Washington State!

We are here. We left our house at 5am. We arrived at our hotel at 8pm our time. Quite a day.

It was an incredibly smooth, albeit incredibly long, day.

JB and I got up at 4am.

By 7am we were on our first flight into Dallas. That was about a 3 hour flight. They had an extra seat for Isaac so we had both boys in carseats. Nice!


After a very quick stop at the USO in Dallas, we were off to Santa Barbara, California. This was another nearly 3 hour flight. Elijah pretended to be the "seat" child and we strapped him down. Isaac sat on our laps.


We debarked in Santa Barbara and walked straight onto our next flight into Seattle. This one was again, nearing 3 hours. They actually waited for us to take off which indicates how tight that connection was.


All in all, the boys did superbly. There were only two major meltdowns.


The first came when we were going through security in Fort Walton Beach. I now have this darn boot (perfect timing huh?!) that I have to wear all day every day which meant the TSA agents wanted to bring me into a secure area surrounded by glass to scan me. The boys couldn't come in there but they could see me. John held them both while they both screamed for Mommy. The TSA agents felt so bad they moved me to the front of the line.

The second major meltdown came from our little E. during the last twenty minutes of our third flight. He had had enough of this flying nonsense and worked himself into such a tizzy that he nearly threw up. Someone handed us a barf bag when JB held up his hands to catch the vomit that never did show up.

During the three flights, Isaac played with his coloring book, stickers, and cars most of the way. He was also very entertained by a peanut butter dip for pretzels for close to an hour. He made a mess but thought it was fantastic to suck the peanut butter off the pretzels over and over and over again.

Elijah gave us good laughs throughout the day with his crazy antics. He tried to eat the stickers Isaac was playing with. He also became focused on eating his feet as well for a good part of the morning. We stuck stickers on him to have him work on getting them off to help pass the time. He watched a bit of "Praise Baby" on our portable DVD player. Oh, and he also dropped his milk cup well over a million times. Thank goodness his pacifier was tied to his chair.

Once we arrived in Seattle, JB was off to get the rental car. I stayed with the boys. During that time we had dirty diapers #3 and #4. Only #2 came while on a flight so that was nice. We made the one hour drive to Jeff & Bobbie's house. They were coming home from her father's funeral yesterday evening. Being as such, we adjusted our trip some when we learned of this about a week ago. We simply stopped by to pick up the pack-n-plays that she got for us on their porch (what a gal!) and then headed out. We plan to do some sight-seeing first and then spend the tail end of the trip with them instead due to the unexpected passing of her father.

After that, it was time for a ferry ride. We just missed the 5:15 ferry so we got out and walked around while we waited in our spot to board. During this time Elijah managed to dive face first into the cement and completely scuff up his nose and forehead. A one hour car drive then dropped us off in our hotel.

The morning has arrived and we are on to new adventures. Not sure how often I'll post, but we are excited to tour the area, see my cousin Ryan and his new wife Briana, and also stay at a cabin of a friend for two nights.

On to our adventures!

P.S. Thank you for ALL the birthday wishes. With Facebook now, I was overwhelmed with nearly 100 Happy Birthday notes yesterday. Oh and a poem from my Dad which I'll have to share sometime. Awesome!