3.5: Traveling

It was time for our impromptu trip to Philly.  We had to finish packing. Ella wanted to be a helper and use her new backpack.

I took my weekly picture a day early. Then at least I wouldn't be missing a picture later. Ella had to join in.

We used Uber to get to the airport. It was worth it to not have to drive. Ella was a little messy snacking in the car and a little loud squealing but the driver didn't say anything. Once he did get startled when she kicked his chair with a squeal.  She was so excited to be going on an airplane.  Ella was singing in the car. She's so cute.

We got to the airport at 11:35. We had so much stuff to carry and to deal with Ella. Her car seat was the worst part of it all. Everything we had was carry on and since we had 3 seats we had 3 things for the overhead bin and 3 things for under our seats.

Once we made it to our gate, Ella loved watching the planes.

Ella had the window seat. Dave had the middle. I had the aisle. I liked this way so I wasn't dealing with her the entire time. Dave always watches movies and then I get stuck.  I did get stuck somewhat when she had to go potty and I dealt with that then she didn't want to go back to sitting so I held her for a little.

Since our first flight left really late we were late arriving. The pilot tried to make up time and he said they did clear airspace for him so he did fly a lot faster than normal.  But we still barely had any time to our connection.  It was also practically the gate the furthest away. We had to take a tram and backtrack so to wasn't the furthest but then backtracking was involved. I swear it was like a half mile.  Ella did so well. She ran with us. We were even on the people movers and I told her to run to keep up with daddy and she did.

She couldn't run anymore when we were so close. She had had enough. Also she said she had to go potty and she was trying to remove her pants. (Life is rough for a 2 year old.) I was also so broken and the carseat was banging off my leg. I knew I'd end up with some bruises there and I did but I did not realize my shoulder would also be extremely tender for days from the strap weighing on it.   We got to the end of the boarding line and just made it. 4 people arrived after us who didn't run quite as fast (or who were further back in our plane). We got on the plane just minutes before they closed the gate.

Ella slept on the 2nd plane and it was so much nicer. Too bad the shorter flight was second.  Landing was so so so bad. Ella cried. It hurt my ears so bad so I know it hurt her ears too.

When getting from the flight to the pick-up area, Dave held Ella on his shoulders. She held on. He didn't hold her. I was too broken to carry everything and she wouldn't walk by this point.  She was so great earlier when she needed to be so this was fine.  We were actually in a hurry to get her to a bathroom but she had on a pullup so it wasn't that dire.

We arrived just before midnight (eastern time). We stopped at Wawa for some food then ate at Dave's dad's house. We tried to go to sleep after 1 and Ella was too scared. It did not work well. So I ended up sleeping with her. I did not get much sleep. We were on the mattress on the floor and she just did not want to sleep and would bounce all around. I think if we had more than an hour in a strange place she would have done better.