train.
One very exciting event was having Katrina and her husband and daughter make a trip from SLC. I last saw Katrina when we were moving from Idaho to North Carolina. Addilyn was only a few weeks old. And now Katrina has a baby! Well, she's about 2 months younger than Levi. But it was SO exciting to see them all again! And we did it at our friend Natasha and David Pehrson's house. They too have a sweet little newborn.
 |
| Natasha with Gretchen, Me & our two, Katrina with Lily (Class of 07!) |
Another goody visiting my home for Addi besides the trains- the COWS and all farm animal life. She demanded to see cows when we left my mom's house for an outing and viola, we have cows a few feet from the road. Do you see their heads poking out of their stalls in the above pic? We did a lot of mooing during our trip.
 |
| my mom's view |
Friday we spent the morning at the Everett Children's Museum with Katrina and her fam. Thanks to our awesome pass we have, it was free for my family and my mom! It's got a few of the same features the Children's Museum here in W-S has. But this one had some pretty cool highlights- like the rooftop playground. That was the coolest in my eyes. And I only uploaded one photo from the rooftop which was this cool dinosaur dig area. They also had this massive playground that had tunnels and crazy things.
 |
| digging for dino bones. |
It was so neat to see Katrina- even if it was for such a short time. I'm so lucky that they were able to make the weekend trip. Yay!
