Heading West

Moving across country with two little boys and a cat is madness.  But we did it.  I had refused to drive cross country with those three, so Marcus and his dad drove the moving truck while my mom, Chase, Ty, Chicago, and I flew.  We definitely had an adventure.

It was a blur with the final cleaning to the Uber picking us up and arriving at the airport.  Seriously, it went by so quickly.  It all seemed so far away, and then BAM, we were at the airport.

Getting all our stuff to the airport.

Ty was pretty great and calm :)

Chase was a good helper and loved rolling his suitcase around.

Chicago was actually super calm - barely made any noise. I don't more than a handful of people even realized we had a cat.

so. much. stuff.

Our flight was delayed.  They said it shouldn't affect any connections, but it did.  It was crazy.  We thought we'd miss the connection and have to stay in the airport overnight, which would have been terrible.  But the flight attendants appealed to the hearts of the wonderful people on our plane and convinced them to "let the family of small children get off first so they wouldn't have to stay overnight in the airport."  It's like we were VIPs.  And we booked it over to the other gate.

Luckily the second flight had been delayed, but then it waited for our suitcases to arrive.  (I believe there were ten others doing the same connection - guess that's enough to wait!)  The people on the plane didn't like us as much for the delay...

My mom had a plan of how to divide up, since we were able to sit all together, but in the rush, it all got jumbled.  I sat with Ty and Chicago in the back by two cranky ladies.  Ty and Chicago were both so quiet and well behaved - they probably felt stupid :)  And my mom and Chase were up front.  The only really bad thing was that I had Chase's lollipop.  Oops.

Thankfully after a few hours we landed and it was all over.  Except we were done and Marcus and Mike still had like twenty hours of driving left...  Glad I was on the airplane!

We moved in to our house a little later in the week, after Marcus and the truck arrived - and after basically everyone had the flu.  Good times.

Chase anxiously looking for his "77 House"

And then we were ready to start unpacking tons of boxes.  

Welcome Home, NYC UT Hardys

Getting to Utah

Getting around in New York is always an adventure.  It's a little boy's dream with all the different trains, buses, cars, and airplanes.  Getting to JFK this time was no exception.  It involved a car, train, Air Train, and airplane.  Chase loved every second.

The car from Sunnyside to Woodside was quick and rather uneventful - definitely a good thing with all our suitcases and little people :)

Waiting for the Long Island Railroad in Woodside

Both boys were enjoying the train

Bucket List item: Take the train to Babylon!  Seriously, I really wanted to.  We didn't ride all the way to Babylon obviously, but we did take the Babylon bound train to Jamaica :)

Proof, if you can read that it says "Babylon"

A lot of people were on the train, so we were standing in the doorway.  Ty enjoyed looking and smiling at all the new people.

The Air Train was also quick and uneventful.  Chase loved finding letters on the walls and talking nonstop, as usual.  It is a bit of a walk from the Air Train over to the check in counters, but things went smoothly.

Keeping busy waiting for the airplane

The happiest traveler

I'm really amazed at how simple it was traveling this time.  I thought it'd continue to get harder as the boys got bigger due to all the stuff they need, but it wasn't nearly as crazy as I had thought.  Even without the stroller!  (It's in the shop.)

I'm sorry, but I had to include this.  Chase decided right before we were supposed to board that he HAD to use the bathroom.  It was meant to be.

Flying Home

We were not thrilled out our flight back home because it had a layover in California, but that turned out to be awesome!  As you probably know, Chase LOVES airplanes.

And we loved one last Cafe Rio meal

Chase was enamored with the airplanes, especially because he could get so close to them at the Long Beach Airport.

He was great in the airport watching the planes get ready (and later meeting and playing with some little Australian boys who were headed to visit NYC for the first time)

And then we were home.  It was sad to leave everyone, but luckily we have Christmas to look forward to -- three weeks to go!

Flight to Utah

We were all really looking forward to our vacation!  And having a countdown for Chase helped him understand when we were going.  He loved taking a chain off each morning.

Taking the final chain link off

Realizing it was the day to get on the airplane!

We all went to the airport Sunday late afternoon.  Marcus came to help me get everything through the airport because we had a lot of stuff.  It's amazing how the smaller bodies (namely Chase and Ty) can have so much stuff.  Too bad I didn't have a picture of myself carrying two totes, a backpack diaper bag, Chase's backpack, and a car seat, while pushing Chase in the stroller and carrying Ty in the Ergo carrier.  It was impressive :)

Check it out -- airport parking lot!  We borrowed a car to get to the airport, and it really simplified getting everyone and everything there.

I'd be lying if I said I was expecting a decent flight.  I anticipated spit up everywhere, crying, whining, basically anything a baby and toddler could do to make a five hour flight miserable.  But it was the exact opposite!

Although there were a lot of people, security was moving.  I was able to navigate the zig zag lines and get to our gate ten minutes before the plane was being boarded.  That was really nice.  It wasn't enough time for Chase to need to get out or unload my jigsaw puzzle of bags hanging on me and the stroller.  We had enough time to watch the plane get some final bags and food, and then we were boarding.

We sat next to a nice lady who likes kids.  Thankfully.  Chase talked to her for awhile, and then he played trains.  He loved looking out the window, noticing letters and numbers.  Ty looked and smiled.  The flight attendants were also great with kids, and they were really helpful when Chase needed to use the bathroom.  That really lowered my stress.  And after that, Chase played on his tablet for a little bit.  Both boys stayed calm and happy.  It was wonderful.

Ty did a decent job sleeping when he was across my lap.

Thank you free Fly-Fi - you kept one little boy entertained and happy! :)

And then it was nap time (at least for the boys) zzzzz

And suddenly the plane was landing!  Phew :)  Chase didn't want to wake up, but he perked right up when he realized Gram and Pops were waiting for him!

Flying to Arizona

For Christmas this year, we flew to Arizona for a Christmas with ALL the Gardners.  We were a little nervous about flying with our crazy monkey boy, especially since we had to buy him his own seat now that he's two -- we assumed he'd still crawl in our laps and waste the space.  However, we were pleasantly surprised because he actually wanted to sit in his own seat!  

He liked buckling his seat belt, but then he'd realize he was stuck.
He was cute crying, "Stuck! Stuck!" 

We were doubly excited when he decided to sleep on the flight.  (We do normally fly past bedtime to encourage that since these are long flights from NYC to AZ.  It took a little bit to get comfortable, but we found a solution.

We all got some sleep :)

The second we landed, all his energy came back.  Keep in mind this was about 10 PM in Arizona, so it was well after 1:00 AM in New York.  He was really excited to see Gram and Pops.  He smiled and giggled at them as we came through the airport.

Chase was also amazed with the baggage claim and enjoyed waiting for our bags to come out.  He convinced Gram to follow him to watch every bag come out, since of course ours was the last one.

When we finally had our bags, we headed to the parking lot.  "Train?" Chase kept asking.  Yeah, that's our city boy.  Haha.  He was really confused why we were taking a car to Mimi & Grandpa's and not a train.

More pictures from Christmas will be coming (hopefully soon!).  It was a great trip, and having a full row on the airplane definitely helped start the trip off well :)

Chillin' in the Airport

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Utah.  It was a quick trip, but we had a blast.  The plane flights were more eventful with a little guy than before, but he was really cute in the airport :)  

He likes to make this crinkled face :)

Hanging out in the terminal like a big boy

I have probably five blog posts coming about the trip...  Be prepared!

An Airport All-Star

This year, we are spending Christmas in Arizona.  I have been looking forward to this trip for awhile!  :)  Marcus was kind enough to help Chase and me get to the airport with all our stuff, but then he had to stay in New York for another week of work.  (He'll be flying down on Friday for the following week.)  

Of course I was really nervous about flying with a 12 week old baby.  Who knows how that will play out...  But I guess I should have realized that we seriously have the best behaved baby ever who's always seemed to enjoy hearing airplanes.  

Here's Chase all ready for security:

The scariest part for me was going through security by myself.  With my carry-on, Chase, and his stuff, it was quite the balancing act.  Luckily it was all downhill from there.  He didn't even make a sound waiting in the terminal.  And when we boarded the plane, we were surprised (and relieved) when no one was seated right next to us!  yay :)  And the lady by the window was really nice and said to take as much room as we needed.

Chase was a little squirmy before the plane took off, but that's because he was getting hungry.  He had a bottle during take-off and quickly fell asleep.  He woke up almost half way through the flight and slept until landing.  Pretty impressive for a flight that was over five hours long!  All the flight attendants loved him-- probably mostly because he didn't scream :)

While we were waiting to get off the plane, I set Chase down on the empty seat.  

It's nice he can't really roll yet :)

It was a long flight. ...I usually sleep the whole way, and this time I was too afraid of dropping Chase (or leaning into the aisle when someone walked by and hitting his head), so I watched a lot of Chopped on the JetBlue TV.  But thankfully it wasn't a bad flight.

Some of our welcoming committee:

Brian

My dad and Jonne

Jonne was really excited to see us :)

Welcome to Arizona :)

Chase smiling at Uncle Brian

...Expect many more pictures in Arizona :)