The Update... finally (very long)

I think I have finally gotten (sort of) caught up on all my blog reading so here's the uber long update of our trip:

Okay... so our trip was AWESOME!! We had a great time visiting with family while we were in Seattle and Disneyland was fantastic, of course.

We flew out Saturday 1/9. This was pretty much a fiasco! Batman left the same day for AL. His flight was at 7am, ours was at 7:50. As I said before... apparently it's too much to ask to have the ticketing counter open at a reasonable time. ALL the other counters were open except for Southwest! Batman flew United and the were open at like 5 so he got checked in as soon as we got there. I *thought* SW opened at 5:30, but I was mistaken. They didn't open until 6:30... so much for being at the airport 2 hours before your flight, huh?
Anyway, all that to say we didn't really get to say goodbye to Batman at all. He had to get through security and (silly me) I assumed we would be able to meet him at his gate before he boarded so we told him to go on ahead. :( He boarded before we even got TO security (let alone through it!). Needless to say I was pretty ticked!
So we get to the gate counter and get a tag for the stroller so we can gate check it and everything seems to be going find, only to find out they don't really accommodate families. They make you wait to board pretty much with everyone else, which is COMPLETELY unhelpful. I felt bad for the people behind me in line because trying to fold down the stroller, hold Brynna AND get on the plane (and then crawl over people to get to a seat) took a while. We finally made it onto the plane, only to sit for a half hour. At this point the pilot comes on and says we have to de-board and get on a different plane because this one isn't working. We get off and have to stand in ANOTHER line to get on the other plane- thankfully, the 2 teenage boys (teenage/ college age) I was sitting next to let me in first on the second plane so I didn't have to climb over them. Whew! Thankfully, that plane was in working order and we made it to Seattle only a half hour later than we were supposed to. Crazy huh? And that was just the morning! Eek!

We got to Seattle and met my mom and older brother, Jeremy, then went to Ikea and met my little bro (Zac) and my sister (Ashley) and my dad. They were so excited to meet Brynna, it did my heart good ;-) It's nice knowing she has aunts and uncles that loved her before they even knew her. And now that they have met her they love her even more! We spent most of that day shopping and running errands.
Sunday we went to church and we got to introduce her to lots of people that know our IF struggles (I'm completely convinced that prayers last January from people at this church got us preggo- if you want to know that story I'll tell you later) then we went back to my parents' and had a lasagna feed/ open house thing for people to stop by and say hi to us. Like 50 people came through... it was kind of exhausting Ha! We saw some family friends of ours that had their little boy at the end of August (so 5ish mos old?) and he already weighs 21 lbs!! Is that insane or what? He's a bruiser for sure!!

Monday was a down day. B and I stayed mostly at my parents. Ashley ended up having some classes canceled (she goes to Northwest University and lives at home) so we went to lunch at Nordstrom (good night! I miss doing that with my mom and sister!!)
Oh my bag/ purse broke while I was there (the handle! boohoo!) so I ended up returning it to Nordstrom and getting a new one at Coach. It's kind of like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Coach-Signature-stripe-black-tote-diaper-bag-13803_W0QQitemZ310190164492QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4838c64a0c Only it's khaki with pink handles and stripe on the bottom. I pretty much love it, even though it LOOKS like a diaper bag, which as you all know, I was trying to avoid. (Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe diaper bags?)

Tuesday I spent the day with my grandma- I hung some curtains for her and she took me to lunch. Her neighbor fell in LOVE with B! (who wouldn't though, right?) ;-) Then we met my mom and Ashley and Zac for dinner (it was his birthday- 18! Eek!) at Claim Jumper (so Yummy!). For his birthday I had made him a frame (like we did for everyone elses bday this year), but we (Ash and I) wanted to do something special for him since half of us were going to be gone. We came up with this idea to have someone at school give him a gift at each period. It ended up being really cool. Plus we found those sour Warhead candies (in bulk) and put labels on all of them saying "it's Zac's 18th Birthday" and handed them out at the beginning of the day to all the HS students. He had random people coming up to him all day telling him "Happy Birthday!" :) Some of things we "sent" him were his favorite candy bar, his favorite drink, some silly toys, etc. It was great!! I think he liked it :)

Wednesday we left for Disneyland bright and early. We flew Virgin America and they were AWESOME!! No snafus and the flight attendants were enamored with Brynna! My dad and Jeremy picked us up at LAX (they drove down) and then we stopped by the hotel to drop off our stuff and then headed to Disneyland!

We did the typical stuff, mostly rides. It was nice knowing we had 5 days to do everything. We didn't feel so rushed to get on every ride and we took things rather leisurely. We had a bit of a snafu on Splash Mountain. Right after the big plunge, the ride broke. There we were... stuck. For like 20 minutes before they had us get off the ride and then walk along the back lot and around to get to the exit. It was a little crazy! In all my years of going there I've never gotten stuck on a ride!

Come to find out my daughter was screaming with hunger while we were stuck. Thankfully, we had a bottle and BM in the diaper bag for her... unfortunately Uncle Jeremy didn't know to heat it up a little and Miss B wasn't too happy with cold milk. ;-)

Thursday we did California Adventure.

Again, lots of rides and a little shopping. We were able to get a picture with Cinderella :)(picture to come later when I get them from my mom) She's one of my favorite Disney characters, so I was happy to get a shot with B and her and me.

Friday and Saturday were pretty much the same. We hopped back and forth between the parks depending on what we wanted to see, ride and do.

Sunday we went to the parks in the morning and then flew out for Seattle around 4. LAX was kind of fiasco because the ticketing lady only printed out my boarding passes, not my mom's. Only we didn't discover this until we got through the very LONG security line and the guard informed us. She had to go all the way back and I had to keep going with all our stuff and the car seat and Brynna... I was almost in tears I was so frustrated. And of course the TSA people can't really do anything to help you which just makes it worse. Thankfully a nice lady from Portland came behind me and helped me get on the elevator to get to the gates and also helped me get to the gate :) Some people are so nice!

We made it to San Fransisco where we had a 4 hour lay over. Which was fine since we were both hungry and okay with sitting for a while. We got some dinner and just hung out. I laid a blanket down and we played with Brynna on the floor :) Unfortunately we found out about half way through our lay over that the plane we were supposed to take at 8:55 wouldn't even leave Seattle (to get to SF) until 11!! Which meant we were most likely going to pretty much spend the night at the airport. Virgin America pulled through though (see why I like them so much?) and found a plane that was already there. Then they rushed in a flight crew and got us going- and only a half hour later than we were supposed to leave! Yippee! :)

Monday, B and I spent most of the day at the house recuperating from so many late (well for her anyway) nights. It was nice to just relax, do a little laundry and watch a little cable TV! Ha! Life's simple joys!

Tuesday we went to see a one act play that Zac directed at school. These are a really big deal (I guess) and I haven't been able to see him perform in any of them since we live so far away. (I didn't get to see Ashley in any either :( the downside to living in Idaho) It was super funny and I was so proud of him!

Wednesday we ran a few errands, packed and finally made it home... on a terrible SW flight! Gah! The flight attendants on this one were completely RUDE and once again I had to juggle the diaper bag, Brynna and the stroller (which wasn't really that bad) and was told I had to put the diaper bag in the above compartment (it fit under the seat, but again the flight attendant was kind of a beeotch). Thankfully, I didn't really need anything out of it, but Brynna didn't do very well on this flight :( I think her ears were really bothering her, even though I kept trying to get her to suck on something... a pacifier, a bottle, my finger... nothing worked, poor girl. She cried through both take off and landing, but slept in between.

Whew! Was that long winded enough for you? I'm sure I left out some things, but that's the cli.ff's notes version ;-)

It's been nice to be home although it was a little rough coming home to an empty house. We won't see Batman for another 3 and a half weeks :( I think the worst part about him being gone is all the stuff that Brynna is learning and doing... and he's missing it :( I guess there will be lots of milestones in her life that he WILL be there for, so I shouldn't dwell on it. It still sucks though :(

I'll put up more pictures as I get them from my mom! Hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure!