Away with K, Part 1

Back in September I booked tickets for Koen, Penn (lap child) and I to visit my brother and his family in Florida.  I kept this getaway a secret from Koen (so hard!) until last weekend when I needed something big to distract him while getting stitches.  And with Penn’s fracture Doug and I decided that I should leave the little guy home.  So that left it as a weekend just for Koen and I to get away.  It’s been literally 4 years probably since Koen and I have gotten away together just the two of us.  I used to whisk him away to NH quite frequently before Tav entered the picture and then since then I’ve usually had the younger ones along on flights and weekends when Doug and I have had to go somewhere.  Needless to say I’ve been so excited about this weekend, to share this special trip with my biggest boy.  And it’s a good thing Koen only knew about it for the week prior to take-off as I think he would’ve exploded with anticipation if we had told him any earlier. 

Today Koen didn’t go to school as we needed to leave the house at about 11am.  We got to the airport by noon with Chick-fil-A in hand.  We got to the check-in kiosk at Southwest and just as I was typing in the confirmation numbers I got a text from Southwest.  Our first leg was delayed, but I immediately knew that this would mean that we would miss our tight connection in Houston.  Ugh.  I let the Southwest ladies behind the counter know about the situation and thus began an hour of figuring out what on earth to do with the cute mother/son travel couple.  The final answer was that they would not be able to get us to Florida that night.  The Houston flight would not wait for us, so they didn’t want to send us there.  I wanted to get us onto a plane and somewhat closer to our destination though.  Koen and I both did not want to go back home after already getting packed and to the airport and I didn’t want to make Doug and the little guys do that drive again especially super early in the morning the next day.  Southwest thankfully had already offered us to stay in a hotel overnight in Pittsburgh, so they had no problem flying us a leg tonight and putting us up in a hotel along the way.  So, we were booked to fly Baltimore, but we didn’t get to leave until 5:15pm.  Yep, so that’s 5 hours in an airport with a 6 year old.  Honestly, a 6 year old is a cake walk in comparison to having a 16 month old who needs a nap, so again I was so thankful I didn’t have poor Penn with me.  Koen and I finally sat down to eat our now cold Chick-fil-A.  We ate at a little café before security overlooking where people come out from getting their baggage.  And literally right after we sat down a huge bird flew into a crevice near our window and attacked a pigeon briefly.  Then the big bird rested on a window opposite us and I saw it was an enormous hawk.  He flew back into action and actually killed the pigeon right in front of our eyes.  Wow.  Intense lunch view.  Koen loved it of course.  During the rest of lunch we scheduled out our remaining 4+ hours in the airport.  Koen insisted we discuss the plan.  He was such a trooper about the whole change of plans.  I would’ve been super ticked about it all had I not asked about food vouchers on top of the hotel coverage and they instead came back with $400 to use on future flights.  Ok, maybe I can deal with this new scenario.  Anyways, Koen and I took some walks, tried on Crocs (FYI, there are several new styles that are going on my Christmas list, Douglas), 

did some of his homework packets, 

he watched a few shows and I texted, typed up some blog text and tried not to compute how much of the time with my brother was lost by this flight flub up.  During that time I received some cute updates from Doug on the homefront.  Here’s Penn and Tav enjoying their lunch at Chick-fil-A (the little guys returned there for a sit-down lunch with Daddy on their way home).  

Here’s a happy picture of Penn before his nap.  

And still happy after naptime.

I think Doug is going to do just fine with these super fun little ones this weekend.  Don’t you?  I'm praying you will, baby!  Now, back to Koen and I...  Well, our flight to Baltimore that we waited for 5 hours to board left on time, phew!  Our bags thankfully arrived just fine at baggage claim (since we checked them in so far in advance I was afraid they might have made it to California instead).  Then I called the hotel that our voucher was for and their shuttle was just pulling up.  Thank you, Lord!  We got to the hotel in minutes and Koen was so adorable about our room.  "Wow, mom, this bed is way too fancy for me!  I can't use 6 pillows!"  As I got things organized he had fun exploring and found the hotel pen and pad of paper and thought it was awesome.  Look at what he wrote with no prompting.  "Here at last!"

We ordered room service and ate on his bed.  He was in 7th heaven.  I let him run out some energy (he was starting to go a little nuts with the long day, cramped quarters and excitement of everything), then it was shower and to bed.  He did well settling down, but I think it took him awhile to fall asleep in the new surroundings.  Speaking of sleep, I better go get some.  We have an early wake up call so that hopefully tomorrow morning we will get to Florida!  Stay tuned for more "Away with K" fun in the coming days!