michigan | the flight

Here we are just about to take off. This is my 'brave face.'

Avery is an experienced traveler and I anticipated having zero issues with him. This is how he spent the flight.

This one however, was my wild card. She spent the first 1.5 hours of the flight playing with my ear buds. Apparently, Scott and I make offspring with long attention spans.

The kids and I traveled to Holland Michigan for a much anticipated vacation at Grandma Carole and Grandpa Arlin's. Avery had the time of his life while Vivienne played the part of the 18 Pound, Whiny, Hip Growth with gusto. She just didn't seem to enjoy being away from home, but more on that later.


In order to utilize our miles, our outbound flight departed at 7:20pm aka Viv's bedtime. I will remind you that it makes me a little nervous to be off schedule with the kids and I was worried about this flight. I will mention that the return flight ended up testing just how flexible I can be when it comes to being off schedule, but more on that later.

I just didn't know what to expect with Viv on this flight. We did a trial run with Benedryl on our way home from the Royal Gorge which proved successful and I was hoping a little medicinal encouragement would get my girl to sleep...even a little. Not surprising, she didn't sleep a wink. She was however, pretty content to play and be entertained by an edgy Mama. 

The only issue we had was the descent. Avery couldn't stabilize his ears and Vivi was tired. Both of them cry/screamed for about 30 minutes, and that part was awful. Luckily, it was the end of the flight and we were shortly packed up in Grandma's car and on our way to Holland.

Avery talked the entire way home. The entire way. He asked questions about water towers, stars, reflectors, antennae, other cars and on and on. He correctly spoke about time in minutes and distance in miles. It was pretty funny. Viv zonked out and I luckily got her transitioned into the pack n play shortly after we got to their house. I guess that is one good thing about having a kid who wakes up a lot, she can easily get herself back to sleep. Like I said, the ONE good thing :)


So, we had arrived. My stomach had calmed and we were ready for some fun.