Friday, July 25, 2008

Kicker's first flight

We got to the airport early this morning, and checked in. No problem, so far. We went over to the TSA security line, and paused - uh-oh. Escalator + Stroller =/= safe.
Aha! Around the corner is an elevator, with a TSA person standing in front of it. No line, and no worries! Hubby, Kicker and I walk up to the TSA person, and show our boarding passes.
Hubby, having become accustomed to a certain level of "service" by TSA, asks, "I have to go back over there, right? Or can I ride up with them?"
The TSA person says, "Yup. You have to go back over there."
"Really?" I ask, bewildered.
"No, no. I was kidding!" the TSA agent smiles. Wow, welcome change from previous trips.
We go up the elevator, and get to the continuation of the TSA security line. We step into line, show our boarding passes again, and walk over to the bins.
1 bin - the diaper bag.
2 bins - the carry on, full of baby gear, and two books for Mommy and Daddy.
3 bins - the car seat base.
4 bins - the camera bag, for taking pictures of Kicker and the rest of the family.
5 bins - our shoes.
6 (didn't fit in a bin) - the car seat.
7 (also not in a bin) - the stroller.

We load it all up, feeling slightly overwhelmed - we took up the entire row for bins! It goes through, and we get told that we forgot a bottle in one of our bags. Never mind that Kicker doesn't use bottles. Never mind that the bag they're going through isn't the diaper bag. The TSA guy says they're double-checking it because, while they weren't sure they saw one in the X-Ray, Moms always forget a bottle of formula in one of the bags.
We get to our flight, and hear an overhead page - whoops, we forgot the car seat base. Hubby hurrys back to the checkpoint.
At the gate for our flight, meanwhile, there's a second overhead page. They're calling for us at the gate. Our flight's not scheduled to leave yet, but they've already boarded everyone. I guess everyone else arrived early.
We get on the plane, and discover that they've assigned us seats with the baby in the exit row. Whoops! It's a completely full flight, but they convince the people in the very back of the plane to switch with us. They push off early from the gate, and we're off!
Kicker behaves so well during the flight. No fussing, no crying. Towards landing, Kicker falls asleep, and sleeps clear through deboarding. We wait for everyone else to get off the plane, and make our way off the plane. The stroller is waiting there for us, and we get to baggage claim. Again, our bags are there already waiting for us. Smooth sailing.
We look around, but Hubby's Dad isn't there waiting. Whoops! That's okay, we got in early. Grandpa arrives a little bit later, and we begin the task of loading the car. We load our stuff, completely filling the back of Grandpa's SUV. Kicker has a *lot* of stuff.

We made it!

1 comments:

Busymama Karen said...

I'm exhausted just reading about it. Have a great visit!

 
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