I just realized I haven't blogged about my big Missouri trip last month, so here's the BIG post.
Thursday afternoon we picked Mike up at work and he took us to the Mesa airport on his (long) lunch break..
When I put my suitcase on the scale at the airport I turned to Mike and said, "Ha! It's exactly 50 lbs!!!" It was then that the lady at the desk let me know, "The weight limit is 40 lbs." Grrr.
Mike had gotten a bunch of snacks for the boys the night before, and they were VERY appreciated.
We had a direct flight to Springfield. As we were flying, Lauren was in labor in Kansas City. We decided, rather than stay the night in Clinton as planned, we would drive all the way to Kansas City. We arrived shortly after midnight. That just so happened to be when Madeline was born!
Friday morning we all (my family plus Joseph) ate breakfast, got ready, and took Joseph up to the hospital to meet his baby sister. It was really fun to be there right after the birth of my new niece.
My bag was still stuffed with things to entertain the boys on the plane, so they were plenty entertained in the hallway while Joseph got to know Madeline.
Benton climbed in this bouncer by himself.
Ethan took a picture of us.
Tuesday was our trip to Pump it Up with Joseph that I blogged about before.
Wednesday was Benton's first birthday!!! I spent the morning trying to find a place with balloons and helium. I guess there was a helium shortage I hadn't heard about.
I got some donut holes for Benton at the store.
When Mom got home, we went over to the Jeppson's for a birthday party!
Ethan got Gordon. Nana had taken him to the store with the understanding that he would not be getting a train. He was so indecisive about non train toys that she eventually conceded that he should just get Gordon. Can you tell how he felt about that?
Thursday morning we went for a walk. Ethan is following and talking to this guy even though the dogs were not friendly enough to pet. Ethan has to be one of the most confident kids I've ever known.
Friday we did Benton's photo shoot and then went birthday shopping for Lisa (I had already had my turn).
I try to get myself in some pictures.
Then Mom took my boys down to Clinton and Lisa and I went to Harrisonville to begin our 10 year HS reunion. I don't know why we didn't take more pictures! Friday night was the homecoming football game. HHS won 44-3. Then, for old times sake, a group of us went to Applebee's.
One of our former YW leaders, who we have stayed friends with, invited us to stay at her house rather than drive home late Friday night. We stayed up talking and catching up and then got up to run a 5k at the high school. It was awesome to only be sleeping 5 minutes from the high school on such a late night and early morning.
The race was fun because it went through our old neighborhood and park. My time was a PR and Lisa was the second overall woman!
After the race we drove down to Clinton to get cleaned up and let Lisa see all the changes to the house. Benton got confused and started following Lisa around clinging to her.
Wish I could have figured out the exposure on this one.
From Clinton we went to our reunion's family picnic, but without kids so they could nap and we could enjoy more time with our friends.
Lisa had compiled a bunch of "where we are now" information to print for the reunion. We spent our afternoon looking for a reasonable place to print them. Everything in a small town was closed on Saturday, but the library eneded up being the answer.
Here is Lisa in front of Harrisonville's historic log cabin.
Saturday night was the actual reunion (dinner at the community center). We had a really good turn out, but didn't get a picture until many people had left.
We left the reunion around 12:30am I think. The plan was to sleep in Basehor at my Mom's and then take Lisa to the airport for a 6:30am flight. Lisa was nice enough to suggest I just drop her at the airport (1:30am I think) so that I could get more than like 2 hours of sleep. I went back to Basehor, arriving at about 2:30am and got a normal amount of sleep before driving down to Clinton.
I arrived to find the boys having a lot of fun "helping" in the yard.
Our flight left Springfield at 8:30pm Sunday. There was another 3 year old waiting to get on our plane, so Ethan went over and asked if he wanted to play (I coached him on how to ask). The boys had a great time waiting. The airplane travel with two boys and a car seat is such a pain. I am not allowed to check in online with an infant on my lap, and airlines don't do family boarding anymore, which means I am in the LAST boarding group. Someone offered to carry Ethan's car seat for me (to the back row), but I still couldn't fit down the aisle carrying Benton and our stuff without bumping every person in the full aisle seats. Some flight attendants finally came to my aide as I was holding things up (exactly the reason I wanted to board early). Benton dozed in and out most of the flight, but seemed too uncomfortable and kept waking up fussing.
The really hard part was getting off the plane. Because I was in the back row, by the time it was my turn to get off, no one was left to help. There was no way for me to carry my stuff and Benton, so Benton had to walk the entire length of the plane himself. He was still new enough to walking that this included sitting down frequently. None of the flight attendants offered to help until he got to the exit because we were exiting onto a stairway straight onto the tarmac. Between that, and paramedics delaying us getting off the plane while they dealt with a medical issue, it took us an hour to get in the car after the plane landed. LATE night for us. Thanks again for letting me sleep Sunday morning Lisa!
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