2,391 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Fly With Babies...

The nicest thing about my husband's job with US Air is being able to fly standby for free. Without that little perk we'd never go anywhere, since the not-so-nice thing about his job is that it pays a little over nothing. Last week we took advantage of our flying privileges to head back east for the wedding of one of my good friends from college. Flying standby. With two babies. Over the holidays. Yep, we're crazy. Let me add here that my daughter, who is just the sweetest 19 month old you could meet, turns into a psychotic nightmare on airplanes. Nonetheless, we approached the trip with cautious optimism. Oooh boy.

We left on Tuesday. One of the problems with flying standby is that since you don't have to pay for a ticket, you are less inclined to consider things like departure times with the gravity that they deserve. We got to the Flagstaff airport ten minutes too late to feasibly make our first flight. No good excuse for that. We got on the next plane, extending our travel day by two hours. Oops. Rory will not/cannot sleep on planes. She became overtired and horrifically cranky. Our flight from Phoenix to Charlotte was a disaster. As was the one to Cleveland. On that plane, a sweet flight attendant had mercy on us and took Rory to the back with her, where she gave her a can of pringles that Rory happily crushed all over the floor. We were not very popular, but we survived. We also survived a screw up with our rental car, and finally made it to my friend Emily's house. Emmy and her husband have a baby boy exactly one week younger than Sebastian. Philip and Bash are going to be penpals one day. Side note: One thing I really love about the East is the really cool architecture. Things are so OLD there! I love how much character the houses have (Emily and her family live in a beautiful brick home that you'd never find in Flagstaff). It was SO great seeing my Grove City friends and catching up on their (much more glamorous than my) lives.

Megan married Tyler in a beautiful old church in a park near her childhood home, wearing the wedding dress that both her grandma and mom wore. And, I had forgotten about one fabulous tradition that this part of the country practices: a cookie table at the reception! You get to eat delicious cookies all evening, then fill up a little bag to take home. Those cookies were life savers flying home (we stuffed Rory full of them to keep her in a state of semi-contentment).

A fuzzy picture of the bride and groom

Emily and Philip and Rorykins and Blake at the reception

Karen and Alex!

Philip and his affectionate parents

Natalie, making the world wonder why she's not going into pediatric medicine

Bash was very content with his Auntie Natty

Blake and Rory being all good looking and stuff

The kiddos were troopers the whole day!

Sebastian and Philip and the mamas

My baby girl has stellar rhythm, and boy, does she love to dance.

Father/son- what handsome guys!

Natalie took Rory for a walk (a little harder to train than a puppy though)

Someone got a little sugar-loopy...

Freshman roomies- Viva room 167!

Auntie Alex and Bash

Some of the FUN and a miniFUN too.

Rory was astounded that someone else had a baby too.

He's stingy with his smiles, but they're heart melting!

Bash loves his sister!

A picture of the boys to show them when they're BFFs one day.

We were supposed to fly home on Thursday (the wedding was Wednesday). We planned our travels so that Rory would nap in the morning before the flight. After a terrible trip back to Charlotte (TSA in Cleveland was awful!), we decided it was best to split our travel day in half and spend the night there. We crashed at a hotel near the airport and spent the evening considering our options for the next day. Unfortunately, we had forgotten that the Fiesta Bowl was going on in Phoenix, making flights unusually full. On top of that, a glitch by the airline overbooked all of the flights out of Charlotte, meaning that flying nonstop from there to Phoenix was impossible. So, late in the afternoon we flew from Charlotte to Indianapolis. We rushed off the plane in Indy and boarded our next flight right as the doors were about to close. Our seats were split up on that flight, with me and Rory occupying two seats in the front and Blake in the emergency exit row a few back. We figured that someone would be kind and switch so we could all be together (we did have two babies, after all!), but the sweet old lady had paid extra for her window seat and didn't want to give it up, and the man across the aisle explained that his wife was sitting a row back on the other side. He then proceeded to listen to his headphones the whole flight and never even looked at her. Blake couldn't even help hold Bash since he was in the exit row. I didn't feel too bad when Rory fussed. However, we made an adjustment that brought about a huge improvement in Rory's flying experience- we brought on her car seat. I highly recommend doing this for your wiggly toddler if you can. She even slept some! After flying from Indy to Phoenix we got on our plane to Flagstaff and arrived home completely exhausted, but relatively happy. It was worth the trip to see my friends, and we overcame great trials and emerged stronger! Go Team Bowen!
Random notes from the trip:
- I used to drink a mixture of Sprite and cranberry juice on planes (do you something that you always drink on airplanes?). This time, I tried something new: orange juice and ginger ale. It's not as sweet tasting as the first, and is kind of like punch! I recommend it. Plus, when you mix things, the flight attendants sometimes give you both half-left cans!
- Flights do go by quicker when you're working on keeping babies entertained and reasonably happy. I didn't even have the chance to get a picture of Bash on his first (or second, or third, or...) plane ride.
- People are really friendly in North Carolina.
- People aren't so friendly in Cleveland (except Emmy and James and Philip, of course).
- People live in townships and boroughs back east, not counties.
- The best thing we brought for Rory on the airplane (other than her car seat and a big bag of craisins ((which she scattered a la Hansel and Gretel in the Cleveland airport)) was a little compact mirror and makeup brush. Do yourself a favor and pack one for your baby girl on your next trip. Just don't leave it in the seat back pocket when you get off the plane.