Florida! So much to do- So little time

We had a really nice time in Florida visiting with the Hillmans. We did a ton of fun things, but mostly just enjoyed our time catching up and playing with the girls. We are so thankful that Susan agreed to host our sorry & pathetic selves. . .just what the Dr. ordered. Here are some pics of our visit. Thanks again to Sus, Matt and Maddie... can't wait to see you again soon.

Not so Happy Trails contd. part 3

SOOO another teary goodbye and down the ramp we go. Finally we were on our last leg of this journey. AND then, as we boarded the plane the flight attendant asked to see a sticker on Aliah's car seat to verify it was approved for air travel. Since Aliah was IN the seat it was kind of difficult to flip it around, she couldn't see it. She then informed me, "I'm sorry man but you can't use that seat on this plane if it doesn't have a sticker". And then she asked us to step off the plane!! OH NO SHE DIDN'T and out came my nuclear meltdown part 2!!! in which case my poor little daughter Isabella followed and began to cry why aren't we going to see Mickey mommy!! I yelled at anyone who would listen about why between yesterdays nightmare and today I went through 4 different types of security checks and at no point did anyone question me about the seat UNTIL I was already on the plane. After a lot of yelling by me, eventually they brought Isabella's car seat up for Aliah to sit in...because there wasn't a chance in (%%$$ I was going to hold her for 2 1/2 hours when I PAID for her own seat.

You can imagine what Lisa was thinking as she stood bye at the window waiting for the plane to take off, and saw Aliah's car seat go under, and Isabella's come up. I think she was ready to jump on the plane herself!

So long long story short they believe that it was more safe to not use a brand name-5pnt harnessed car seat- and to put my 9mos old child in a 3yr old's car seat all because of a STICKER that fell off. It made no sense and neither did the fact that I had to hold Aliah's head from falling down the entire flight. . . because she was in the WRONG car seat!! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr again the bunch of &^%$#@ airtran employees were of no assistance. They truly have horrible customer service.

Aside from the nightmare experience, the girls were absolutely wonderful. Once we got on the plane, Bella was super and really liked it. I'm so glad and thankful that at least that part of things went well and everything else was just out of my control.

Finally we landed in Florida and were met with wonderful loving arms by my friend Susan...we were here, we  had our luggage and now it was time to have some fun!! So off to the Hillmans we go!

Not so Happy Trails Contd.

 We decided to leave out of Allentown thinking that the smaller airport would be a GREAT induction into traveling alone with 2 children. Shortly after we said a very tearful goodbye to my family the girls and I made our way up to our gate. Just two short elevator rides and we were there..(the airport is really small). I looked ahead, saw our gate, stopped off for a bottle of water and walked the 10ft to get to our gate and nobody was there. "Wow, I thought I am really early." NOT SO MUCH!!! turns out Airtran is &^%$#@! and decided to board early, close the gate door early and yes leave early!!! We were on-time (10 min prior to dept.) However, without an airtran attendant in sight, and the door shut there was nothing I could do, but watch the plane pull away and have a very impressive nuclear meltdown on the floor of the airport. Not too too bad until my daughter Isabella decided to join me in my meltdown and began crying that now we aren't going to Disney World or to see Mickey Mouse. So, back to Lisa's we went. So very thankful they were all of 3 minutes away from the airport and were able to come back and take care of us.  Oh what a mess! Our luggage on the way to Florida complete with diapers, formula, toothbrushes etc etc etc  Here is Bella's outfit the next day.

  Thanks to my sister laurie and her kicking some serious airtran butt human resources style we got on a flight the next day-seats confirmed, no extra charge and even managed to change our outgoing flight so we didn't lose a day either! Well done Laur!
 So, another nice day at the z's and off to the airport we go for round #2. This time 2 hours early and with Lisa as my helper to the gate. Gate passes who would have known??? None the less, it went much better this time. Had plenty of time at the gate...and this time we were getting on that plane without any problems. . . or were we?

Not so Happy Trails

We had quite the experience getting to Texas.  As you know, Joe had gone a month before us. We were really happy when he came back

Tetris Anyone?

The move itself went really well, but our final last few weeks were crazy. We got to do some really fun things with friends and family although each visit was really bitter-sweet knowing our next visit would be a ways away.  We stayed with the Zajdels for a few days and had a lot of fun at their pool party and of course playing with Schmooey and Boo Boo

Poor Sami

Wii with BOO BOO

We really had fun at Dutch Wonderland with the Skutches family & our best buddy Magoo!!

    We had a great visit with Di-Di, Alyssa and Johnny & Sylvia and even had a special day with our buddy Kaitlyn!

        mmmmmm mac n cheese 

                     

 

We had one last visit to our house, once it was all empty. Isabella really thought that was very cool. She enjoyed running from room to room checking to make sure the movers didn't forget anything!

This is where I used to sleep

Our 1st room- we will miss those ducks

We really had a nice last week with family and friends. Lots of emotional moments but nothing like what was ahead. Here is a picture of Bella before we got on our plane....or so we thought.

Heading South West

Hello Y'all.  Hope you are all well and enjoying your summers. A dear friend of mine gave us this idea to start a blog, so that all of our friends and family, who we love and miss dearly, can follow along as we set out on this new journey. I'm not quite hip to all the "things" you can do with a blog, but I'm going to give it a whirl. Hope that you enjoy!!