Travel

I had a truly great time at my brothers wedding! There will be lots of posts with pictures, movies, and plenty of details coming up in the next few days as I edit everything and get it all uploaded. It might take me a week or so.

We'll start at the beginning, where all good stories usually start. Grey and I began our travels early in the morning. The first flight went very well

His first air plane ride, ever!

 Our first layover revealed that bad weather would be delaying us and causing missed connections. So we got rerouted. There are pros and cons to this re-routing. Well, only one con that I can think of...it adds 2+ hours to our travel time, making our travel day more than 16 hours, and having us see 5 different airports.

The pros were decent - we got switched to Air Canada flights, and I love flying with them (as opposed to the original Continental/United ticket), because they have bigger, better planes, with TV in every seat. I got free meal service on the plane for all the inconvenience, and I got to layover and go through customs in MY airport...Toronto! So it felt a little like being home for a couple of hours.

Eating lunch in Toronto. He was already over his day, and we still had 2 flights (incl the long one) to go!

 Grey officially holds the title of my worst travel buddy. Ever. Of course, the circumstances were extreme, but man oh man. Suffice it to say there was plenty of kicking, yelling and screaming. Thankfully none of that was done by me. There is unfortunately very little discipline that can be administered effectively in public places. "No no", "Be nice", "Stop please" are entirely ineffective against the wiles of the monster, Grey.

He slept for 30 mins on flight #2, and about 35 mins on flight #3. This is no where near enough sleep, by the way. It did however afford me the chance to check out the tv and movies being offered. I decided to get in touch with my youthful side, and watch the lighthearted Justin Beiber story, Never Say Never. Judge not. He really is a talented kid. And I just wanted to, so leave me alone. Singing "You Smile, I Smile" to myself for the next 12 hours just may have been the thing that got me through. Deadly Serious. I was unable to finish the last 30 mins of the movie until the return trip home.

Flight #4 was the kicker. The "delightful" child cried/screamed almost the entire duration of the flight. Yes, I was one of THOSE PEOPLE. Usually people tell me how cute my kids are, and how good they were (when traveling). Let me assure you, I got no such comments this time. Lots of glares and stares. People assume we arrived at the Calgary airport moments ago and my horrible child is a brat. Never mind that we have been awake (with almost no naps) since 6am (EST), and by the time we reached my parents house, it was 11pm (EST).

There was a rather brief moment of reprieve on flight #4, when he got ahold of an Air Canada coffee stir stick. He was poking it all over the place, and I realized it was really quite sharp on the end. He could seriously poke out his eye with that thing. Maybe I should take it away from him? He's not crying though. Who am I kidding, I likely would have let him play with a butcher knife if it kept him happy and quiet. Maybe not. Or maybe yes. I realize why none of the windows or doors can open on the plane. It's to keep passengers. Moms. From throwing people. Their children. Out of the plane. I wouldn't have. But I would have thought about it long and hard.

A miserable child, on the way home to Daddy!

The flights home were slightly more tolerable, as I had my sister there to help, and I was able to get him to sleep for almost 2 hours on the longest flight. But he was still pretty miserable. Screaming, kicking, biting. oh yes, he sure did. I got a couple of fat lips from him using his giant orb-head as a weapon. In the end, it was a success, pretty much only because we are both still alive. :-) Deepest apologies to all other passengers who had to bear with us.

Janessa ordered tomato juice as her complimentary beverage. Just like a good Canadian girl should do.

Grey is officially banned from traveling any distance longer than 1 hour, or over any time that would span a nap.