Ahh, sleep is nice

Today is Saturday and it's about 4 p.m. and for the first time since our trip home I don't feel like I am going to pass out at any given moment.

One thing this trip did was teach me that I am not 24 years old anymore -- I can't stay up for a full day straight and then expect to get eight hours of sleep and be back on my feet. Jeez.

There were quite a few little details of our trip that I left out of my last entry, and I also wanted to post another picture, so I figured I would make a bigger post when my brain wasn't shut down.

Before I get too far into this, we were the lucky ones. There were people who got on board airplanes and sat on the runway at Newark for almost six hours before they even took off. That would have been crazy with the young 'uns.

As it was, this time around we didn't have as much luggage going back as we did traveling to Boston. One of the carry-ons we emptied into a big checked suitcase. So we only had five bags and the stroller. Easy!

The little plane we caught out of Providence, Rhode Island to Newark flew around a number of thunderstorms, and Violet called it a "baby plane." She at one point said the plane was throwing a tantrum. It was at that point she was holding my arm with her arms and legs, because she was scared. It was the bumpiest commercial flight I have been on, but it wasn't too bad. The landing was horrible.

Then came the big wait, we arrived at 1:30 p.m. and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:05 p.m.

The first sign of trouble was when we arrived at the gate and it said our flight was delayed until 6:45 p.m. No biggie, Cindy said, because Newark is like a big mall. And it was. A very big, expensive mall.

We ran into some people I know from Silverton who were also travelling back to Oregon after spending time in New York, and ate pizza, burgers and just waited around. I bought a couple of hats and sent Carrie a few pictures of Violet wearing a Yankee hat to drive her crazy.

When the board changed to our flight coming in at 9 p.m., is when I started to get worried. I was watching the weather monitor and saw thunderstorms from Texas all the way along the coast to Maine.

When the plane finally arrived, 12 hours later at 1:20 a.m., at a different gate, the kids had taken small naps and Cindy and I were run pretty ragged trying to keep them from annoying people. At one point Cindy went to the bathroom and left me with Violet sleeping and Lilly. Lilly immediately started screaming, and some guy behind me said, "Shut that kid up."

I turned, exhausted and frankly sick of the airport, and said back, "Oh, you are really helping. Want to give this a try?"

He shrugged and I let it go. And Lilly screamed until Cindy came back about 20 minutes later.

When we finally got to our new gate, we learned that while I had gotten our seats together, the airlines moved them at the last minute. Instead of being row 6A-C, we were now row 29D-F. The last row on the plane. Having never really flown that much, I didn't think it was that big of a deal.

I was on the aisle, Cindy had the window and Violet was in the middle. Our seats didn't go all the way back, and Bigfoot was sitting in front of me with his seat back. Still more room that I had on the flight out. Not a problem. Then, the flight started and the bathroom breaks started.

I think I have had about 30 stranger's butts in my face during the 5 1/2 hour flight. Over the course of the early morning hours, we would nod off, then...

FLUSH
SLAM
"EXCUSE ME."
(God I hoped they rinsed) and repeat.

Violet at about 3 a.m. started crying and saying, "I want to sleep but I can't!"

So I held her for two hours.

We got back to Portland at around 4 a.m. and were home by 6ish.

My boss was kind enough to give me Friday off, if I work on Monday, so I am going back to work the same day Cindy does. Which is very nice if for no other reason I get some sleep. Heck, I even caught "The Dark Knight" today -- and it's very good. Even if you don't like comic book movies, I thought it was excellent.

Well, time to get back to our lives. Bills, groceries (there is no food in this house) and laundry are calling. We are unpacked, kinda, and Monday is going to be here too fast.

After spending all this time with Violet, Lilly and Cindy, it's going to be hard going back to work.

I love my girls!

pat