Airplanes + Baby West= Bad News! August 3, 2008

Very tired. So don’t expect this post to make a lot sense.

We had a great time on our trip. But I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER, NEVER FLY AGAIN WITH WEST*. Each and every flight we took (5 of them for this trip) West screamed and cried on the plane until he passed out with exhaustion. In the airport, in the car, in the stroller, in restaurants, at peoples houses he was wonderful. A pure joy to be around. Happy, playful, funny, cute, smiley… but as soon as he got on the plane… SCREAM/CRY…then CRY/SCREAM. It was awful.

Okay so enough about that. We first flew to the D.C. area where West met his cousin Devin and his Uncle Jon. Grandpa Dave was there too. We had a good time, we saw Annapolis and the Baltimore Inner Harbor. We also went to National Mall and saw the Lincoln Memorial then we went to Alexandria, VA. to see Chrissy (my long time dear friend from high school). We napped and relaxed and had a really good visit with them. It was really hot when we went to the National Mall. We kept having to wet a blanket down and covering West with it.The National Mall is much bigger than I thought it would be, so we didn’t do all we wanted. We also ate (twice) at this really good Italian restaurant. Oh and we went to this town called Fredrick, MD… it was like a mini Portland. It was very cute, lots of cool shops. I would totally live there.

Next we flew to St. Louis then drove 2.5 hours to Sikeston, MO to see Grandma Carol and Grandpa Steve and Aunt Peyton. They have pool there so we swam in the pool. West loved it! He splashed and sang in the water. Aunt Peyton was really good with him. She is 11 now and was so helpful. He really liked her. It was very hot in Missouri so we stayed indoors or in the pool. We ate at a fun restaurant with flying rolls. Lamberts. The portions were crazy big, but the food was good. West ate some rolls, but woke up with a bad diaper rash, so there must have been something in it that upset his tummy.

Then we flew home. I can’t tell you how happy I was to be home. It is so hard traveling with a baby, even one as wonderful as West. In D.C. we canceled a day and half worth of activities because we could tell all the sightseeing was getting hard on him. He didn’t sleep that great at nights, needed lots of rocking and cuddling to stay asleep, so we were all very tired the whole trip… then add that on the the horrible plane rides… it was all so taxing.

*in regards to my never flying again statement. Of course that is not true, we will again… but not any time soon. I really hope family members that want to see West will try to come visit us.

Here are some pictures (click on them to make them bigger)

Happy family

Breastfeeding in front of Lincoln Memorial… that duck bit John.

West swimming in the pool

West and Mommy getting on the plane in Chicago