The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: A trip to Washington

Well, a lot happened on our trip, so rather than write it all out in a LONG, well written post, I thought a bullet point post of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly would be better.

• We (my mom, The Princess, and I) woke up early Friday morning and headed for the airport. We dropped off our luggage and The Princess’ car seat (in the nice travel bag). We were off and on our way to the gate. We made it through security with no problem. We ate breakfast from one of the restaurants in the airport, made one last trip to the bathroom, and boarded the plane. We had a whole row just for the 3 of us and The Princess ended up getting her own seat. It was great. She fell asleep on me and slept for most of the flight. Somewhere before we made it to Seattle, I got a paper cut on my finger. The first of many “boo boo’s” I would get.


• Once we made it to Seattle, we met up with my Sister In Law, T., and got to see the baby belly for the first time in months! It was great! We picked up our suitcases and were looking for The Princess’ car seat. It was not coming out with the regular luggage. T. went to ask where the over sized luggage would be. We went to this location and NOTHING came out. We went back to the Southwest luggage place and asked about it. They said it must not have gotten on the plane in Phx. WHAT!?! She assured us it would get on one of the next flights and would be delivered to T.’s house. They gave us a loaner in the mean time. Not the best plan, but it will have to work. We were NOT waiting for the next flight to come in just in case it was on it. We took the loaner and went back to T.’s house. (after stopping to buy diapers, since I had strapped a pack of them into the car seat for the trip!)

We waited around ALL night for our car seat to arrive. Around 7:30 it had still not shown up, so I called SW airlines and they had NO IDEA where our car seat was! The lady said there were two places it could be. It had either traveled to Seattle at some point and then flown to Vegas, LA, and was in San Francisco OR it was still in Phx. Either way, she said, it would be found before the end of the night and would be delivered first thing in the morning.

Saturday morning comes around and we get a call. The car seat would arrive between 7:30am and 11:30am. They told us we could just leave the loaner car seat at the door and they would switch it, in case we needed to leave. We reminded them that we could NOT leave without a car seat, so we would be home. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, around 11am the car seat showed up! That ended the car seat drama.

• Diabetes did NOT cooperate for The Daddy this weekend. The Superhero had highs and LOWS and The Daddy did great at staying patient with it all. I am glad he got a break on Sunday night when my dad took The Superhero. I know how hard managing D can be, especially when it does not cooperate AT ALL. They even managed to see a movie, which The Superhero did not care for (How to Train your Dragon) and they went indoor mini golfing, which The Superhero loved. So, thanks to The Daddy(and my dad) for letting me go away and for managing the D monster while I was gone.

• While waiting for the car seat to arrive I went out to the garage to get the loaner out of the car to have it ready by the front door. To get to the cars in the garage, one must climb down about 7-8 stairs. I went out there to get the car seat and somehow, clumsy me, missed the last step and FELL DOWN. I got up, since I felt so stupid. I tried to shake it off. I got the car seat and went back up the stairs and went inside. I looked in the bathroom mirror and my left arm was VERY bruised and my left side was scraped and bruised. I was very sore, and knew it would probably feel worse the next day. Which it did. This was the second of the “boo boo’s”.

• Somehow I ended up with a paper cut on my other hand too. More bandaids and Neosporin.

• We had an awesome time at the baby shower on Saturday and enjoyed hanging out with all of T.’s friends. She got a TON of gifts. This baby will not need clothes or shoes for a LONG time.

• We went to church with Eric (my brother) and T. on Sunday. The Princess LOVED the kids room for her age. It was HUGE and had tons of things to play with/ ride on. She did amazing and was a very good girl. We went to pick her up after the service and she was running toward me and tripped over her OWN feet and hit her face to the floor. Only my daughter! She had a little red mark for the morning.

• We went to brunch with some friends(Mike, Cathie, and Mackenzie) of E. and T.’s. You may have read about Mike on my blog, since he is riding for The Superhero. We had a great time hanging out with them and their adorable daughter Mackenzie.

• Sunday night we had a nice dinner at E and T’s house with T’s parents and sister. The Princess REALLY enjoyed T’s sister, J. She also enjoyed J.’s shoes. She would put on her HIGH heels and walk around. It was really cute.

• We were getting ready to leave on Monday morning. We had planned to leave for the airport around 9:45. Our flight was scheduled for 12:20pm. T. went off to work and E. planned on taking us to the airport. My mom ended up having some chest pain (previous heart stint). We made the decision to take her to the ER and deal with our flight afterwards. We got to the hospital and she was taken back immediately. T. offered to take The Princess and I to the airport so we could make our flight. I made the decision that it would be best for me to go ahead and catch the flight with The Princess. Keeping a 1 year old in the ER waiting room, was not a good option. I knew my mom would be in good hands with my brother. So, off we went.

We made it to the airport a little later than originally planned and I was on my own! T. dropped us off with our luggage. I strapped The Princess on my back with my AWESOME ERGO. We checked in our luggage and headed for security. I was doing very well emotionally and was making it work. We got to go through the preferred passenger line because of The Princess and went right to where we took our shoes off. I put everything in a bucket. Sent it through the machine and The Princess and I walked through the x-ray machine. While waiting for our bucket on the other end, the security guy asked me about her sippy cup. Oh crap! I meant to dump out the little bit of water that was left. I explained that it was water and I was willing to dump it out if he wanted me to. He saw The Princess on my back (and I guess figured the cup must be hers), he let us go through. For some reason though, this triggered an emotional outburst from me. I started sobbing for no apparent reason. I felt like an idiot sitting there putting my shoes back on. It was ridiculous. I got control of myself again and headed to find a restaurant. We grabbed some Wendy’s chicken nuggets and fries, headed to the restroom for one last potty break, and then to our terminal.

We ate REALLY fast and were then called to board. I strapped The Princess back on and off we went. We found an empty row. I took the window seat and put The Princess in the middle (the flight attendant told me it was not a full flight and that S could have her own seat). I was secretly hoping that S would be a good deterrent from anyone else sitting in our row. The problem is, there were a TON of kids/babies on our flight. Some guy (a weird, creepy man) sat down on the isle seat. Then The Princess, a little creeped out, crawled in my lap. She snuggled up and started to fall asleep just as we were taking off. THEN it hits me! This was the bumpiest take off I have ever felt. I was holding on to my baby girl and thinking “What if something happens to us? What would The Daddy do without us?” And the tears started AGAIN. I am lucky I was able to face the window and no one else could see the major water works pouring down my face. The Princess was fast asleep and I gained control of myself once again.

I pulled out the ipod I had just gotten from E and T. (I asked for one for my birthday since I still did not have one, they had an extra one and gave it to me, pre-loaded with their music choices). I enjoyed listening to the music they had loaded, or at least most of it. Lots of Glee and music from their church (which I knew some of from the radio) and then I would skip past the Pink Floyd. Not really my taste. I cannot believe how fast our flight went because of The Princess sleeping and the ipod!

We had a VERY bumpy flight. I have never had one so bumpy. I think it helped The Princess sleep, but I did not enjoy all of the ups and downs. Luckily with the ipod, the next thing I know, it was time to land. The Princess was still sleeping. We landed. She was still sleeping .She did not wake up until we were actually standing up to get off the plane. It was great! AND our car seat made it on the same flight this time! My dad and The Superhero were waiting at baggage claim to pick us up.

Mom is fine. She ended up leaving the hospital a while later after some tests. Then she caught a later flight and made it home around 10 last night. I am so glad it turned out to be nothing.

I will put up some pictures later. My camera is in my mom’s purse.

All in all, it was a GREAT trip. Of course, I could do without the cut fingers, bruised arm and side, missing car seat, and chest pains for mom.