On Monday, July 16th we flew to Minnesota – Grandma, Mommy, Daddy, Jack, and Charlie – for a little vacation. Jack was very excited to go on our trip. We had been prepping him for days, telling him that we were going on a trip to Minnesota and that we were going to fly on an airplane up in the sky with the whole family including Grandma.
When we drove up to the airport, Jack could see lots of airplanes. We parked in the ramp and took and elevator down to the terminal. Jack called it an “alligator” which made us all laugh. We took another “alligator” up to check in with our kids and a million bags. For the five of us we had 4 suitcases to check, 2 strollers to gate check, and 7 carry-ons. I was constantly counting to make sure we had everything. Just thinking about it makes me groan.
When we got to the gate, Ronny brought Jack over to the window to look at all of the airplanes around our gate area. Jack got so excited – he was almost jumping out of his skin. He was stuttering and could hardly get the words out of his mouth – “It’s airplanes! One two three four five!” Eventually he calmed down and would just sit and watch the airplanes.
If only Jack would have been happy watching TV for longer than 10 seconds...
After we got to Minnesota, we made our way down to the baggage claim and I took Jack to a neighboring carousel to see the suitcases coming down the conveyer belt to the carousel. He thought that was pretty cool. Eventually our bags started coming down, so I took him back to our carousel. Ronny collected all of our bags and it was time to go and Jack had a little meltdown. He screamed when I picked him up to take him away from baggage claim. He screamed, “More suitcases!!!” Everyone looked at us and I said, “He wants to stay and see more suitcases.” A mom with older kids said with an understanding look, “I’ve been there!” I bet she has!
We made our way along the “Rental Car” signs and eventually had to take a little tram to the rental car area. We told Jack it was a choo choo train and boy did he get excited. It was a short fun trip. Then after we hit the rental car desk, we took a little bus to get our rented minivan. With trips on an airplane, a train, and a bus – not to mention all of the elevators – and I think this may have been the best day in Jack’s life. The kid seems to have energy that won’t quit. We didn’t get to Grandma’s house until about 10pm and he was still going strong. Both kids were. We got the room set up with beds and clean sheets for the kids and finally got everyone to bed around 10:30.
