travel journal

so this earlier this weekend j, a and i hopped a plane to our former homeland for some well deserved vacation and family time.  this is the first airplane trip where ains was required by law to have her own seat and she was excited about the big blue plane taking her to gramps and grammy.

you might ask, how does a family prepare to hop two different planes and spend a week in the mountains?

• first, you answer the toddlers questions for 2 months (really 2 weeks) about the big blue plane and what she's going to see on it.
• then you answer her questions about whose going be on the plane with her and who will be there when we land. 
• then you back two bananas, one apple, and assorted ziplock bags of snack in your carry on - and celebrate that you and your spouse were smart enough to get said child a Dora backpack for her birthday that SHE can carry on.
• then download a few television shows to your ipod....
• which you say un-repeatable things to when it inexplicably refuses to work the next morning.
• then you back four books to read while you're gone
• and take work that you need to (but won't) do on your trip
• you balance two bags to be checked and a child to the skycap.
• then you thank the gods your child is old enough to walk herself.
• you get through security and in the waiting area to see all the planes.
• you scramble around in a variety of places getting the kid to the bathroom to keep on the training schedule.
• you finish one flight and are rain delayed for another.
• you thank the metro-Nashville airport authority for providing a play area in your terminal
• you watch your child being bullied by toddlers with a shocking lack of parental supervision.
• then you teach her to fight back. 
• you finally take off on the second plane and get to your original destination
• thankful that the child was very well behaved and chagrined that you didn't need half the things you packed to distract her.  

then you spend a week in the mountains with your extended family and really regret having to come home (and do all this again!)