Starlynn was a very good kid to travel with. She has always loved waving to airplanes that fly over our house, so you can imagine her excitment when she learned how they looked and how big they were up close. Here is her saying "airplane" in the SeaTac airport:
Coloring at the SeaTac airport:
On the plane from Seattle to Denver: (we bought tickets late and it was cheapest to fly through Denver)
Playing Peek-a-Boo with the people behind us:
She fell asleep once we were up in the air, it wasn't too comfortable for me to hold her the whole flight, but I value a sleeping baby above all else. Then, I had a fruit roll up for her to eat on the landing and we had no ear problems.THEN, we had a 3 hour layover in Denver. I know... long, but I think a long layover with a toddler is second best to a nonstop flight. She was able to get so much stimulation and exercise that she could go to sleep quickly on the next flight. A short layover would have been bad. Not enough time to get the wiggles out!
So, the Denver airport has fun moving sidewalks all over the place, which she couldn't get enough of:
Then, when mommy and Grandma got too tired, we watched airplanes for a while:
And then we played on the golf carts, which nobody seemed to mind. And I got a soft place to sit while she climbed all over and said "bye bye" to everyone:
So, the Denver to Santa Barbara flight was pretty good. There was a moment of tears when I wouldn't let her push the flight attendant call button and the plane wasn't moving yet. She was really tired, and all the cabin lights were on so I couldn't get her to sleep. But then we watched out the window while we took off and that was fun, and then she went to sleep, and this time, the flight wasn't full so my mom moved to the bench next to us and I was able to lay her down next to me with her legs over my legs. Everyone slept so it was nice and dark for her. She fussed a couple times in her sleep but I was able to get her to go back to sleep.She woke up and was happy happy happy getting our luggage and getting into the rental car. Then she talked our ear off for about 25 minutes of our hour long drive to Lompoc then fell asleep and I was able to transfer her into her pack and play in the hotel room without waking her.
Next morning: HAPPY GIRL! This is us outside our hotel ready to go see Papa.
She was a charmer for Papa. The first day, I wore a shirt where my armpits showed, so I had to go BACK and change. Argh. Mom took Starlynn in with her. I didn't get in until about 2 hours later, because when they are doing "count", no one can move locations. So I sat and sat and sat and got pretty ticked. Anyway, I didn't get to see Starlynn's initial reacting to papa, but I heard she went right up to him and was her usual charming self.She was great everyday. She would fall asleep when she needed to. She'd eat with us, walk with us, play with other babies and kids and loved chasing birds. Oh, the weather was so nice here. Papa loved her of course!
The first day after visiting, we took long naps in the hotel, then went shopping, then to dinner and then we took Starlynn to see Tangled. What a cute movie. Starlynn has been sitting through movies now, and so I wasn't nervous about trying to take her to a movie. She sat in my lap 80% of the time, and the other 20%, she walked to the row in front of us and got popcorn from the teenage girls who loved sharing with her, and she'd stand in the isle sometimes. We only had one moment of loudness, but then we sat in the front row and she kept watching. It was a great movie and it was fun to take Starlynn with us.
The second day, we went straight out to the beach which was about 10 miles out. She had mixed emotions about it, but all and all, had a great time there. There was also an Amtrak station there, so she got to see a choo choo, which always makes her day.
Here are some beach videos and pics:
I wanted barefoot beach baby pics, but she was having none of it:
Grandma taught her to run away from the water, and after a while she started freaking out when a wave would come in. It was super funny, but I guess we accidentally taught her to be afraid of the water.
Man, I was so tired that I was moving so slow and my back hurt really bad. Carrying TWO babies around is hard. So, mom got the bigger cardio workout and carried Starlynn back up to the car:
Washing the gritty sand off: She loves baths! Always looking for a "hat" which was the ice bucket this time:
I put my little girl in her first pony tail. I told my mom, "Now I understand why you loved your little girls in pony tails so much". Oh my goodness she was cute:
The trip home was smooth as well. She slept on both flights again, and she was more easily contained on our Denver layover on the way back. It took her until 10:00pm to fall asleep on the Denver to Seattle flight though. There was no sleepy energy on the plane like there was before. Everyone stayed awake with reading lights on and I was irritated at people all around me, but I kept calm, and eventually, Starlynn finally gave up and slept until the landing, when she got pretty ticked off at her ears and not being able to get comfortable to sleep.
But then, she was okay once I got her to look outside the window again, and then she just cuddled into me walking to baggage claim and then we got to see daddy and get in our own car! She was ecstatic and got chatty again on the way home. She slept til 8 this morning and seems as healthy and happy as ever to be home with her daddy and doggies.
She missed her daddy a lot. She said "daddy", like she was calling loudly for him about 20-30 times a day.
So, that was Starlynn's adventure. She was great to travel with and papa was sure happy to see her. :-) (Oh, he got his pic taken with her... we'll have to wait for him to send it to us.)
It's good to be home.
Being a distant Grandma sure has it drawbacks.
ReplyDelete