Our Trip...Part 1

Our trip to California was very eventful. It was so nice to see everyone again. We've missed our family and friends very much. That has been the only downfall to this move and it's taking some adjustment. I'm already looking forward to returning in the summer!

We spent the night at family's house in Houston before leaving for the airport. 

We had to park miles away from the airport and catch a parking shuttle. Let me tell you, this was very fun with three small children, two strollers, one car seat, three humongous bags, two back packs and one carry on! It was already dark outside and getting cold, but the kids did very well on the shuttle. Hannah even slept, despite the herky-jerky ride. When we got off the shuttle, we had to pop up the strollers, strap in the kids and find a way to handle all of the luggage across two sets of lanes to the outdoor baggage check. Once we got the three large bags checked, it seemed like smooth sailing...until security check! 

To get to security, we had to get on an indoor shuttle, which took us to the appropriate elevator, which took us up to security. From there, complete chaos ensued for about ten minutes or so. Needless to say, we held up the line as we removed all of our shoes, jackets, two laptops, dvd player, collapsed down the two strollers, removed baby from car seat and RAN IT ALL THROUGH THE CONVEYER. Not to mention getting the girls to walk through the metal detector one at a time and STAY WITH ME as I held the baby and Craig tried to nab our stuff off the belt and pop the strollers back up - we needed Jenna securely fastened somewhere, somehow! :) She did not like the security check!!

We waited for an hour to board the plane, watching Little Mermaid II on the dvd player while we sat and ate dinner.

Thank goodness for portable dvd players!
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This is when I started to get nervous, but before I knew it, we were walking down the hallway thing (what are those called anyways?), collapsing strollers and carrying baby/ herding kids onto the plane. I must say, our kids were as close to angels as they could have been on that flight. Whew! Jenna slept the ENTIRE three hours - until we raised her seat back on descent. Cohen nursed periodically and slept in between feedings. Hannah watched Dora on the dvd player after take off (during take off I had to make up some creative princess stories and tell them with a smile while I gripped the arms of my seat and trembled – yes, trembled – as we lifted into the air). Craig has flown a lot and said this was one of the most consistently bumpy flights he’s ever been on – figures! Believe me, I felt very weird when the pilot requested everyone remain in their seats with their seat belts on as I held my infant son in my arms! Next flight – if ever! – I will be getting him his own seat. The irony? We thought if there was an empty seat, we could carry on his car seat and use it, but they made us check it at the gate and one of the only empty seats on the plane - not only on the way there but on the way back, too - was right next to my husband!!! Geez… So I said a few prayers as we bounced about and felt much, much better. I was being silly; we would be just fine. Finally, my knee stopped bouncing up and down like crazy.

At Oakland, we landed safely :) and caught yet another shuttle to the rental car place. Getting to the shuttle was an adventure. We had to walk across two sets of lanes, down a path through a very dark, very eerie construction zone and into a parking lot where the shuttle stop was.

We were a bit concerned; it was very dark and very late. In Oakland.

The shuttle showed up about 10 minutes later and we were off to the rental car place.

Craig was relieved to have made it so far... tired, but relieved...

When we got to the rental car place, they did not have Jenna and Hannah’s rental car seats on the reservation that Craig’s company’s travel agency made for us. And get this: they would not take our debit card because it was not the original card used to make the reservation, and they would not take cash because it was too late. So tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumb behind the counter recommended a Wal-Mart down the street.

It was 1:30 in the morning.

My kids were all awake and cranky.

How were we supposed to get to Wal-Mart without car seats?!!! Was Craig supposed to leave us there, alone? Thank goodness Craig remembered that he had printed out a copy of the reservation listing two car seat rentals. And low and behold! Another reservation under Craig’s name magically appeared - with the car seats on it.

1:30am - rental car place. Jenna is trying to escape her stroller and Hannah is just a tad bit grumpy! And you can't see Cohen, but you would have heard him! :)

Finally, we loaded into the car and drove to the nearest, safest looking, very well lit gas station :) to nurse hungry Cohen and change the girls. Then we began the two hour drive to my parent’s house.

At 3:30am (5:30 our time!) we arrived exhausted, feeling like we’d taken a trip around the world. We climbed into our beds, hunkered down beneath the warm covers and got a few blissful hours of sleep…until Jenna woke us up with the sunrise.