Seattle Day 1

I know I have about a month's worth of blogging to catch up on, but I just got home from a most excellent trip out to the west coast and am amped to blog about it... so it's jumping ahead in the blogging line and going now :)

Bright Thursday morning we packed the fam up and drove to Chicago so that I could fly to Seattle.  We left around 4:30 to make it to my 7:30 flight.  Let me tell you... the driving conditions and roads were HORRENDOUS.  In case you've been living under a rock for the past month or so it's been a polar vortex (so they've been saying).  It was really cold but on top of that it was WINDY.  You'd be cruising along just fine and without any notice white out.  Like, you couldn't see two feet in front of you white out and then all of the sudden there would be the back of a semi!  I have to admit that there was a pretty scary moment where I thought that we were all going die, and no, I'm not being dramatic.  You know how trucks kick up a lot of snow and if you can get past them your visibility will improve exponentially?  Well, we were trying to get past this truck, and he decided that he didn't really care about lanes.  As we got closer he just kept drifting over into our lane and then I'm not even kidding I saw the corner of this truck and it was coming at my side of the van.  We did some fancy maneuvering that required us sliding back and forth within our lane, where a few times I thought that we were going to be paint on the side of said truck, but eventually made it through ahead and safely.  It was a pretty tense moment and something I hope never to have to experience again!  Beyond that things went pretty smoothly getting to the airport and Norah and I made it through security without a hitch and then we were on our way to Denver!

Finding our gate and letting Norah have the last of her 'freedom' before our flights began!

Happy baby girl even for being away hella early

Getting a grasp on our situation

I took this picture for Dude... our wing and a plane taking off 

This was also for Dude... to see all the planes at their gates

Clouds and mountains

Happiest travel buddy ever!

She ate a lot of snacks...

I did get her to take a mini nap on the first flight

Hanging out at Denver International

She was pretty pleased that she was able to move about in more than the size of a seat

There was this other family there that she was captivated with.  

I think she missed Dude and Goose because they had a boy and a girl their age that she loved

Beginning of our flight... sweet girly!

Heading into Seattle

Denver to Seattle

Love the mountains!

She did a fantastic job on the flight.  I had a window seat and there wasn't anybody in the middle so that helped because she could stretch out a little and I wasn't worried about her grabbing our neighbors stuff.  And the gentleman that was sitting in the aisle seat was very friendly so that helped too!  We had a three hour lay over in Denver which allowed us to grab some lunch and stretch our legs.  They have this upper level that doesn't have anything but bathrooms, a few seats and outlets for charging... so its great to let children burn some energy without worrying about them getting lost in the crowds.  I took a mini walk with Norah before we boarded in which she fell asleep, so for the first little bit of the flight she slept!  I was lucky to have two college aged girls in my row who absolutely adored babies so they were a big help and really understanding about Norah's curiosities in all their stuff.  I also have to give a HUGE SHOUTOUT to the flight attendants from Denver to Seattle.  They were amazing!  Best ones on the entire trip by a long shot.  Also, Norah decided that I was going to be in the mile high club... not the exciting kind, but the she had to poop on every flight kind so I got to experience changing diapers in the smallest space ever.

We landed in Seattle with no problems, grabbed our bag and got to see AMY!  Whoo!  We had an adventure getting out of SeaTac but made our way to a grocery store where we picked up some food for Norah and then went and picked up Brian from work.  We got to their new home, which is adorbs BTW and got settled in for our little vacation.  It was a nice relaxing night and Norah went to bed before dinner was ready which meant that I actually got to eat hot food and talk with friends undisturbed for the night.  It was awesome.  I will say that her going to bed so early (since she was probably still on Michigan time and we woke up so stinking early that day) wasn't my friend the next morning, but eh, you go with it.  :)

First day of traveling was a huge success and it was amazing to finally be hanging out with the Husteds.

JVG