Trip to NY

My trip to New York was planned around a surprise baby shower for my friend Stephanie. I have known Steph for 17 years so no matter what, I wanted to be there. Harper and I had a surprisingly smooth flight up. Billy was kind enough to leave work and come get us. We had a relaxing afternoon, followed by a seriously delicious dinner (thank you mom!), followed by one of my all time favorite activities - sitting around a kitchen table with family, drinking a glass of wine, and talking. That was great. And after 9 months so far away, I was ready for it!
Mom and I went to the shower Saturday afternoon along with a college friend of mine. It was a sunny glorious day and there was a big yard for Harper to play in so I couldn’t have asked for more. The only sketchy moment was when Harper got stung by a bee! His little baby finger was pink and swollen. He only cried for a minute or so and after the swelling went down I was relived to think we may be able to cross bee-allergy off the list. A few hours later, Leah arrived at the shower with Emma and Jack. I was so excited for them to arrive. Hugs and smiles, hugs and smiles…By Saturday night, all nine of us were under one roof. I was so exhausted, not to mention Leah who had worked all day, drove three hours, and socialized at a baby shower!!! Anyway, Harper was asleep so I just collapsed on the couch.
With three moms in one house, we spent the much of Sunday morning celebrating. We made a yummy eggs benedict brunch, hot coffee, and cold mimosas. Yes please! Later on, Louise, Jill, Jordan, and Quinn joined us. Wow, now that’s 5 mamas under one roof. We had a great time. The kids jumped themselves silly on the trampoline and although Harper was being a total mama bug, he did get some good one-on-one time with Roux (sorry Louise, I forgot the correct spelling). Hey Mom, we forgot to take an “after” picture of us in the kitchen with Louise and Jill…Next time. So, Sunday night was another home-run dinner (thank you mom!) followed by a little r&r. Boy was I going to need it because on Monday things went south. First I had to say good bye to everyone and then my 1st plane was delayed out of Newburg. I hung out with Harper in the airport. My flight home consisted of 3 planes and because the first plane was delayed there was a good chance that I would miss my second or third plane. If I had checked any of my luggage it would be gone for sure. So there I was carrying around a baby, car seat, pack-N-Play, back pack, and diaper bag. Umm….no, I didn’t need that vertebrae! Ok, so I got on that first delayed plane which landed 30 minutes after my second plane took off. No biggie, I just had to wait 2 hours in the airport lugging around a baby, car seat, pack-N-play, etc, until the next plane to Charlotte left. Unfortunately, that flight put me in Charlotte 2 minutes after my flight to Athens left. I was SO determined to make that flight to Athens though. I thought if the plane landed early (which it did) I could run and make it. I HAD to make it because if not, there wasn’t another flight to Athens until the next day. Some check-in lady told me I would never make it and I immediately burst in to tears. What a jerk. But at least some man near by felt bad for me and offered to carry my car seat and pack-N-play. To make a long story a little shorter, I never caught that plane to Athens. I got to the gate 10 min before departure and they wouldn’t let me on because the door of the plane was already closed. I begged and cried and that mean lady wouldn’t let me on. She informed me that they had paged me two times before they closed the airplane door. I told her that I didn’t hear the page because I was 35,000 feet in the air!!!! I figured Karma would surly get her for stranding me and my baby in the airport. The only option was for us to catch a flight to Atlanta 4 hours later. Reluctantly I took it which meant Josh would have to drive an hour and a half in the middle of the night to come get us. Fortunately, since this was the final leg of my journey I was finally able to check my luggage. Even though I checked the bigger items I was still quite a sight with a baby bjorned to my stomach, a big ol’ backpack strapped to my back and a bulging diaper baby slung across the whole mess. Can you believe that when we finally arrived at the Atlanta airport, which is a tremendous facility, the train that is supposed to take us to baggage claim was BROKEN! The walk felt like a mile although it was probably only nine tenths. But, I must say I met so many nice and helpful people during my journey home. I couldn’t have done it with out them. So it was a bit of an adventurous ending to a wonderful trip, we are home safe and sound and looking forward to our next trip up this summer.