Texas Trip Part 1- the plane ride

Oh.my.goodness. I was dreading taking Tate on a plane by myself and I was quite justified in my dreading. At least on the way to Texas. Coming home was much better, thankfully. As the 'Part 1' indicates- there will be more postings about our Texas adventures, but this is all I can handle today.

AJ drove us to the airport Friday morning and dropped us off. I somehow managed to wrangle a backpack, diaper bag, Tate in his stroller and large suitcase through the check in process. What's up with checking your bag (put the tag on it and weigh it) and then having to carry it over to the security scanner yourself?! Didn't they used to do that for you? Unhelpful. Then, we struggled through security where we had to show ID and boarding passes, take off shoes and misc., take out all liquids, and then fold up the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt while holding a squirming 1 year old. Again, not helpful. Thank God for helpful people in line near us who lended a helping hand!!!

We took a small Embraer plane with 1 seat, the aisle, and then 2 seats. The aisle wasn't even wide enough for us to walk through without smacking people with our 2 bags and 32 lb baby. I had specifically chosen the single seat when I booked our flight so that we wouldn't be next to someone and have to worry about Tate hitting them. Well, turns out there's not an extra oxygen mask for a lap child in the single seat, so we got put in a window seat next to a young man who instantly went to sleep. This meant we couldn't get our bag of toys down and we were squished for the whole flight trying not to move much and stay entertained with snacks and a few toys. Needless to say that was potentially the longest 1.5 hours of my life!

Thankfully, on the return flight, we knew what to expect for getting through security, packing our 2 plane bags, and mentally preparing for a crappy seat. Turns out, the flight attendant was a saint and we got the only empty seat next to us giving us 2 seats to play on. We were at the very back of the plane so there wasn't anything to look at. Tate ended up falling asleep on take off and didn't wake up til the plane was parked. It was AMAZING! We had a great time in Texas, but we were VERY glad to get back home and into our routine.

Sadly, in all the chaos, I forgot to take pics of us on the airplane. :( But here's one my mom took of us at the airport getting ready to fly back home.