the flight home...

before we knew it, our vacation week was up. saturday came and we worked to squeeze all our stuff back into the suitcase so we could check out of the condo. our flight out wasn't until 4:30, but we had to be out by 10 am.

the drive to norfolk was uneventful and mason fell asleep on the way. knowing that it would be a long day, we drove in circles for a while to maximize the nap. when he woke up, we returned the bus and headed into the airport - 4 hours early!

we killed 45 minutes checking in (the southwest employees stationed at norfolk are WAY more picky than the ones in houston... my dad and i moved golf balls back and forth between bags so we could meet the under 50 pound weight limit). we spent another 90 minutes waiting to argue with avis over bogus rental charges and then grabbed a bite to eat. before we knew it, we only had an hour left so we headed to the gate. much like the flight over, mason giggled and wiggled while we waited. pappy provided excellent entertainment in the form of his blackberry and mason slobbered all over it until it ceased working. yup, pappy bought a new one on monday! :)

we boarded the FULL flight and made it to chicago with little incident. you should ask grammy about the stroke of luck we had in seating arrangements (all three of us in a row) as opposed to some rather large strangers who were the last to board.

our layover in chicago allowed enough time for dinner and for mason to change into his pjs for the last leg of our journey. of course, with minutes to spare before we boarded mason required an emergency diaper change - mere moments after we returned from his first one. crisis averted.

the plan was for us to board, mason to get his night-night bottle, and then sleep peacefully in my arms for the 2.5 hour flight. the best laid plans...

mason refused to sleep, and instead wiggled and climbed all over me for the entire flight. as an expert sleep fighter, he knew that if he slowed down for one minute, he would be sound asleep. so, he didn't.

to be fair, he wasn't crying or screaming. he just wouldn't sit still. at one point, the flight attendant asked if she could walk him down the aisle. sure. why don't you do a few laps around the plane. in fact, you can just keep him until the flight's over. (i didn't actually say it aloud, but i admit that i did think all of the above thoughts!)

what, you think i'm exaggerating? check this out... here we are, sitting ON THE FLOOR of the plane (i did lysol the area first) trying to prevent the meltdown...

at 10:10, five minutes before we landed, mason gave up the fight. only to wake up when we walked off the plane. thank goodness grammy and pappy were with me - i never would have been able to handle it on my own!

and the best news of all... daddy was waiting for us at baggage claim! we missed him!