Trip to California - Part 1

Back in January, Luke's work told him that they wanted him to go to Pocatello Idaho for a couple weeks to work on some equipment for a project he's working on. I couldn't imagine the thought of staying home for 2 weeks alone, out here in the country when it is freezing cold outside and nothing to do... so Jack and I found the cheapest flights possible and booked our trip to California. 

We loaded into the car at 3am on Friday morning and headed to the Geneva airport for our 7am flight. I was hopeful that the first flight would be easy since it was only 1.5 hours. I had my backpack and Jack's car seat sitting on top of a platform with wheels so I could push it. 

Families are able to board first so Jack and I got ready to walk to the plane, when Jack decided he didn't want to sit in the car seat...he wanted to walk. So I let him walk. But then he wanted to push the car seat. By this time he's crying and almost ready to throw a tantrum so I let him push the car seat, but it wasn't working. He was moving too slow and a long line was forming behind us. Plus, he couldn't steer the car seat and kept bumping in to the walls and to other people. So I tried to pick him up. He went ballistic. That is probably an understatement. He came unglued. He was screaming and hitting me and biting and I could barely hold him, let alone try to push the car seat. It was a disaster. At one point I even started crying. Finally, some guy came and grabbed the car seat for me and helped me get on the plane, then he took the screaming, hitting Jack while I installed the seat in the plane. It was a miserable situation. Jack screamed most of the flight. And when he wasn't screaming, he was kicking the guy in front of his seat. The guy got really mad and told me to keep my kid from kicking him. But Jack and I were both beyond our breaking points and he kicked the seat for the rest of the flight while I tried to calm my nerves. Then, just as the plane landed, Jack fell asleep.

Now we had to deal with our 5 hour layover in London. Jack slept for a while, then we got some breakfast and I tried to let him walk around as much as possible. Next, we had a nine hour flight to N. Carolina. I was hopeful Jack would sleep on this flight, but I was out of luck. He slept maybe 1-2 hours and the rest of the time I desperately tried to keep him entertained with my iPhone and the Monsters Inc movie they had playing. But, of course, he couldn't last 9 hours without running around. By this time I was so exhausted I didn't care about the looks I got from other people as my insanely hyper 2 year old ran up and down the aisles. I was just happy he wasn't screaming. And so we spent the majority of the flight running up and down the aisles and bumping in to people and pissing people off, but at least we didn't have any meltdowns.

Next we had a 4 hour layover in N. Carolina. We ate some dinner and I tried to let Jack run around again. By the time we boarded our next flight it was 12pm our time in Switzerland and we had been up for 21 hours. I told Jack that this was the "sleeping" plane and it seemed to work. He fell asleep pretty quickly and slept for the last 5 hour flight. I didn't get any sleep though, he kept waking up because I don't think he was comfortable so I kept having to take him out of his car seat and hold him until he fell asleep again and then put him back. We got into LAX at 9pm local time, 6am Switzerland time and I hadn't slept at all.

All in all it was a nightmare and next time we will pay the extra money and get a direct flight from London.

Once we were at my parents house I was finally able to rest...for a few hours. Jet lag set in and Jack was up around 2 am every night. Thankfully my mom was there to help and she would get up with him in the morning while I slept. It was still a difficult recovery and we spent our first few days close to home. I was able to meet up with my friends from CHOC and thier kids. Jack and Tessa have been buddies since he was 3 months old, and they still love each other

 A group shot of all the kiddos

 We were also able to spend time with my long time friend Wendy and her kiddos.

 Here we all are

 Finally by Wednesday the worst of the jet lag was over and we headed to Disneyland.

 Jack loved all the characters, but most had insanely long lines so we hit up the less popular ones

 Jack and his auntie Amanda

 The roller coaster at Toon Town was Jack's favorite ride. He would hold his hands up and squeal the whole ride

 Walking with auntie Amanda and uncle Josiah

 In the Toon Town jail

 Jack with Nana

Grammie, Josiah, Amanda and Jack

 Jack adores his auntie

 Here we all are

 Jack and Goofy

 Jack and Josiah

 Jack and Grammie

 On the rockets

Disneyland was a blast. Jack was able to go on the Matterhorn, but I think he was a little shaken afterwards. He also got scared on Pirates of the Caribbean when we went over a couple drops in the pitch black. But he loved the Toon Town roller coaster, the tea cups and the jungle cruise. It was a great day!