More Family to Meet!

We just returned from a lovely trip meeting more of Lola's family in Texas. On Friday, we headed to Lubbock, Texas where Lola was so excited to meet her Uncle Bob and Aunt Kristi, Cousin Hannah and Cousin Jake (referenced, I believe in our first or second entry, and who provided a lot of motivation for getting the ball rolling on Lola, and provided a lot of bedtime prayers for us!) Lola also got to meet a lot of Rodney's friends from his growing up years, who are like family!

We were so worried when we left about how she would do on the plane. Because she is under two, we didn't have to buy a ticket for her, which meant we would have to hold her in our laps for the duration of the flight--both of the flights it takes to get to Lubbock. So Friday morning, I headed down to this great little shop called, Mother's Milk, in Old Town Scottsdale to purchase one of those slings for on the plane. We packed plenty of bottles so that we could keep her ears clear on take off and landing and take off and landing!

When we got to the gate, we found out that both of the flights were fairly empty so we could actually take her on the plane in the car seat (but we had to carry the car seat through the airport when we switched planes. We were so worried about how she would do...SHE DID BEAUTIFULLY! The flight attendant gave her a cute little certificate and wings to commemorate her first flight! (And she gave Rodney a deck of cards for being such a good boy! :) )

The weekend was so great! We saw our nephew, Jake, play baseball...a treat we don't often get since we live so far away! It was so nice to be with family! Lola had her first day at church and held it together very well...the only squeal was during a loud song and no one really heard her anyway! She made it through lunch at Rosa's (of course) and did beautifully at the church shower. We got lots of beautiful gifts from friends of Rodney's parents...we are so touched by their generosity! We also learned about a yummy new treat called Cake Balls...can't wait to try them out!!

Our trip home was not so smooth. We were excited that we weren't supposed to get off the plane when we stopped in Vegas (not sure why we passed Phoenix to get to Phoenix, but hey, we did) so we headed to the front of the plane so that we could get off quicker in Phoenix. HOWEVER, as we headed up the aisle, they announced that our flight was cancelled and we would have to head to another gate...all the way across the terminal. Because she had started to fuss, I took her out of the seat and gave our little sling a try. It worked like a charm...she snuggled right in and went to sleep. So this meant, as we headed across the terminal, I had a baby on my chest, diaper bag on my shoulder, dragging a rolling bag (thank goodness it rolled!), and Rodney had a computer bag on his back, and was carrying the car seat. Fun times.

AT LEAST they let us board first and we were able to get the first row, but this was after an hour wait in the airport. While we waited, we fed Lola 'cause she was a hungry girl! We strapped her back in the car seat and were headed home! The cutie got so many compliments on how cute, sweet, etc...until we started to land. Boy oh boy did she ever save up all that goodness for the flight home!!!
We thought the sling trick would work again. It did, for about two seconds. Then she started screaming. Loud. We had a little bit left in the bottle, so we put that in and voila! The crying stopped! Unfortunately, there was about 1/2 ounce in the bottle and when it was gone, she was MAD at me! So I made a quick dash when the plane landed, made a bottle and calmed her down while Rodney got our bags. All I can say is there were a lot of Vegas weekenders hating life (and us) for the last 20 minutes of that flight! Too bad the guy who cancelled our first flight wasn't in the next row! But, we can't complain, she was wonderful all weekend and misses her Nana and Papa Jay, Aunt Kristi and Uncle Bob, Cousins Hannah and Jake already!