My dad drove us to the airport. It was 4:30 am and we were out of it, getting the kids and all of our stuff into the car. I won’t say just how little sleep Matt and I had.
I’ve never packed so “light” for a trip, but all that really means is that I’ve never packed so few clothes for a trip. Ever. The sad thing about how light we’ve packed is that I feel like we still have a lot of stuff. There were many things to bring on our trip so an extra duffel bag got pulled out in the end and I hope all of our things (including a full-sized stroller) fit in the taxi at our final destination. Umbrella strollers are just short enough to strain my back and Caleb is just big enough that one would have been a stretch, so we whipped out our very first stroller from our short-lived just-Titus days. If we have to leave it on a curb somewhere, so be it.
So… leaving Arizona I was in two shirts, the top being a sweater, and a winter coat. Because wearing two shirts now gets me one more shirt to wear later. It’s technically the end of “Day 2” as I sit here typing this (on our last flight, to be uploaded later) and this has been my outfit for a full 3 days. The same clothes for 3 days is also a new one for me, but I’m hoping those around me aren’t smelling anything.
Flying into Colorado with all of our stuff for our trip and all of the kids’ stuff for their stay in Nebraska meant this was the first time that pulling rolling luggage wasn’t just a special privilege for them (we needed those little hands working). ;)
My cousin and her husband were able to meet us at the airport when we got in for a quick (1 hour-ish) visit. I would have loved so much more time with her, but it was very nice. They also helped us get our stuff out to the shuttle for our car rental.
On the shuttle, Titus pointed at the snow in the ditches and asked, “Daddy, what’s that white stuff?” Matt sort of laughed and told him it was snow. Titus smiled, but looked like he might have been the tiniest embarrassed that he hadn’t realized it for himself, then replied, “Oh, I thought it was sugar.”
So I took the kids over to a pile of snow in the Alamo parking lot and encouraged them to touch it. I tossed a snowball at Titus to show him and you can imagine that they each threw quite a few. At one point, I explained to Ella that sometimes the snow hardens into clumps and then it doesn’t break apart like a snowball is supposed to and can hurt. So she threw the clump at me and said, “Iceball!”
I had double checked days in advance that we could get our lunch from Taco John’s as we drove to Nebraska.
We had so few hours to spare in Nebraska that we arranged to meet family and friends at one of the most accommodating spaces in town: the Pizza Hut party room. On our way there, we were able to stop for about an hour for Matt to visit his grandpa.
Our Pizza Hut get-together was a huge success with so many great family and friends to see. I think there were about twenty of us in the end. I know that not everyone that wanted to make it was there and that’s okay—it was a lovely night.
I even got to stop and visit a friend that I hadn’t talked to in person since my wedding!
Got the kids into bed at their Grammy’s (eventually), got a little visiting with Matt’s mom, got a little more prep-work done, got into bed, and about 5 hours later it was up and at ‘em again.
DAY 1 - IN THE ARMS OF A TURKISH NEBRASKAN
So we took our rental car on its continued one way journey, stopping to visit my uncle and grandpa on the way, and made it to our next airport.
Our flight out of Lincoln was delayed a little due to the aircraft ahead of us dealing with maintenance issues and then our plane with everyone’s luggage was too heavy. So they took volunteers to get off of the plane, get their tickets refunded, get flown to another airport, and then on to Chicago. They asked for three volunteers, but I think they only got two and it worked out.
So we went straight to our gate in Chicago and boarded for our International flight. Ultimately, there was a maintenance issue that they couldn’t get fixed quickly so we had to deplane. Our flight ended up leaving two and a half hours late, but in the meantime, we were able to grab food at Rick Bayliss’s restaurant there in the airport (for any Top Chef/Top Chef Masters fans).
We were on the left side of the plane for our International flight, Matt, me, and then our row-mate. And, of course, we got sat with a Turkish Nebraskan from Columbus on her way to visit her daughter in Turkey and see her first grandbaby.
Her English wasn’t completely fluent, but good enough that we were able to talk quite a bit. When were first stuck on the plane as they were checking out the maintenance issues, she got out a bag of Chex mix and I commented that was smart. So she offered me some. So I declined. So she insisted and I said no it was okay, and she insisted, and I didn’t want to be rude, so I had a little.
She really didn’t like turbulence (I don’t either) so when we encountered quite a bit at take-off, we held hands. She seemed very tense and scared.
Matt and I needed to sleep on this flight—he did a pretty good job. I slept for about 2-3 hours, repositioning my pillow against his shoulder every so often. Then at one point when I sort of woke up and looked around for a bit before repositioning, Shonda (our row-mate) took my pillow out of my lap, placed it on top of her pillow in her lap, and gestured an invite for me to lie down.
And I was like, “No, thank you, etc.” and she was like, “Please, please” and “Yes, please please, like my daughter” and after a few rounds, I didn’t want to offend, so I put my head in her lap! Matt woke up when I pulled my feet up onto his lap, looked over and see me in her lap while she stroked my hair. Then went back to sleep.
Friends! I would probably want to decline if one of you asked me to my head in your lap! It’s just not something I typically feel comfortable with. So about 10 minutes in, I think I would have perhaps fallen asleep soon, but the pilot announced we needed seatbelts on so I sat up to do that. And then I was pretty awake so I wasn’t really able to sleep anymore the rest of our flight.
DAY 2
When we landed, I was still feeling pretty awake. In fact, I thought with our long (though now shorter) layover, I’d have a lot of time to write for you all. We sat by our terminal for later which was completely empty so I thought it’d be a good time to lay down for a bit first. And I laid down across three seats and slipped into a coma. A five hour coma. I woke up after three hours, cold and disoriented, used the restroom, and came back thinking I’d stay awake. But one side really hurt from all of that laying and airport laying. So I laid down on the opposite side and was out again.
AND… it’s late. Appointment tomorrow. Love you all! Will share more soon!
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