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MAN: Remind me again – what was that thing that you were
saying a few hours ago about being so nonchalant about this trip?
WOMAN: You mean when I was talking about how funny it is
that I’m normally so nervous and excited before our trips that I obsess over
checklists and plans and itineraries and organize everything into day-by-day
travel guides and pack about a week ahead of time and am generally impossible
to live with, but this time I felt completely chill and relaxed and had barely
thought about the trip at all? How I said I thought I was growing and maturing
as a person and how it was so nice to be looking forward to the trip but not
obsessing over it? About how we’d just pack and go to bed and wake up in the
morning and there would be no panicking and about how wonderful it all was?
MAN: Yes. That.
WOMAN: [stares at him
for a moment] …You’re going to tell me we should go back to the way things
were before, aren’t you.
MAN: …I’ll let you answer that for yourself.
The couple get up and
immediately begin running around chaotically again, grabbing random items off
of the floor and chucking them into the suitcase. Finally, they close the
suitcases (which involves the man jumping on top of them while the woman heaves
on the zipper because they are so overfull), throw them by the door, and
collapse onto the bed, stage left. The clock reads 12:47 a.m.
As soon as they turn
out the lights, the audience hears a baby begin to wail. The couple groans.
[CURTAINS CLOSE – END SCENE.]
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| Okay, so I may not become a celebrity playwright... but perhaps I can achieve fame on an episode of Hoarders!! |
…And I was feeling so
relaxed and confident about the whole thing, I somehow didn’t start packing
until about 9 p.m. the night before we left. …And doing laundry that needed to
go with us. …And figuring out what we would bring to keep Max entertained. And
so forth. In my defense, part of the reason for that was that we’d ended up
having to go to Coeur d’Alene two days in a row shopping for wedding clothes
and new suitcases and the like, which always ends up being basically an all-day
affair, and we just ran out of time. Also, since we'd just finished cleaning out the last of our old house and have been trying to organize for the upcoming cross-country move and have been receiving large amounts of baby girl clothes and, oh yeah, just had another kid and have zero time or ability to pick up after ourselves right now, my house is a disaster and wasn't aiding me in my packing efforts at all.
Nonetheless, next time, I’m going back to my normal, crazy,
picture-perfect-planning self. It’s just easier that way, and I feel that a
week of me having a one-track-mind is preferable to going to bed in a panic
four hours before we have to leave.
Live and learn!
Anyway. On Wednesday morning we woke up at 5. Sleeping
babies, by the way, are so stinkin’ cute:
Max was not super enthused at being awoken so early.
We picked up my parents in the Swagger Wagon (our van) and they took us to the airport. We were tired but VERY excited about seeing Todd’s parents and family – it’s been fifteen months since the last time we saw them. I was also stoked to see New York state, because I’ve never been there before, and had heard it is beautiful. The drive was pretty uneventful: Max looked out the window for awhile and then fell asleep, and Catherine slept most of the way.
Of course Catherine started to cry right as we were at the
check in counter filling out approximately 4,300 luggage tags and juggling
suitcases and car seats and toddlers and trying to get our boarding passes.
Luckily, the remedy for that was about 2 inches from Baby C’s face. The nice
thing about my ring sling is that I can latch her on and nurse almost
hands-free, which is extraordinarily convenient when you’re trying to fill out
4,300 luggage tags and juggle suitcases and car seats and toddlers and get
boarding passes and the like. The flip side is that the entire world then gets
to see my lovely postpartum midriff, complete with muffin tops. :-) Well, people, it's either the belly or some serious nipple - you can't have it both ways! I did have a picture of this, but it got accidentally deleted, so you'll have to leave it to your imagination.
The entire trip was actually quite painless, considering the
fact that we were traveling thousands of miles across the continent with two
small children. Max was fascinated by the fact that he was on a plane for
approximately three minutes, which is long enough to figure out that the window
shades go up and down but that’s about it, and that the TV in the seat back is
not in fact a touch screen and, since we weren’t forking over the cash required to
activate it, therefore entirely uninteresting.
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| Um, guys? This iPad doesn't work. |
We got lucky this time around because our layovers worked out in such a way that not a single one of our flights was over 3 hours, which is amazing. Any time I fly from one coast to the other I've always had at least 2 layovers, with a short leg, a long leg, and another shorter leg, and the long leg has always been at least three and a half hours, sometimes four or even five, depending on where we fly from; our longest flight this time around was only 2 hours and 45 minutes. Apparently the Patron Saint of Flying With Kids was looking out for us: our total travel time was a little over 9 hours, which is the shortest I’ve ever had. Catherine slept pretty much the entire time on the flights and was briefly awake in the airports, which worked perfectly, and Max ended up sleeping almost the entire time on the longest flight. Score.
We landed in Rochester around 11:30 p.m. Eastern time and
the reunion with Nana and Pippi was joyful. Max couldn’t quite figure out at
first how they were able to exist in real life and not on the iPad, since he hasn’t seen
them outside of Facetime since he was seven months old, but he was thrilled to
see them nonetheless. We stayed at a hotel in Rochester that night and then
headed out after breakfast on the drive to the Finger Lakes, where the wedding
was and where we were going to be staying.
DAY 2
First a quick stop at the fabled Wegman’s, which I’d been
hearing about for years from New York friends. It is indeed a lovely grocery
store. It kind of reminded me of Yoke’s crossed with Whole Foods. Their beer
selection is outstanding.
Off to the Finger Lakes. We went to Nora’s (my future sister
in law’s) parents’ house in Trumansburg for lunch, played on the lawn for
awhile, drove to Cayuta Lake to check in at the B&B and take a nap, went
back to Nora’s parents’ house for dinner and drinks (my father in law and I had
a very enjoyable beer-sampling session together… oh, it’s been too long! I
missed him!), and enjoyed a random freak hail storm with hail the size of golf
balls after a very hot day of sun and 240% humidity. (…And here I thought Idaho
weather was random…)
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| Some of Nana and Pippi's first moments with Baby C |
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| This photo is not posed. My husband just looks like this when he talks. |
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| Grandparenting at its finest. |
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| Max and Nana |
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| There were even bigger pieces of hail than these - these are just all I could grab when I braved stepping off of the porch for 3 seconds. Still bigger than any hail I've ever seen in my life. |
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