I had Jill come over in the morning so I could finish packing, take a shower, and work for a few hours. Yeah, working and the shower didn't happen. We headed out to Lake Charles and Carson slept most of the way. Yay! When we got to Lake Charles, I parked at the drop off, unloaded my two bags to be checked, loaded Carson in the Ergo, put my flashers on, wheeled the bags inside, checked in, put Carson back in the car seat, parked the car, unloaded the stroller and carry-on's, got Carson out of the car seat and put back in the Ergo, and headed inside to the security check point. Yeah, that's logistics! Once they called our flight, we could go through security. Super small airport...only 4 gates (2 more than Beaumont!). Security was a whole other deal. Computer out, shoes off, fold up stroller, Carson out of the Ergo, get breast milk out, carry him through, get milk tested for explosives (yes, they did that), put him in the stroller so I can redress myself, head to the gate. Thank goodness everyone was SUPER nice (including TSA) and didn't mind that it took me 10 years to do all this.
Once we got to the gate, which was about 20 feet from security, we quickly made friends with a bunch of businessmen/hunters that had come in from California and Vegas for a "hunting" trip. Sounds like there was more drinking and just a little bit of hunting. Nonetheless, they were all super nice and ended up helping me carry all my stuff to the plane, off the plane, and to my next flight in Houston. One had the stroller, one had the diaper bag, one had my coat, one had my other bad, and one would have had Carson if I had let him! Nice people rock. Carson just hung out on the floor "talking" to one of them until it was time to board. They thought he was pretty cool because he was in camo too. If they knew us, they would expect nothing less.
As I mentioned, the flight from Lake Charles to Houston is on one of those little prop planes. You have to walk out on the tarmac and climb up the ladder... old school... love it!
As directed by several mommy friends, we had the bottle in hand for take off. He didn't even know what was going on. He had his bottle, then just smiled and talked to everyone around us on the plane.
The pretzels were a big hit too... crunchy wrappers always are!
Sophie kept him company as well.
About midway through, he dozed off in my arms.
The flight from Houston to Dallas was basically the same drill. He had a bottle at the beginning, played, then fell asleep the last half.
I opted not to bring the car seat because my parents were able to borrow one. That was actually the most difficult part of the whole deal. First, my dad had it forward-facing...big no, no. He corrected prior to picking us up. Then, he had it installed wrong when he showed up. Then we got installed right, but they straps were too tight for our chunky little man. We finally figured out how that all worked. We spent way too long in the DFW parking garage just trying to get it all figured out. We did though, eventually.
He was an angel on the flight home as well. He slept just about the whole way from Dallas to Houston and played the whole way from Houston to Lake Charles. Cheap Mardi Gras beads make great entertainment (thanks, Lindsay!). I had them dangling from the tray latch and he just had a ball. I also brought the small mirror from his play mat, but left it in the seat pocket. :-( I really hate those seat pockets! I always forget books, magazines, etc. Anyways, my kiddo is a stud. Hope the next trip goes this smoothly!
