Flying West - with extra baggage!

After having my mom be in town for 9 days after Janie was born, I was really sad to see her go.  As this picture shows our goodbyes, I was not the only one!

I was suddenly missing my family in St. George more than usual.  Corky, being a loving and supportive husband, said, "Let's ride this train of emotion and book some flights for Spring Break.  Hurry, before the cheapskate in you talks yourself out of it!"  I had been so weepy and emotional, and hyper-sensitive to the fact that babies grow up so darn fast, that I thought it was a great idea.  I really wanted to meet my new nephew Brooks and I wanted my family to meet Janie before she got any bigger!   I know each stage of a baby is oh-so-precious and special, but there is something about that brand-new-baby stage that you have to actually feel and snuggle in your arms to understand.

So we booked our flight and hopped on a jet plane.

As we walked down the terminal, I could hear peoples sighs of relief as we continued walking past their gate.  Once we got to our gate and waited, it was very noticeable that people were looking at our family of 5, including a newborn, and hoping we wouldn't be a disruption on their precious flight.

On Allegiant Air, unless you pay extra, it is open seating.  We always choose to go cheap and just do open seating, especially since having passengers under 12 years old we get the luxury of boarding first.  So we board the plane, me and the girls on the row with 3 seats, and Corky on the row with 2.  I passed Janie off to him to be held for a few minutes and she was quite the passenger repellent.  Finally a guy sat next to Corky because it was truly the last seat on the aircraft.  Luckily this guys was cool and was excited for his own daughter to be born soon.

I must say, all three of my kids were a dream.  My older girls watched a movie on the ipod, played with a couple of small toys, and took turns sitting by the window.  Janie was beyond well behaved.  She didn't sleep at all but was awake and alert the entire time.  After I nursed her during take off, all she wanted to do was stare at the lights.  Passengers around us I think eased up a bit when they realized how sweet her little personality was. Some grandmas were making googly eyes at her, another lady stated how she missed her sons being young, and a group of bachelors (heading to Las Vegas for a bachelor party) told us twice, that our kids are the best behaved kids they've ever seen.

This proud mom sure was relieved when it was all over, but I don't know that it could have gone any smoother.

One funny thing though.  As we were coming off the airplane, the tone of the passengers completely changed.  Those who were waiting to board the plane for the next flight were full "Oh how cute!" and "What a sweet little baby!"  I would bet a million dollars that they only could honestly say that because we weren't on their flight!  Even the people on our own flight didn't even look us in the eye until the flight was all said and done and our girls were behaved, then it was all smiles!


Some people.