Home Again

It was an early morning flight.

Shane's an early morning kid.

The rest of us needed coffee.

One of Carrie's childhood memories of Disney was the "Disney Fairy." Unbeknownst to her, Grandpa or Grandma would buy a small stuffed toy based on a day's events. Then they slid the toy into Carrie's bed while she slept. She woke up each morning amazed.

Carrie wanted to recreate that memory for Shane. His new friends kept him company on the plane home.

We were all worn out. Shane passed out on the puddle-jumper home.

There was very little restful about this vacation! It was go-go-go! I wish we had a day to recover.

However, it was big on memories. 

Good memories.

Flight Time

It was months in the making. Shane, Carrie, and I flew out of Charlottesville Friday evening to meet Grandpa and Grandma in Orlando, Florida.

Shane helped pack his bag.

Planes were not new to Shane. Flying in one was.

It was a short hop to Dulles. We flew over our old house.

Dulles is much larger.

We rode the train repeatedly to fill time. I held Shane up and he played Superman.

In retrospect, DON'T FLY WITH CHILDREN TOO LATE AT NIGHT. Shane was too excited to sleep.

The plane didn't help either. Times have changed. I don't think they want you to sleep.

There were TV screens in the back of each chair in front of us. I turned them off, but they turned themselves back on (at least three times!). The cabin speakers were used to play the audio for several commercials (Pop-up ads in real life!). When the TVs finally stayed off, Shane tried to watch the person's TV in front of him. Then it was a kid's device (which I also had to ask him to turn the sound down on).

It was really hard to get Shane to sleep. He went down around 11:30 PM (I taught him "desk sleeping" - He put his arms and head on his tray table). Carrie asked if there were courtesy pillows or blankets, but alas. Those had gone the way of the dodo.

We arrived in Orlando at ~1:00 AM ready to sleep. Carrie was frazzled, but we made it.

The time and price were right, but next time I'll pay the premium and use extra leave.

Back to the Usual

Monday arrived. Shane went to day-care. Carrie went to work. I did random chores and farted around on the internet instead of writing.

However, there was one chore I waited to do until Shane was home. The only Walgreen's in town isn't in town. It's a ways north.

And right next to the airport. 

Parking was free for 30 minutes, so Shane and I went to explore. We got to watch a plane take-off right after we arrived. Shane demanded we hop on the next.

The baggage carousel almost made him forget about it.

He ran back and forth.

And back and forth...

Shane was the entertainment for the evening. A couple employees offered to help me find my luggage. Shane was the only baggage I needed to drag out, though!

He was NOT happy to leave. Shane did not understand why he couldn't get on an airplane. I had to half drag him to the car.  He even scowled by the traxi traffic light (and who wouldn't that cheer up?).

Shane whimpered and fake-cried in the car. We didn't turn around and we didn't go on an airplane. I wasn't very sympathetic.

We did stop by the "John store (aka Game Store) on the way home. I picked up a few card protectors from my LOTR cards. Service was slow. Shane entertained himself and raised my blood pressure by stacking lots and lots of dice. Dice of all shapes and sizes. Dice that were teeny tiny and collected in flimsy boxes. Dice that were large and cost as much as a burrito...you get the picture.

I set a limit on how tall things could go, but didn't stop him. It kept him close by. I caught the one near-spill in the nick of time. I bet we get faster service next time!

Another errand turned into an opportunity for exploration. The usual.

Summer Trip to Gpa and Gma's

Airplanes were the theme of this visit to Grandpa and Grandma's.

By the way..

I flew a plane for the first (and probably) last time on Sunday. Are you surprised? I was surprised.