Saturday - Day 2

Got Nic off to work and the boys and I already had a nap...it's 11AM and we just ate poptarts (Colton thinks they're cookies) for lunch.  Thankfully our sponsor (a 1st LT, who also picked us up at the airport) had stocked our fridge and cubbard with a few items - which is already fast depleting.  But the good news is there's a Macaroni Grill across the street so I think we'll eat there for dinner - I don't think we'll have anything left by then.  Anyway, on to Day 2 - Saturday...

Saturday:  We woke up sometime between 7 and 8...I really can't remember - it feels like it was ages ago.  But by 9:30 we were downstairs to eat breakfast - which wasn't complimentary (but they had a free shuttle to airport so it was all good!).  The boys acted like wild animals and the food wasn't all that great.  We wanted to go for a walk afterwards but it was way too chilly so we had to head back up to our room to kill a few hours until we had to check out.  The kids continued to act pretty wild in a cooped up room with no toys but their dragons from McDonald's (I didn't want to get any of their airplane toys out - wanted them to be fresh and new) but somehow we all managed to get ALL of our things downstairs for the shuttle service - and it only took us 2 trips! Maximus was a BIG help - he carried his backpack (which had all the toys in it) and wanted to pull our carryon suitcase, which he did quite well!!

We were the only ones on the shuttle - which was nice because our luggage took up the entire luggage racks!  We somehow made it to the ticket counter to check our baggage - we were able to do it only because Colton had to walk - and he RAN a lot, I did a lot of chasing LOL.  But once we made it through the line & to the counter, I took the boys to a bench and made them sit quietly by feeding them M&M's and singing songs....but I think mostly it was the M&M's :-)

We found a cart and used it to get to the USO with all our junk.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the carseats - but they were awesome to have on the planes so I think they were worth it.  We had to walk maybe a quarter mile outside in busy traffic to get there but it was WORTH it!!!  This place was awesome!  They had a family room complete with toys and TV, couch, pack n play, rocking chair and a few video game consoles.  They had a sleeping room with leather recliners, a movie room, a computer area, dining area with couches.  And the best part of the fully equipped kitchen and the food GALORE.  I think they had about 100 boxes of girl scout cookies.

We got there around 2PM and they made us sandwiches (they were SO good) for lunch.  We then gave the kids a nap...I think it lasted maybe 45 minutes, but hey! it was something!!  We left to get through security and get to our gate at around 8ish.  Security was somewhat of a headache. It was really busy and with all our things it took us forever.  And the kids didn't want ME they wanted Nic and so they cried when I had to hold them - they did that a lot on this trip.  We got to our gate and we had to get our seats reassigned because the way they had it only 2 of us were sitting together.  We got it so we were sitting 2 and 2.  We made the mistake of not asking to board early and had to carry all our stuff and the carseats through the tiny aisles knocking people around with them and then blocking traffic while we got the car seats installed.  We had the boys sitting next to the windows - which would have been cool if they could have seen anything but we took off at 10:40 so they couldn't see a thing.

The flight was only an hour and 45 minutes...and Colton cried a lot.  He wanted to be held and there times when he had to be buckled.  Nic passed him back to me and we traded kids ... I got him to fall asleep and into his carseat (they adjust REALLY easily) but maybe 10-15 minutes before landing he woke up and cried until we landed and I was able to hold him - he fell back asleep. 

Getting off this plane was a nightmare.  Both boys were sleeping and needed to be held but it was impossible to do that with all our things.  I tried to force Colton to walk a few times because he was slipping but all he did was sleep on the floor.  When we finally got out of the gate we faced an empty terminal and practically just collapsed.  We had NO clue how we were going to get all our things and our now 2 crying kids who refused to walk to the USO which we had no clue where it was...  Thankfully, a flight attendant say our plight and got a cart for us and told us how to get to the USO.  Unfortunatley she didn't know that Terminal 2, which we had to walk through to get the USO was closed and there was no way to get it to out side.  After walking for about 20 minutes we realized we had to hop on the airports "train" to get to it. 

It probably took us at least another 20 minutes to get to the USO.  They had a nursery with a couch and a recliner and 2 cribs.  The main room was FULL of men sleeping everywhere!  I don't know what we would have done if they didn't have that nursery!! We changed into jammies and put a child in each crib - well we had to put Colton to sleep first.  I think we were in bed by 2AM.  It was a good thing we had gone to bed early the night before!!

What a day!!