Coming Home!

I decided to come home on Thursday night. This whole trip was the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind. Basically I don't really work any other way haha. So Thursday late morning I decided I was going to fly home that night. I wanted to be home early enough to get Paige asleep at her normal time and so I could sleep and be able to celebrate my birthday all day with Jared. (my birthday was the next day). So I found a flight on Jet blue that left Long Beach at 8:10pm and got into Salt Lake at 10:30pm. Paige normally goes to sleep around 10:30 or 11, so I figured that would be perfect timing!

My Mom drove me to the airport, we go there around 6:45, thinking I needed to be at my gate and all checked in roughly around an hour before the departure time. Well, after we got my bags checked in the ticket guy told us my plane was delayed and the new departure time was 9:30pm! Holy cow! That was way after the normal time! So my Mom and I made the best of it and went out to dinner. We got back to the airport around 8:30, because thats when the guy said to check back in and be at my gate. So I was.

Around 9:25pm Paige got really fussy! I couldn't blame her, she was exhausted. I started walking around the gate waiting area with her when I overheard a preteen boy tell his parents the sign had changed and our flight was not leaving until 10:10pm. WHAT!?!?! So I had to go and check it out, and it was TRUE! They had not even announced anything, just silently changed the departure time, AGAIN! By this time I was really frustrated and getting overwhelmed with Paige. Luckily I was able to get her to sleep right as the plane was boarding (around 9:45) I was the last one on the plane, with a sleeping baby, thinking it was going to be ok now. As soon as I sat down Paige woke up and started crying again.

I tried everything, but it seemed she just needed to get some crys out. But when the plane started moving she settled down and stopped crying! Horray!!! This was taken just after we took off. I tried to look happy that Paige was on her first flight and we were going home, but looking at the picture now, I didn't mask my frustration/upset/irritation very well haha.

After we took off Paige was a happy little talkative girl. Thank goodness! Then she fell asleep for a little while. Thank goodness again! So during the flight she was really good! It was just the part leading up to it that she had her moments. Then we come to the landing part. Like I said Paige fell asleep but when we were on our final decent the captain turned on all the lights and came over the loud speaker and told everyone we were on our final decent. That woke Paige, and she started crying/fussing. I ended up feeding her and she was great the rest of the decent!

I know this picture looks a lot like the first, but it is so much better! It represents landing and being so much closer to home! And you can even see my expression is not as strained/more happy. => We both survived Paige's first flight! And remarkably well while in the air! Wahoo!!!

The plane landed in the SLC airport at 1:30am. Far from when we were originally supposed to land (10:30pm). I was tired but oh so grateful to be there. And Happy birthday to me! haha Jared was in the baggage claim area waiting to meet us! When Paige saw him she could not take her eyes off him. She literally was just staring at him the whole 25mins it took us to get the luggage. The WHOLE 25mins! SO CUTE!!!

She loves her Daddy so much! It is so cute to see that! I am so grateful we were able to go to CA for a vacation, but I am also so grateful we made it home! (we arrived at our apartment after 2:30am, goodness!)  We both missed Jared! Next time, he will just have to come haha