Visiting Derek, part 1: The airplane

So, my test is over and I can finally blog guilt-free about our trip. I'm going to break it up into a few different sections so it's not just one crazy long post. I know that not all of my readers care about all the little details, but I lack all scrapbooking ability and desire, so this also serves as my memory book.

Tuesday- The Flight
On the morning we were going to fly out to Georgia, I told Jackson that we were going to see Daddy. His response, "Yay!" and clapped his hands. Then he said, "air-pain"-- and didn't stop talking about airplanes all day.

Going through security was a pain-- taking off the shoes (no belt with stretchy, maternity pants!), unpacking the liquids, the medical liquids, major electronics, collapsing the stroller, and loading all of our bags onto the belt to be scanned. It took for-ev-er, but no hassles!

Jackson had a blast looking out of the windows at the planes. But then, he kept talking about trains and I couldn't figure out why. I know the kid loves trains, but there were clearly no trains on the runway. Until I realized he was talking about all of the little carts that carry two or three luggage cars, which I do suppose look like trains!

When it was time to board the plane, he walked his little self all the way down the ramp with his bag some friends let us borrow. I knew he'd want to roll that thing all by himself!

It was practically an empty flight-- less than half full, which was nice. Jackson had his own seat and between eating dinner (Jimmy John's) and watching home videos of him and Derek... we were landing in no time.

So, as if flying "up, up" in an airplane wasn't enough excitement for one day, we got to ride not one, but two trains at the Atlanta airport. Jackson was just in little boy heaven (and Forrest a little bit too). What was really funny, is that Jackson would mimic all of the sounds he heard-- the dinging noise when the doors would close, the vroom sounds as we started to go, and even the "psshhh" of the brakes. It was so cute.

And what other purpose does a stroller have at an airport than carrying all of the luggage? It's certainly not going to hold the busy-body son of mine... and this is only a portion of what I really pushed around! Right after this picture, we picked up the car seat which fit upside down... and then when Jackson got tired of walking (because the Atlanta airport is humongous) , he sat on top of the upside-down carseat, on top of the stroller. If you do look closely, you can see Jackson's Daddy doll holding on for dear life, so at least there was some sort of baby in the stroller, even if it was pretend.

After we got our rental car, a very nice 2011 something-something minivan (seriously, this thing made minivans cool) with a whopping 265ish miles, we made our way down to Columbus to check into our hotel and prep for getting to see Derek the next morning!!

(There will be no post about the flight coming home. The flight was past bedtime and completely full. I was peed on, sneezed on, jumped on, wallered on, spilled on-- both water and Coke, cried at, and anything else you could possible think of... longest. flight.ever. Jackson only has a couple more weeks to qualify as a lap-child for a free seat anyway, but I would never, ever, ever take him as a lap child again. Ever. But we made it home, that's all that matters, right?! Who cares if the people sitting in front of and behind us, hate us!?!?)