this thanksgiving post is late because i am ipad illiterate.
long story short, our pictures from texas are on our ipad [not on my laptop, like every other picture we have] and it took me a ridiculous amount of time to figure out how to get them on here.
ipad's are cool and all, but i still like my good ol' laptop.
and yes, i realize that statement makes me really uncool.
anywho..
as i have been watching the horrid weather that calgary has been enduring this winter, any doubts i have had about moving away from there seem to fly away.
far, far away.
i do not miss that.
not one bit.
last night we made hot chocolate to take with us to go see christmas lights. it was 21C/70F.
and chet thought the world was ending when i made him walk tank the other night in 11C/52F degree weather.
we are going to die in calgary!
and this wimpy-ness does not just apply to the kids and i.
matt is softening up real quick too!
we were in texas for thanksgiving this year.
we did the traditional 'go around the table and say what you're thankful for' thing as we ate our turkey dinner.
and - of ALL people - matt was the one to say he was thankful for the weather.
he said something along these lines: ' i am thankful to be some place where there is no snow'.
what?!
who are you? and what have you done with my husband?
i thought he was being sarcastic... but he wasn't. dead serious.
i find him even more attractive after hearing those words come out of his mouth.
and i found him pretty well irresistible before that, so this is a big deal.
we flew to houston on wednesday night.
we were told that the wednesday before thanksgiving is the busiest day at LAX.
awesome.
but the airport was surprisingly painless.
we gave ourselves plenty of extra time to get to our gate, and ended up spending most of it walking around the terminal.
easy peasy.
the actual plane ride was a little trickier.
chet is at a perfect traveling age.
give him a window seat, a couple snacks, and an ipad, and he is a happy camper.
holden was the tricky part.
he doesn't like sitting still.
ever.
like, never.
so he was constantly squirming around in the teensy little space between the rows.
which, of course, resulted in some head-bonking and some meltdowns.
the flight was certainly do-able, but i would be traveling back alone with the boys, and watching how busy holden kept both matt and i made me feel stressed.
especially because the return flight was about 45 minutes longer.
stupid head wind.
but, seeing as how i am writing this, you can see that i did, indeed, survive the flight alone.
my 8,000 prayers were answered when holden fell asleep for about an hour.
yay! 1 hour down. 3 to go.
another huge blessing was the lady who was lucky enough to share our row with us.
i knew the plane would be full, but i still let myself hope that we would get the row to ourselves.
not necessarily for my sake, but for the other person's.
i am always so stressed flying with kids.
but i feel like i hear so many stories about kind people helping out with busy kids on planes, and i am never the exception.
once again i had the answer to my prayers sitting right next to me.
people like my helpful stranger always make me want to be better at acting when i see an opportunity to serve.
holden decided the best time to take a dump would be while we were taxiing out to the runway.
which meant anyone within 10 rows of us was treated to the stench of holden poop while we reviewed our safety brochures, sat in line behind a couple other aircrafts for our turn to take-off, and waited for the captain to turn off the seatbelt light once we reached the appropriate cruising altitude.
that felt like the longest 20 minutes!
i didn't really know what the acceptable thing to do is when you have 2 kids on an airplane and one needs to hit up the potty.
there is hardly room for 1 person is those deathtraps.
2 is pushing it.
3 is just absurd.
so i made the decision to leave chet in his seat that was 8 rows from the potty.
[don't judge me! i now realize that i should have put one of those trusty flight attendants to work as chet's babysitter.
but i was too focused on the poo smell at the time.]
i knew chet wouldn't be thrilled at the idea of me abandoning him [duh], but apparently he ended up being more sad then i had anticipated.
and, when i returned to my seat, chet was wrapped in a blanket, sitting on our plane-neighbor's lap.
she didn't speak a word of english. literally, not one.
so i did this super awkward thank you thing, [ie. nodding, smiling, hand movements, etc] and plopped chet back in his seat.
an hour later, chet was the one who needed to use those lovely facilities.
so i kindly asked the lady if she would let us out of our row. again.
i picked up holden, and instructed chet to follow close behind me.
when i got to the front, i turned around to make sure chet was there, and he was.. in the arms of that same lady!
she had picked up chet and followed me to the front of the plane!
i was kind of caught of guard, but really grateful.
at that point, i still hadn't figured out where holden would go while i was helping chet.
now i didn't have to worry.
i used my best hand gestures to explain that chet was the one who needed to go potty.
so she put chet down and put her arms out for holden.
i knew he would cry. and cry he did!
but she handled it all so calmly. classy lady.
she also helped me when our plane landed.
i honestly can't bloody stand the people on an airplane who are sitting behind me and, for some ridiculous reason, think that if they smush themselves into the aisle i will actually let them off the plane before me.
in. your. dreams. buck-o.
we will be exiting this plane in an orderly fashion. starting with row 1, then 2.. and so on.
if you need help counting, i will help you.
if you try and cut in front of me, trust me, i will take my sweet time gathering my stuff.
[too much?!]
my new friend helped me gather my stuff, helped us deal with the crazy aisle smushers, and carried chet (again!) off the plane.
what a nice lady.
she made it about 900 times easier for me to deal with my kids during those tricky moments.
thank you plane-friend, where ever you may be!
we had tons of help with our kids while we were in houston too.
it was such a treat!
spending time with family is always nice.
some of the highlights from our trip included:
spending extra time with my hubby.
watching chet and holden play with their cousins.
my parents took all the bigger kids too see the movie 'frozen'.
walking around the mall with my sister.
turkey dinner - ben treated us to 2 different kinds of turkey.
our little makeshift turkey bowl.
playing outside in a yard and on a driveway.
playing basketball with the kids. i forgot how much i love that sport.
going on walks to see christmas lights.
going to see an enormous christmas light display at college station. amazing.
not having to wake up at 4am for my daily run.
making homemade christmas ornaments.
staying up all hours of the night chatting and laughing.
family!
[ben's gonna hate me.]
holden wasn't nearly as enthused as london about holding hands.
can you believe he is 15 months YOUNGER!?
see the white specs in the middle of the lake?
those are ducks.
the kids tossed an entire loaf of bread into the lake and the dumb ducks refused to act the least bit interested.
perhaps there was a reason why the ducks wouldn't come close..?
chet loved being around all of his cousins, of course, but he especially fell in love with bailee this trip.
she was so sweet to him.
chet talks about 'bay-wee' all the time!
this christmas light festival we went to was amazing!
it was well worth the trip to see it.
2 things especially stood out to me about the event. it was:
1. very christian.
which was surprising, after spending the last 8 months in southern california, where such a thing would never happen.
2. it was very prideful.
which didn't surprise me in the least.
God bless texas!
[see..]
fake snow.
the line up to see the real santa was painfully long, and out in the cold, so we got our picture with this guy instead.
it was not quite the same!
