Almost 2 years ago my grandparents sold their home in my home town and moved to northern California. After a turn of events they ended up selling their house and moving in with one of my uncles and his wife who lived in the area. They came up to visit the summer after Jack was born and then we saw them again this past June at my cousin's wedding. However, they had not seen Jack since he was 5 months old and I thought it would be fun to travel out there and visit. Nothing like a good trip to warmer weather during the terrible month of January in Utah!
Mark dropped us off at the airport and helped us until security. Then it was me, Jack, a giant bag of snacks and plane toys and the car seat. Jack was of course low on energy that day so we had to do a lot of "okay walk until that blue sign and then I'll carry you" barters. We must have looked like quite the sight when I was carrying him and all of our gear. We got there plenty early and then of course our flight was delayed an hour. So we made our own fun for 20 minutes riding the moving walkways. Thankfully security did not stop us.
This was our second flight on southwest and the family boarding they do after the A group is really nice. You don't have to worry about getting seats together. And you have to put kids in car seats next to the window. So bonus Jack has something to look at! Once we got seated, a nice woman came and sat next to us. Jack immediately started chatting with her about his tractors. The woman was kind and laughed off my advance apology for his conversations.
Our flight was right during nap time so he finally snoozed for about 20 minutes. He was such a trooper!
Once we got our luggage and rode the bus to the rental car place, we drove straight out of Oakland in average rush hour traffic and headed to "Boom Shaka". (Background here: His favorite TV person Blippi goes to a bounce house called Boom Shaka. It soon became Jack's life goal to go there. So in planning the trip I told him we were going to a place LIKE Boom Shaka. On the plane ride, car ride etc it was "Mom are we almost to Boom Shaka?")
We were planning on staying with my aunt and uncle but week days are a little hectic for them. So to maximize visit time we flew in Thursday thinking I maybe had a friend in the area still. Not so much there. So I figured the next best thing would be find a trampoline park. It was 10 minutes from our hotel so it worked out perfect. He had a blast. It was like his life was complete. Because we were there on a weeknight we practically had the place to ourselves.
Afterwards we went and got a late dinner and then headed to the hotel. It was nearly 9 so almost 10 our time. He took forever to settle down and slept terribly that night. Seriously I was battling him to go to sleep at 3AM and contemplating the cost of shortening our trip. Thankfully once we got to Aunt Eileen's house he took naps and slept just fine.
Aunt Eileen has 2 grandchildren (Jack's 2nd cousins technically), so she had some great toys still in the garage. Within a few minutes of getting there, Jack honed in on the small toy pile. Minutes later she pulled out a giant tub of fire trucks and garbage trucks and went to town putting batteries in them for Jack. Between that and the blocks he had a blast. We really were spoiled during our stay with yummy breakfasts, snacks, and extra attention.
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| Sleeping baby during a nap. It was hard to adjust after coming home to him sleeping in his own bed. There are still some days now if he won't nap and I'm desperate enough I'll let him crawl into bed with me. |
Friday night we went to Red Robin with my aunt, grandpa, cousin and her kids. Jack was SO well behaved despite a longer wait to be seated than we expected and being in a crowded place with unfamiliar people. Thanks to technology, snacks and a few toys though we made it unscathed.
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| Lots more fun playing. I lost count how many towers I had to build for Jack that weekend! |
Saturday afternoon we got to go back to "Boom Shaka" with my cousin and her two kids. It was packed and a little different than the one we went to, so Jack was a little confused. But he still had a great time. He even made a shot in their basketball hoop. Some of the older kids waiting in line were seriously impressed by his skills. He made really good friends with my cousin's daughter. She wanted to help him explore but he was a bit more reserved. Afterwards we stopped for ice cream at Rite Aid and got the 'Thrifty' ice cream. Talk about a fun throwback! Jack didn't care and was just happy to have ice cream.
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| I will admit their "toddler area" was just flat trampolines sectioned off. A little bit of a disappointment. |
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| Making his own fun since they didn't have a separate foam pit. This is where people can stand on the beam and try to hit each other until they fall off. The employee didn't seem to mind he was making his own fun. |
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| "Plop" is a funny word right now. This awesome garbage truck had a separate "Hopper" you could spin things into or out of. Jack loved this one the most! |
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| Jack seriously loved this toy that was Payton's. Every time they'd come over that was the first thing he'd ask. "Can we go play with your jeep?" |
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| So many trucks! |
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| Jack found a Doc McStuffins doctor's kit. He of course loved it since it made sound. Payton even made him a "name tag". |
My aunt and uncle, and cousin and her kids were so sweet to host us, and spend so much of their weekend with us. It was also wonderful to see my grandparents and visit with them. So many of my childhood memories are filled with being with them at their house, which was a mile from mine. And everyone loves to see great-grandparents smile and laugh at a 3rd generation.
Sunday morning came fast. I was half wishing we could stay a day longer but I also felt ready to get back home. It is always better to feel under-stayed than overstayed right? We got on the road and headed for the airport. Much like our California trip in September, things were going well until I stopped for gas. I get back in the car and Jack starts screaming about not wanting me to be done getting gas yet. Well...sorry son. Thanks to economic cars I only needed a quarter tank. There was nothing I could do to appease him. What resulted about 4 minutes later was me, pulling stuff out of the rental car, him screaming, refusing to get out, and the rental return assistant trying not to stare. As you can imagine, it was quite interesting to see me carrying a suitcase, carry on bag, car seat and screaming child. I still don't know how we made it across the lot and onto the sidewalk before I plopped Jack onto the suitcase and just sat there trying to calm him down. We finally called Daddy (not the best move when you want to make more trips) and Mark was able to calm him down a bit with some serious bribery. We hung up and I finally got him to agree to walk over to the bus stop. Once we got on, he was completely mellow. TSA even gave him a sticker when we went through and several passengers commented as we boarded the plane how cute and good he was. I'm so glad that overall he is a great traveler. It would have been nice to fly more when he was free, but this is the perfect age to travel with!
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| Yes. To keep my kid happy I allowed him to lay upside down on the airport chairs for a few minutes. |
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| Happily playing, excited to see Daddy. |
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Coming into Salt Lake. The clouds on top of the mountains almost looked more like water. It was cool.
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All in all, for a first solo trip, it went well. It was the first time we had Jack NOT in a porta crib so I have to give him some credit on that despite our rough first night. And I know full well the meltdown en route to going home was overtired, overstimulated and trying to process that something fun is coming to an end. He really is a trooper when you need him to be. And always happy to have snacks so that's helpful! We were so glad we got to visit with my grandparents, aunt and uncle and see my cousin and her kids! We tried our best to be good house guests so maybe in the future we can make another trip out!
