But I am happy to report that it was a FANTASTIC trip. The hardest part, honestly, was packing for the trip. I hate packing for myself, let alone also making sure we had the right clothes, shoes and snacks for the kids. Sammy and Ian were great on the plane. I felt bad because I had promised Ian that he could look out the window but it turns out we were in the VERY last row of the plane, which had no window seat! Luckily, he wasn't too upset and we had a very nice flight attendant who talked to him and gave him extra animal crackers. As a reward for being incredibly well-behaved, Ian got to sit in the cockpit when we got off the plane. Here he is, so proud to be sitting where the pilot sits!
As for sleeping in the same room with the kids, it turned out to be totally fine. It was a little tricky getting Ian to go to sleep while we were still in the room. He wanted to chat. But we told him it was bedtime, turned out all the lights and pretended to go to sleep ourselves. He thought it was really great that he had an entire queen-sized bed to himself (although despite the little body in the big bed, he still managed to fall out of bed one night!).
And as figuring out what we would do in the temple for 3 hours without our electronic gadgets, that worked out fine too. Ian played with his cousins and some action figures. And I did a lot of walking up and down the aisles with Sammy, which was nice because I got to show her off. Everyone thought she was deliciously cute in her dress.
Here are the kids in their dress up clothes:
The bar mitzvah ceremony itself was a doozie - it was very long and ran even longer than expected! It was close to 1 pm before we had lunch - good thing I had given the kids lots of snacks before then! Sammy had a little lunch and then her little body couldn't hang on anymore. She fell asleep in my arms and I set her down to change her diaper before we went back to the hotel for a real nap. Here's the photo evidence:
The rest of the weekend was just so much fun (despite the fact that the kids look so serious in this picture).
My brother's wife had great dinners planned on both Friday and Saturday nights. And the kids had a blast at their house. They have this super awesome swing and Ian LOVED LOVED LOVED it (despite the fact that he hasn't, in the past, been a kid who likes swings). And of course, his grandpa Hoopie was there to keep him safe and swing him.
And Sammy also wanted in on the action:
And man, it was so nice to be with my siblings. With my sister in Florida, my brother in Maryland and me in Massachusetts and all of us having 2 kids, it's very rare that we're all in the same place at the same time. I think the last time we did it was in Cancun, Mexico (when I was pregnant with Sammy). I wish we could do it more often.
And the trip back was great. This time, Ian DID have a window seat, which he enjoyed a lot. Here the kids are, sharing Ian's seat and hamming it up in front of the camera:
And when Ian went to the potty, Sammy was quick to steal his seat and read up on important airplane safety information:
So overall, I think I'm much less nervous about traveling now. The kids are so much more adaptable than I ever give them credit for. And they were really well-behaved. I was really happy with how they acted on the plane. Granted, it's a short flight from Boston to Baltimore, but they could have screamed the entire time. Instead, we chatted, read books and ate snacks and smiled a lot. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Night night!
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