Our Trip to NC: Day 1

This past week we took Stretchy with us to visit her grandparents (aka Bob's parents) in North Carolina.  She'd never been on a plane, so we were a bit worried, but everything went well... with us anyway... Bob had a little bit of an issue at security...

We began our trip early in the morning.  After just one poop-splosion, we were loaded in the car and made it to the airport with time to spare.

Upon arriving at the airport, we checked in.  It proved to be a difficult process for some reason, and we came out of it with seats that would require us to yell to each other from opposite ends of the plane.  *Grumble* Why separate a mom and dad with a baby???

Stretchy helped hold the tickets:

At security, with a baby in a carrier, I opted not to go through one of those fancy new scanners.  The security guard had no problem with that- I stepped through the metal detector and only had to have my hands swabbed after touching the carrier.  Easy as pie.

Bob, on the other hand, also did not want to go through the fancy scanner.  He didn't get off so easy.  After much questioning and an attempt to explain the safety of the machine, the security guard begrudgingly allowed him to opt out and only go through the metal detector.  It must be his resemblance to terrorists that also required him to get a pat down.  Ridiculous...

Also ridiculous: This silly giant ball.

Once through security we made it to the gate and prepared to pre-board with all the other families with small children to find that apparently, only those requiring special assistance and military personell are now allowed on first.  *More grumbles*  What's more?  U.S. Airways boards their plane in the wrong order... front to back... *More grumbles*  We finally got on and sat together (despite our assigned seats) and prepared to ask some poor person to make their way from our row at the very back of the plane all the way to the front where my assigned seat was.  Maybe that person had ESP and knew the flight would be more trouble than it was worth, but they never showed up.  *Sigh of relief*

Stretchy did well on the take off, though of course, as soon as we were air born she needed a diaper change.  I grabbed her stuff and made my way to the bathroom, only to find there was no changing table.  To save the nose of our seat-mate, Bob and I tried to change her on the jump seat next to the bathroom, but were soon yelled at.  Fortunately, I'm a speedy diaper changer, and we were already done.  Unfortunately for our seat mate, Stretchy didn't make it to the end of the flight without needing another change...

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful.  We got lots of compliments on our cute baby with her new ear-protecting ear muffs and tried to enjoy our first flight as a family.

The most enjoyable part!

The second flight didn't go as smoothly, but thankfully it was much shorter.

We arrived at the airport and were collected by Bob's mom who drove us home where we ate a home-cooked lunch.  Thanks Bob's Dad!!

The sandwich looked much tastier than the zebra toy.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the traveling wreaked havoc on Stretchy's schedule and she was pretty fussy the rest of the day.

We tried everything in our giant suitcase of toys to keep her happy, but she just wasn't happy.

Poor Grandma :(

After dinner and a nice bath, we were all relieved when she finally turned in for the night and hoped for a happier baby the next day...