Moving is absolutely exhausting! I dread it like the plague. We got lucky enough that our neighbors offered us their house while they were out of town, the exact weekend we were packing up. I am so thankful for that - it could not have been more helpful!!
The plan was I was going to fly home with the kids, and then Dave would drive our car to AZ. It was going to be perfect - morning flight with a slight break in between to do potty breaks, change diapers, eat lunch, nurse Grant, regroup, then fly again. Each flight would be about 2.5 hours each. Perfect. I was even prepared this time with dramamine for the first time ever, since Bella seems to get car/airplane sick sometimes and I actually planned this time! Dave would also help me to the gate and help get us breakfast since we didn't have time in the morning. Perfect.
Something happened though and our cards didn't line up...at all. We get to the airport and I had planned to have Dave help me to the gate since my friend told me she does that all the time with either her husband or her mom helping. Well we get to the airport and I ask the lady how we get him a pass and she tells us that Dave will not be able to go with me. Reason being that wasn't on their list for reasons someone could get a gate pass. Umm excuse me say that again?? Dave says, "So your saying my wife with 4 young kids, one being a newborn, is not reason enough for me to go with her to help her??" She was just like, "Sorry, it's not on the list." I immediately start shaking and started getting really nervous and wanted to break down in tears. Then, at that moment Bella says, "Mom, mom. I don't feel good." She had that look, and I know her look now of "I'm about to throw up so you better find me a garbage can...now!" I quickly tell Dave she's about to lose it. He wasn't hustling enough so I'm like, "She needs to throw up now! Quick run her to that garbage!" He races her over and she immediately barfs. That was a close one!! Now I'm shaking even more because I have no clue why she is throwing up and all I can think about it how in the world I'm going to do this alone, now with a throw up sick child. Fever fine. Throw up? Whole new ball game! Well we then get to the front to get our tickets and I ask that lady if Dave can come with me to the gate and she's about to say no, when she then takes a look around at our situation and immediately says, "Oh yea! You have your hands full. Absolutely." Oh my, thank goodness.
So we get through, find out gate, and Dave runs to get us all breakfast. Bella seems to be doing ok and throw up doesn't look like it's about to make an appearance again yet. We sit down, kids eat a bit, Gaines has to go to the bathroom so Dave takes him, I nurse Grant, Grant poops. Dave takes Grant to the bathroom and changes him. I seriously could not have done it without Dave. It then was time to board so we are in line, the lady is scanning our tickets and we are just about to board the plane when Bella says, "Mom, I feel sick!" We tell them we need a garbage can b/c she's about to throwup. So she points to one behind the desk and Dave takes her to that but they are like, "Take her over there!" pointing to anywhere away from them where everyone is boarding, haha. He moves the trashcan over and Bella proceeds to throwup! I was just baffled why in the world she was sick! This came out of no where! Dave had that look on his face like, "This is not going to work. I don't know how this is going to work with you flying alone." I have never seen him look so nervous, which then made me scared for my life :)
We then say goodbye, as I'm almost to tears but holding it together, and board the plane. We find our seats, and get all settled. Tinley and Grant with me, and Bella and Gaines behind me. I felt so much better being on the plane, and knew I could handle it from there. The plane starts backing up and I was feeling pretty good at this point, when all of a sudden they announce they find something wrong with the plane so we have to go back. They pull it back in and say it shouldn't take long, but after waiting about 10 minutes they say the plane is dead air. We will have to all get off and find new flights. I wanted to die. By this point Dave had left, I had no clue what I was doing and then got off the plane and got in line like everyone else, not sure what I was suppose to do. I was just praying Bella would not throw up again or anyone would have to go potty. Some lady hands us a number and says to call it and find new flights!
I call the number and this lady was giving me all my options, but didn't want to rebook my flight in case my plane got fixed in time. We ended up deciding to wait my plane out, and rebook my connecting flight. They had to fly a part in from Chicago though first in order to fix it. After I changed my flights I sat down with the kids and just started crying. I was feeling so overwhelmed and I couldn't seem to hold it together even though I was reeeally trying. It didn't help that Tinley kept saying, "Mommy why are you crying?" This one guy must have heard her/saw me and was soo nice and came up to me and said, "Let me know if I can help you in anyway, I'm going to be here waiting for the flight too." That was seriously so nice. Even though after watching the movies (ha!) I don't think I'd still trust him enough to be like, "Hey, can you keep an eye on my kids/bags while I take this child to the bathroom?" :) That's the hardest part. Someone always has to go to the bathroom so we all have to pack up and go. Every single one of my kids ended up being absolute angels so everything turned out just fine. I had a lot of sugar snacks packed and thank goodness for that!
After a few hours we boarded our plane again. I was just stressing next about feeding my kids lunch and having enough time to make it to my next terminal in Dallas. The lady who changed my flights said we would land in terminal A, but we would have to hurry and get on the train thing and make it to terminal C. Dave even warned me of this because that airport is so big. Moving 4 kids, and quickly, just doesn't go in the same sentence. I think a lot of people prayed for us though because everything lined up from the moment we finally got into the air. All kids, but Tinley, fell asleep that first flight and slept the entire way. Tinley just watched a movie and I even snuck in a nap!
The other amazing thing was we ended up landing in A, and our connecting flight changed to A in Dallas! Not only that, but we landed and I knew I had to hurry and find us lunch because we only had about 30 minutes before boarding again and I walk off the plane and there is literally an Auntie Annie's Pretzel kiosk right there! My kids love those! We get pretzels, go potty, Bella is feeling better, we sit down and eat, then board our next flight. We also met some more really nice people along the way. Heaven seriously heard our prayers and answered. It was unreal.
Again the kids did fantastic, I was one proud momma! The funny thing was in the morning before leaving our house, Dave hands me a candy bar and says, "You better take this." I tell him, "Dave, I seriously have so many snacks and candy packed, I don't think I'll be needing one more candy bar." He says, "Heather just take it, you never know, it may come in handy." So I did and boy was he right! That last flight, since Tinley never napped, she would get on the verge every now and then of about to lose it, but I always was able to snap her out of it thanks to my candy. Well near the end I had used all my candy and fruit rollups and every sweet thing, except that wonderful chocolate bar Dave gave me. She was about to cry over something so I whipped that out and we were good for the remainder of the flight! The funny thing too is my kids were angels all day, and then we land and are walking down to the baggage claim and Gaines starts throwing a fit! I didn't even care at that point because we were on solid ground and we made it!
We get our bags and just needed our car seats, however they never showed up. Not 1 of the 4! At least they always have some on hand so it was fine.
And that was our trip! Phew! So happy to be in Tucson!!
Even though she wasn't feeling well, she was a super helper, especially holding Grant when I needed her to.
After boarding the 2nd time (top).....and 15 minutes later (bottom)
Tinley watched Princess and the Popstar and danced away to the songs. I told her at this point she would get skittles if she let me take a nap. She then pushed my head down and closed my eyes for me. Easy as that!
Either Bella or Gaines had my phone and I found this picture later.
Our setup on the last flight
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