Hawaii Trip - October 13

Setting the scene:

My oldest sister,  Laura, was having her second little girl and we thought, since my parents were going for a visit, it would be a great time to get to Hawaii and have a little extra help on the plane ride. It was just me (Eme), Brianna and Carl. Jon stayed behind this trip. It was quite the endeavor to plan and travel with two little ones, but in the end so worth it. Here are a few stories from our adventure...

October 13, 2012

Leave MPLS at 2:20 pm – Arrive in San Francisco at 4:29 pm (6:30 our internal clocks)

Leave San Francisco at 7:00 pm (9:00) – Arrive in Honolulu at 9:33 pm (2:30 am)

We woke up that morning all set to go. I didn't think we'd have everything set but I had a good running list and made sure everything was checked off. Our departure time was a little strange for my two usual nappers but they handled the shift quite well. (They ended up skipping naps all together. Napping on the plane was a hard sell since it was new and exciting, even though they were already really tired.) We ate an early light lunch, since the sleepy heads slept in and had a late big breakfast, and headed to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye to Jon; this was going to be the longest we have been apart and the longest time away from the kids. 

We got our bags checked in and the wonderful lady behind the counter took us to the fast lane for security. It was amazing to not have to wait in the snake line. Brianna and Carl also did well going through security. Since I was traveling with juice pouches and milk for Carl, above the allotted amount, they told me they either had to pat me down or open each pouch (which would have spoiled and defeated the purpose of bringing them). I said she could pat me down, my first experience, all the while Brianna just starring at me asking what she was doing. "This is part of everything they do to keep us safe." That was enough for her and on we went!

Thankfully after the security checkpoint a passenger cart stopped right in front of us and asked us where we were going and if we wanted a ride. Um, yeah! Turns out we would have had to walk all the way to the end of the terminal, quite a long way with our crazy load. He was so nice, those people are the best! Not long after we arrived, they started boarding the plane, and since we were traveling with small children, we were some of the first on. Whew... the first step in our long journey began...

The plane ride was fairly uneventful. What a relief! They both did really well with take off and landing, they were just so excited to see and experience everything that was happening. The hardest part was trying to convince Brianna that it was ok to use the potty on the plane. We talked a lot about it leading up to our flight but nothing can compare a 2.5 year old for the weird, noisy, undesirable location to use a bathroom. She went potty just before we boarded and after many trips to the toilet with either me or my mom (it was quite confining), she finally went about 30 minutes out from landing. That means she held it something like 3 hours. I felt terrible holding her down and what felt like forcing her to go, but I really didn't want her to have an accident. It just didn't seem like that would have been a good experience for her. I was hopeful because she is practically potty trained, and she exceeded my expectations and did so well in big girl undies the whole trip. 

We landed in San Francisco and we were thankful for the layover...