home again

Today was both a sad day and a happy day! I do NOT like being far away from my family!!!! We had SUCH a great visit, and I really didn't want it to end. But at the same time, I really missed my kids (and Alaska spring weather).

Mom was amazed and proud of me this morning for getting in the van at 8:30 a.m., just like we planned. I'm ALWAYS late, so doing something on time was worth mentioning here :-) It was raining most of the drive from Quincy to St. Louis, but I enjoyed the rain. We hardly ever get real rain in Anchorage, just drizzles.

We stopped close to the airport for lunch. Mom almost made us think that we'd missed all our chances to find a lunch exit because she kept passing them by, saying she was pretty sure there was food just a little further down the road. It was perfect timing, though, because she found the exit she'd been waiting for and it was 11:00 (good time for lunch in my opinion :-). Aunt Ruby and Uncle Carlos drove with us, and they got our lunch for us. I just love my family -- not just because they're generous, of course, I just love them :-)

We got to the airport in plenty of time to check my bags, find my gate, and even walk around a little. None of us are good at saying goodbye -- we were all crying :-( A very nice security lady helped Seth and me get through security faster. I really appreciated that since I was carrying Seth and our carry-ons which had three bottles of drinks for us. They let us through without a hassle, though. In all the good-bye tears, we forgot to give Uncle Carlos's handkerchief back. He'd loaned it to Seth to play with like a kleenex since we couldn't find a kleenex when he wanted one. Seth played with that thing for hours! It also came in handy while Seth was eating cookies :-)
Seth was a "normal kid" in the airports today -- several fits, quite a bit of yelling -- but he behaved very nicely on the airplanes.
He LOVES riding on those moving walkways! That entertained him the whole waiting time.
The problems came when we had to get off the walkways to go to our gate and board the plane. It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but Seth is sitting on the floor and crying. This was one of his "fits." Other ones included lying down on the floor, right in the middle of where people had to walk :-)
For some dumb reason, Seth and I were not seated together on the flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage. I was supposed to go to the counter before boarding time to get this fixed; but we spent a little too much time on the moving walkways, so I missed that opportunity for an easy resolution. I had to go the confrontational way -- not enjoyable for me or the person I had to confront, but probably pretty amusing to the people in other rows. I walked up to the row where one of us was supposed to sit and asked the two men sitting there whether they wanted to take care of my baby for the entire flight or trade me seats. Neither of them wanted to move because they didn't want to give up their window seat or aisle seat for a middle seat. But HELLO -- lady with a little kid! Way to be GENTLEMEN, the stupid bozos! Men are SUCH babies!!!!!! One of the guys actually asked me if Seth would mind! I gave him a LOOK and said, "Seriously?????!!!!! You want to take care of a baby for FIVE HOURS????!!!!" He huffed and puffed and said he'd move, even though he'd have to make several trips to get all his stuff transferred. Awwwww, the poor 50-year-old baby! I just smiled really sweetly and said, "Thank you SO much!" He just glared at me. On the way off the plane, I told him "thank you so much" again, and again he just glared at me. I do sincerely pray that God gives that man a blessing for giving up his aisle seat, even though he was a total jerk about it!

About an hour into the flight, Seth fell asleep for a couple hours. I got to sleep for about a half-hour, too.
After he woke up, he made a stinky diaper. LOVELY! We were going through some turbulence, so we were supposed to stay in our seatbelts. Some other people got up, though, to use the restroom, so we waited and waited and waited for an opening to use the "lavatory." I think they don't call it a "restroom" because it just BARELY resembles that facility. The changing table was only big enough for a newborn -- and Seth most definitely is not the size of a newborn. I was glad that there was a changing table at all, though -- what in the world would I have done without it in that tiny little space?

When we got to Anchorage, Jason and the kids were driving around the airport so that they could pull up to the baggage claim and not have to park. The first one to come in was Joel -- in his orange pj's :-) As soon as Luke and Makenzie saw me through the window, though, they ran in, too (all in their pj's -- cracked me up! -- Dad had thought ahead to the need to rush bedtime and had them halfway ready beforehand). It was SOOOOOOOO great to hug my babies and tuck them in tonight!!!!!!!

I'm sure my mom is dying to ask -- yes, Jason did everything on the list! The kids helped a little bit, but he had every single thing done that I'd asked him to do while I was gone :-) What a relief! Tomorrow's going to be a busy day of its own without having to play "catch up" from the last week! He did a GREAT job of helping make tomorrow easier!