Boston or Bust, Part 1

Literally a year ago, Doug found out that the Q Conference that he's attended a few times in years past was going to be in Boston in 2015.  Since my parents are in NH, about an hour away, he knew that if ever there was a time I could attend this conference with him, it would be when it was in this city.  So, we've been looking forward to this trip for a year.  But a lot has changed since then.  You know, like how we decided to go ahead and try for a fourth, and then we got prego and then had the baby.  So, I've held it loosely all year that we'd be able to pull this trip off.  It was important to Doug that we try and I love when he wants me involved and participating in things that he's interested in.  Not to mention I love an excuse to visit my parents.  As the time approached, we decided we would fly up and Doug would just stay for the conference days and I would stay a little extra with Penn and Jansen.  Since it was such a quick trip, we felt it was a better idea to leave Koen at home with some friends so that he could go to school.  Tavin came with us, but will return home with Doug after the conference.  It was hard to tell Koen that he was the only one staying back, but we did our best to plan a great few days for him.  And I have to give him major props here... After we told him and he was a little sad and upset about missing out on a brief trip to Gramma and Grampa's, he embraced his own adventure.  Staying with friends, having some fun outings, another friend packing surprise lunches for him, getting to stay over at a friend's house on Friday, his class field trip on Friday, etc.  We are so proud of him for doing so well with the plan and have been so impressed with his attitude.  We can't wait to get back to him though.  Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.  

We left Tuesday morning.  Penn, Jansen and I were ticketed for the flight, but Tavin and Doug were flying standby on buddy passes from a friend.  Free flying is an awesome blessing, but also comes with an adventure!  They weren't quite sure how and when they'd get to New England, but they were up for the challenge. =)  Here's Penn and Tavin before our first flight.  They had fun watching the planes come and go until it was time to board.  Thankfully, Doug and Tav easily made it onto the first flight of our two-leg trip.

Our boys just seem to naturally love to travel and do so well with it.  A huge blessing!  Even though it's been at least a year since the last time Penn flew, he was comfortable and confident, even during a rough take-off due to wind.  Here he is enjoying a little show on the flight (his animal is on his head because the headphones are too big, it's my trick to keep them from falling off!).

And Tavin was on Cloud 9 (perhaps literally since we were flying through the clouds...get it?).  He is just a pro at traveling and loves flying Southwest (peanuts and apple juice and flying high in the sky, what more could a little boy want?).

In Chicago, I stayed on the plane with Jansen and Penn for a quick turnover before taking off again for Manchester, NH.  Doug and Tavin had to get off and wait for a seat.  The flight was overbooked, so they didn't make it on.  Thankfully though, they made it on a later flight getting in to Boston at 4:30pm.  They had some time to kill at the airport, so they got some Chicago-style hot dogs (of course! "When in Rome!").

They relaxed and rested in some comfy leather chairs.

A highlight of the airport time was meeting a real Southwest pilot who gave Tavin an official Southwest luggage tag.  Tavin was so pumped!

Back on my flight, I had a happy, cooperative baby.  And a silly, but subdued (for the most part) Penn.  I love my little travelers!  Here's a picture of Jansen on his first flight!

After arriving in Manchester, Grampa picked us up and took us home.  It wasn't too long before I got to take Jansen on a walk to get through a fussy spat he was having (he deserved it after being so easy on the flights!).  Then later Penn and I waited outside for Grampa to return from yet another airport run, this time to Boston, to retrieve Doug and Tav.  And here's the happy reunion.  We took a picture in front of the final bit of the crazy amount of snow my parents' received this year.

I got to chat with Koen in the evening and was so happy to hear his cheerful voice.  He sounded content and at ease.  I was relieved.  And then later in the evening I got an update from our friends, Dan and Stella, who are staying with him.  They took him to ice cream!  So thankful for sweet friends to take such good care of Koen.

After settling the boys to bed (which they all went down super easily, even Jansen, after such an exhausting day), I didn't last very long.  I was in bed a little after 9pm.  Ahhhh...  The next morning I woke up quite refreshed.  Jansen woke up a little earlier than I wanted him to, so Doug got some early morning snuggles.  Looks like they had some smiles and chats.

We had to leave for Boston for the conference late morning, but I was able to give Jansen a bath before we left.  Grampa got some post-bath snuggles.  Jansen is irresistible all snuggled up in a towel.  

Our travel to Boston was quick and easy.  Doug and Jansen napped on the way down, and my Daddy and I got to have a nice chat.  We arrived in Boston at our hotel just about at 1pm.  I fed Jansen and then he was a happy baby.  Check out the cuteness!

Taking this picture reminded me that we had a getaway when Penn was 2 months and I took some similar hotel propped-up pics.  Why don't I just put them here? =)

Jansen got fussy fast, so we headed out on a long walk.  We stopped and registered for our conference and got to his meeting at 3pm, then we continued on a walk until his 4pm feeding.  After our stop for the feeding at the hotel, Jansen again ran out of steam pretty fast.  This time I had him nap in the hotel for awhile.  He woke up in time for one more walk before his bedtime (and my chance to grab some dinner to take back to the hotel).  My "selifes" of our quick trip out.

Well, that was Day 1 in Boston.  Jansen went down well and I got time to catchup on computer stuff.  I had a great chat with Koen again (he's doing awesome!) and a chat with my mom to check on Penn and Tav who had a great afternoon at Gramma and Grampa's.  It's so great to finally be here, enjoying the change of pace and some special time away (especially after all my hard work to get us here!).  Stay tuned for more!