Airplanes + 2 year old

I now know why people do not want to sit next to families on airplanes.

If anyone out there was on a plane Sunday night at 1:30 am headed to Anchorage, I am REALLY SORRY!!!

So the day started out pretty well. We left Utah pretty early and got to Idaho Falls easily. Naomi slept most of the time. We got there at 3:30. There was no one to be found. After about 5 minutes at the check in counter Will found the "push for assistance" bell. 3 minutes later someone showed up. After getting checked in, paying the "over weight bag" fee, and handing our checked bags to the TSA guy (who, again, had to be found) we walked the 20 steps to security. They open 45 minutes before the flight boards. So we waited the 2 hours and entertained Naomi with treats and walks.

So when we finally got on the plane we were all pretty excited. Naomi thought it was all pretty cool, but I think she finally understood what I was saying when she looked out the window and saw the ground getting farther and farther away. We flew Idaho Falls to Boise, to Portland, to Anchorage, hung out for 6 hours, the flew to Kostebue, then finally Nome.

Naomi hated the waiting, loved playing with the tables, and light buttons. We had lots of treats and toys. Gummy bears and thumb sucking did really well for keeping the ears popped.

Flying from Portland to Anchorage was really hard. It was a packed flight, everyone around us wanted to sleep. Naomi wanted to run around and play but there was no where to do that. She screamed at the top of her lungs when she wasn't happy. An she was REAALLYYYYY TIRED!!! I thought the flying would help her sleep. But no... We learned the hard way that getting ready to land is the time to sleep. So it was 1:30 am MST when she finally crashed. We got off the plane, put her in the stroller, put a blanket over her and found a place to crash for 5-6 hours.

Will and I couldn't sleep very well. I think both us combined got 2-3 hours of sleep. And Naomi woke up at 6:00 am MST and was ready to be up for the day, so I walked round while Will relaxed some more. We got breakfast at the McDonalds down the hall and finally got back on the plane.

The finally two flights went really well. There was lots of room. There was an empty seat next to us so we put Naomi between us and she just played and I snoozed. She fell asleep again as we landed. We didn't have to get off the plane at Kotzebue so I just sat there and held her. She slept most of the way to Nome. It was really nice.

We got into Nome at 11:00 am MST (9:00 am Nome time).

That was an adventure in itself. That was the only thing I worried about and now that over, I am SO ready for a vacation!

The good thing with Naomi's crazy sleeping is that we don't have to worry about jet lag. She went to sleep last night at the regular bed time (Nome time) and she slept the whole night and woke up at the regular time. So we are all on schedule! Yea!

I will tell you though, since we are so close to the Arctic Circle and Summer Solstice it is light out most of the time. When we finally went to bed last night at 11:00 pm it looked like it was 5:00 pm outside. So weird.......

So the plan for today? RELAX!!!!! Yea!!!!!