I want to get my first experience traveling alone with 3 kids written down for our records........
We started out Thursday after Allie got home from school. I was worried we would be pushing it because our flight was to take off at 5:40. We made it to the airport at 4:20. San Antonio is a very small airport and there weren't a lot of people there so we were good to go. Derek had the idea of going in with me and I'm so glad he did because when we went to check the carseat through we were told my carry-on bag was too big. I told Derek it was too big before I started packing things but he insisted that it was fine because he uses it as his carry-on all of the time. He said they could check it through but he wasn't going to pay the baggage fee. Had to end up talking to a supervisor and he got it taken care of. Then Derek walks us up to the security area and one of the guys convices Derek to get a pass to come back through with us -- up to the gate. Again, glad he did that because then we were able to grab dinner and fill up water bottles and Blake's bottle without much hassle. We also got the girls to go to the bathroom before getting on the plane. They didn't have time to eat their food before getting on,but I did.
We were able to be the first to board the plane which was great. We didn't have to fight crowded aisles and didn't have to worry about our overhead luggage being far away from us. I thought the flight attendants might offer to help put my stuff up or hold Blake but they never did. The girls were SO excited. We put their trays down and they started eating right away. I bought them both a new sticker book for the trip and, of course, Allie saw it in the bags and wanted to do that right away. I told them it was for the longer plane ride. Almost as soon as everyone boarded the pilot came over the speaker system and told us we were going to be delayed 50 minutes due to bad weather. I was confused b/c there wasn't bad weather but I guess it was in Dallas. We had a connecting flight in Dallas that was supposed to take off at 7:40 (we were to get in at 6:40). So now we weren't even going to be taking off until about 6:20 which would get us in at 7:20......cutting it very close since our connecting flight was in a different terminal as well. I got out the ipad for the girls, made a phone call to Derek and told him what was going on. He called American Airlines and I guess they told him we'd be taking off in 15 minutes. 30 minutes passed and I called Derek again. He called American again. Our flight to Indy wasn't delayed any and was still going to take off on time. We decided to deplane and demand to be able to get another flight out on a different day so I wouldn't have to deal with finding a place to stay in Dallas. We deplaned right before they were getting ready to close the doors because they had just gotten to go ahead to take off! Close call! Because of that we couldn't get my checked bag, the carseat or the stroller. As soon as Derek picked me up I told him, " I want a COKE!!!" I was completely frazzled by that point. The girls were starting to get a little antsy but the main problem was just not knowing what to do with the situation we were in. We were able to get a flight out at 6am on Friday morning though.
Friday morning rolls around and we're up early and at the airport by 5am. This time we didnt have to deal with checking anything or the stroller which was actually kind of nice and worked out better that way. Derek came with us to the terminal again. The airport was a lot more crowded this time around. We were the first to board again.......and the flight attendants offered to help. Good sign that this was going to be a better trip! Our seats weren't all together on these flights but we went ahead and just sat all together. Whenever I saw someone looking at me funny I knew we were in their seats and asked if they would mind sitting in our other seats. No one had a problem with that. We did end up sitting in a completely different row when we preboarded and had to end up switching rows later as the plane was filling up. Kind of a pain, but my fault for not looking at my tickets closer. A nice gentleman and his son helped take out our bigger bags for us once we landed at Dallas. We had 40 minutes between our flights. I decided we would need to take the sky tram. I feared that one of the kids would get left behind or someone would fall but none of that happened. We made it to our gate and their was a family restroom right across from it! We made a trip and Allie went and Avery insisted she didn't have to. I took Blake out of my front carrier and he didn't feel very wet so I didn't change his diaper. I made the call to Mom and Derek to let them know we were doing great and looked like we were going to make it. By that time Avery had to go to the bathroom. After we got out they were boarding the plane. We had to do the same thing with the seats on this flight. The girls loved their sticker books and kept them entertained for most of the flight. Once we landed a guy about 4 rows up made eye contact and said "are you going to need some help?" I said I could probably use it. So he and the guy in front of me carried our larger luggage out and Mr Wes actually ended up carrying it all up until we found Mom. It's good to know there are actually some modern day good samaritans around.
Blake was completely soaked by this point......as was I. We made it to the nearest family bathroom to change him and then we were off!!!!! Good to be HOME.
