Texas Trip

This year my sisters and I decided that we would take a trip to visit our sister and her family who lives in near Houston. Nolan did a good job of working hard to help save up money, and I asked for money for my birthday and Christmas to go toward the trip. We were able to save up enough for me to go with the kids, Nolan couldn't go because he couldn't get the time off of work, and we planned to go in March when Rachel would be off of work because of Spring Break. We waited and waited for plane tickets to go down, and it looked like we might not go after all, and then about 3 weeks before the planned date, the tickets went down in price and we bought them! Well, my sister bought them, and then I paid her back. Luckily, I didn't have to pay for my kids since they were both under 2. We left on a Monday evening. Nolan took the day off of work so he could take us to the airport, and so we packed up in Mom's van, picked up Melissa and Sarah, and drove to the airport. There we said good-bye and went inside. We checked our luggage, and proceeded to go toward security. 3 adults, 2 children, several carryons, and airport security. Recipe for trouble. Luckily having 1 more adult than there are children makes things a little easier. So between removing shoes, and holding children, and setting off the alarms, and being patted down, it was just a tiny bit stressful. I know that being patted down sounds terrible, but the agents were very apologetic and seemed to really not want to do it, but they have no control over the rules; they are not in charge. Do I like it? No. Do I think they should profile? yes. Did those individual agents have any more control over the situation than I did? no. They are given the rules and they have to follow them. If we want to make a change then we need to elect different representatives in government. So armed with the iPad, Spongebob, fruitsnacks, toys, cookies, etc we boarded the plane. We flew from Sacramento to LAX. This flight was very easy. Oliver fell asleep. We all tried to sit on the same row but were told that each row has only 5 air masks. So Sarah sat in the row in front of us. Iliana began to cry just as we were about to take off so I nursed her as the plane took off. Since this was only an hour flight, it was really fast, and were getting off soon. We hung around LAX for a little bit, until our next flight to Houston. We boarded, this time I sat across the aisle with Iliana while Melissa and Sarah sat with Oliver in another row. We finally made it to Houston sometime after 11pm where Rachel was waiting for us. Melissa and Sarah picked up the rental car and drove to the hotel, while I drove with Rachel to her house where I was staying. Rachel was nice enough to ask around and was able to borrow 2 carseats for me to use while we were there. We got to Rachel's place and I got the kid's ready for bed, but with the 2 hour time difference and the recent daylight savings time change, we were really 3 hours earlier then them and so my kids did not fall asleep until 2:30 am, and by that time I was crying because I was so tired and just wanted to sleep, and I missed Nolan.

The next day, Tuesday, we decided to just take it easy. So we slept in, got ready slowly, and when Melissa and Sarah got there, we went for Hawaiian shaved ice! hmmmm. Delicious. I only get these once a year when the state fair comes around so this was a good treat. The kids sat on this bench that was practically on the ground and were so cute just sitting there eating their shaved ice. Even Iliana got to try. Then we went back to Rachel's, played outside, then left the kids with Rich, and went shopping. By the end of the trip we all wound up with the same wallet. I bought some costume jewelry to dress up for a party Nolan and I went to when we got back. Then we had dinner, and had a Blue Bell ice cream party. Roscoe kept taking the cartons and acted like they were all his. hmmm, ice cream.