Westward Ho - Day 1

This past July, the kids and I took the trip of all trips!  We drove to Manchester, flew to Chicago, flew to Salt Lake City, drove to Portland (Oregon), drove to Bend, drove back to Salt Lake City, drove to Mill Hollow, drove to Oakley, drove back to Mill Hollow, drove to West Jordan, flew to Chicago, flew to Manchester, and finally, drove back home to Maine! Whew!  Did that exhaust you as much as it did me?  Just think....I had 3 kids in tow! :)  Fortunately, however, that was over the course of 3 weeks, and not all at once!  It was still quite the adventure, though!


Day 1 - Because the Mr. needed to get to work, he had to drop us off 4 1/2 hours early at the Manchester (NH) airport.  Knowing we had many hours of sitting on airplanes, I tried to think of ways to get the childrens' energy out while we waited.  Although the Manchester airport doesn't have any 'play' areas for kids, with a little creativity, we had fun!  Then we flew from Manchester to Chicago, where we had another few hours to kill before continuing on to Salt Lake City.  So, I did have to get inventive, but somehow I managed to keep the children entertained...

There was a neat airplane display:

The kids had fun posing with the statues:

Moving walkways are always fun:

We are getting sleepy on the airplane, as you can see by the droopy eyes and fake smiles:

The children started out by sitting all together, with me across the aisle.   Since there are only 3 seats together, and none of the children wanted to sit alone, this seemed the best solution.  When, during take-off, we "tipped" (while turning - completely normal), Grins started screaming "We're tipping!!!! We're tipping!!! I'm SCARED!" at the top of his lungs, I decided some seat rearrangements were in order.  Fortunately, Angel was wonderful and consented (after some bribing) to sit by herself, between 2 strangers.  She was so brave - just sat there, reading "The BFG" to herself for the entire flight.  I was so grateful, and pleased with her flexibility and willingness to help, even when it was out of her comfort zone!  After that, the flight went rather smoothly, and the children did marvelously well.

Carrots and PB snacks while waiting for the next plane:

Manchester had a very interesting display of random things: (I know these are out of order....takes too much time to rearrange them)

Through the window, we saw what appeared to be a little walking path next to the airport, so we decided to check it out.  It ended up being a very small path to a 'pet area' - basically a tiny little spot of ground to serve as a pet 'bathroom' if you will.  Grins found some pet waste and, being the good citizen that he was, said "We should clean that up! It's litter!"  I complimented him on his citizenship, and let him know that, since he was the one with the bright idea, he ought to have the clean up privilege himself.  Luckily for me, he obliged, and I had to take a picture, just because I was so pleased with his sense of duty and responsibility.  That's my boy!

Pleased with himself for a job well done! :)

 Wiggles insisted on carrying her backpack around - even though it probably weighed nearly as much as she does!

At least an hour was spent walking / running / dodging in and out of the spinning doors.  Who knew they would provide such entertainment!

 And finally, the last leg of our flight!  I had to stop pitying myself for travelling alone with 3 children, when the woman sitting behind me was travelling with her SIX children (one of whom was a 3 month old baby!), along with her sister to help.  I held the baby for awhile and her sons sat next to Angel, which was a welcome change from her sitting between 2 adult strangers on the previous flight!  Fortunately all 3 children slept for most of the flight - until Angel woke everyone up with a night terror at the end.  At least it was towards the end of our trip - and we all made it in one piece!  Whew!

We finally arrived in Salt Lake City around 2am our time - just over 18 hours from the time we left our house the previous morning.  The next day when we woke up, Angel asked "How are we going to get back home?" to which I replied "We will fly back, the same way we flew here."  Her eyes widened and she said "I REALLY don't want to do all that all over again."   I laughed and reminded her that we had a few weeks before we had to think about the return trip.  What a little trooper!  I felt truly blessed that the trip went so well!  I really do have wonderful kids!