To Arkansas!

Well... I have to be honest. When it comes to places I want to see in the world Arkansas was not on the top of my list.... no offense to those who live there or vacation there or love it there! It was a beautiful state! I just never really considered it...

That is, until our friends who are family up and moved there. It has now jumped up to the top of my list of places to go whenever possible!

We had such an opportunity in early April; the week affectionately known as "Birthday Week". Within that week, between our two families, 4 people celebrate birthdays:

April 6: Gretchen and Lucy
April 8: Greg
April 10: Jack

It was the perfect time to reunite with our friends, whom we miss more than I wish to discuss for fear of crying... again. So we planned it. Booked it. And we were ready to go!

I was so excited for the trip - not just to see our friends and do life together like the good 'ol days of yore. But also... I was actually excited to travel with my kids. I had this idea in my head that it would be an adventure!

I think I actually said those words to Gretchen the day before. The dear was probably shaking her head and if it wasn't her we were going to visit she MAY have given me a reality check. 

But really... no reality check could have prepared me for the adventure we experienced flying from Baltimore to Little Rock that miserable, rainy, cold, long April day... which sadly was the 6th... Gretchen's and Lucy's birthdays.

It took us 18 hours to get from our front door to their front door.

EIGHTEEN HOURS.

With a baby, a toddler and 2 people who love each other deeply... but have had better moments in their marriage than that day traveling.

hashtag keepin' it real

We parked in the long-term lot, missed the shuttle by 20 seconds so we waited... in the rain. We loaded our 4,000 bags, 80 car seats and 2 kids onto this bus... with 30 eyes just staring at us like we were nuts. We sat and rested for a few minutes before the hustle of the airport brought us back into combat mode.

Lucy LOVED the bus... and to this day, anytime we see a bus she reminds me that we took a bus to Arkansas. 

Upon the shuttle buss's arrival at the BWI airport 10 minutes later, much to the amusement of the bus full of passengers, Lucy declared:

"We are in Arkansas!" 

Oh, sweet girl, if only! IF ONLY.

That rain we sat in while awaiting the shuttle was the product of a very big, very nasty very INCONVENIENT storm. A storm that caused our flight from BWI to be delayed... but we weren't aware of the delay until we were sitting on the runway. We waited there for 2 hours... while I held off a hungry baby because I was trying to nurse him on take-off in order to get him to fall asleep and protect his ears... but I didn't want to nurse him too soon... however we had no idea when we would take off.

Needless to say... Charlie was miserable.

Lucy wasn't much better - I was pumping her full of snacks and Daniel Tiger but with the realization that I would run out of both of those things before we ever left the ground if I wasn't careful.

Finally we returned to the gate where they allowed us to deplane if we so desired... so I took Lucy off to go to the bathroom and find more snacks and Greg stayed with Charlie on the plane... expecting to take off any minute, ya know.

Well... an hour later he came off the plane with Charlie for a change of scenery. Yet another hour later I needed Charlie's food, which was on the plane, which they were now not letting people on to...

seriously?
I want to hurt someone.

6 hours in... and we haven't even left Baltimore yet. The excitement I had felt for adventure had most definitely disappeared.

About 5 hours after the originally scheduled departure time we did return to the plane and actually take off...

there was much rejoicing by all passengers... 
I however was still trying to wrangle the circus that is a toddler and baby in an area the size of shoebox.

By that point I was out of snacks, Daniel Tiger and patience. Charlie did no sleeping on the 3 hour flight to Dallas... Lucy did not appreciate that Charlie's feet were in her seat... and I had no way of ordering a glass of wine... and even if I did, where would I put it?

I laugh about this now... but do you know I actually packed a book in my carry on? A book! To read! hahaha. I was so naive. 

Despite the over-tired, fussiness these kiddos were a hit and people were so sweet to them! Charlie even played a drawn out game of peek-a-boo with the lady in front of him. Not sure who into it she was, but he loved it! 

Our arrival in Dallas found us exhausted, at our wit's end with the children in our life, starving and emotionally drained. They had sent our stroller, which we checked at the gate in order to have for our layover in Dallas, right on to Little Rock. Thanks for that sweet little treat... We were now carrying / dragging all of our belongings and off-spring through the huge, though lovely, Dallas airport.

Naturally, as we should have expected, our flight from Dallas to Little Rock was delayed an hour. Of course this was a much later flight than had been originally scheduled so... what's another hour, right? it's only my kid's bedtime... after a day of no sleep and feeding my daughter goldfish for 8 hours.

nbd
bring it on. Ya know?
No... don't. I don't want anything else brought on. I'm done. 

Is this real life? Like... someone make this stop.

Thankfully they did have a Chick-fil-a at the Dallas airport, which was much appreciated... however the entire food court area had two highchairs, folks. TWO.

Both were occupied.
Awesome.
Dinner...yeah, that's not happening for mom. How silly of me to hope to eat.
I'll just chew on these last remaining goldfish crackers in my pocket. Thanks.

Additionally, Lucy was in the midst of potty training during this week...

hashtag good planning mom

So I had packed in the carry-on 2 extra pairs of underwear and 2 pull-ups, surely that would be more than enough!

By this point, 12 hours into our adventure we were down to 1 pair of underwear... and nothing else.

ONE. 

Needless to say... shortly after that, we were down to none.
That's right, friends... my daughter flew from Dallas to Little Rock commando.
We were out of options... and I just didn't care anymore.

10:00 pm we board our flight and FINALLY head to Little Rock.
Still no sleeping. 
Well... almost no sleeping. I'm pretty sure Greg got a nap in. 
I'm really not holding that against him... I promise. 

Now, my kids go to bed at 7:30 every night of their little lives just about... no problems.
Explain to me how at 10:00 at night, which was really 11:00 for them, they are still WIDE awake and refusing to sleep..
HOW HOW HOW!?

I can still see Clayton's face when he greeted us coming out of baggage claim in Little Rock... I mean... we must have been quite the site. I almost wish he had snapped a photo of the hot mess that we were... almost. 

But we had made it. 12:00 am in Little Rock, 1:00 am Eastern Time. We were there. We were with our friends. My kids fell asleep INSTANTLY upon sitting in their car seats. 
Of course
And we rested. For the first time in 18 hours... we rested.

This was our trip home from LR - Charlie fell asleep... right when we landed. Nice timing, kid. 

Traveling with kids... not my favorite. Mmm k.

Greg reminded me upon reading him this story that, while it was indeed a rough day, at no point did anyone storm in to our home and harm our family, we weren't starving with lack of food or water, we were not beaten or abused by oppressive governments, our plane did not crash... so yes, keeping it in perspective, it wasn't that bad. I understand that compared with many others in the world I have suffered nothing. Thanks for the reminder, babe.  

Now switching gears to the actual trip - like the actual time spent in Little Rock with our friends.
All of that was perfect. It wasn't even a week long... but we were immediately home. We were with family.

We got to do exciting things like go out to eat together, try some of the local flavors of little rock and see their new church and see their new house.

But we got to do life together - the moments just sitting around and laughing, playing weird games on the TV, napping on their sofas and so on - those are the moments I love the most.

That travel-adventure-from hell was tough... but worth it for that short week with our friends.

I'll let the obscene amount of photos below do the talking and keep my descriptions brief - but I can't emphasize enough just how sweet these 4 days were.

One thing I love about friendships like this is how you can just pick up where you left off. 

These people know us more than anyone else - they see the good, the bad and the ugly and love us anyway. These are our people. And even though we hadn't seen them since December... it was like no time had passed and we were just doing life together like always. 

There's also something incomparable about when other adults love on your children.
Am I getting too mushy about how much I love these friends?
Sorry... not sorry.

Mmmmm take me back to Le Pops! I could go for another dark-chocolate-covered strawberry pop!

We are all such sharers! :)

A part of me wondered, when our friends moved, if these girls would forget about each other. You know how kids are... their memories aren't quite as consistent as adults and they can easily move on from things... But these girls, they haven't forgotten each other at all. And in their minds... they still live 10 minutes away from each other. They play with each other almost every day... well, they make-believe they do anyway. They too picked up right where they left off, didn't skip a beat!

Their relationship is special.
Potty training is so much better with a friend!

We didn't want to leave. We just didn't.
Not just because the thought of flying again was enough to drive me to drink, but also because - these people are our family.

Thankfully, the flight home was a direct one from Memphis to Baltimore... much shorter, much better, and we arrived home saner and happier!

Although the delays due to weather was no fault of theirs, Southwest gifted us with $300 in flight vouchers as an apology for the delays.. that was unexpected but so appreciated. We will be saving those for our next flight to Arkansas... when I've sufficiently forgotten how painful it is to travel with children :)

We are thankful for good friends, even though they are far away! Thanks for having us, Gretchen and Clayton!