Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Day 10 - Sunday 28th September

Today we were flying back to LA.  We got up early and started packing, it didn't take too long.  We were pretty sad though, we had such a great time in Detroit and it would have been nice to stay longer.  The kids were sad to be leaving their cousins, BUT we were going to Disneyland, so there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  

Chris and John delivered us safely to the airport, we grabbed some chilli fries and burgers from the coney island, and pretty soon it was time to board our first flight.  

Our itinerary included a stop in Minneapolis on our way back to LA, which meant a 2 hour flight from Detroit and a 2 hour layover.  I had bought new car seats for Hunter and Mackenzie in the States to use on the trip.  The one we got for Kenzie is a Britax Frontier, so it's approved for airline use, so I thought we'd bring it on the plane with us.  
Craig will probably agree that this was not one of my better ideas.  Besides the fact that the seat is HEAVY as Hell to carry, and he had to lug it all over 3 airports, the minute we got on the plane and strapped the seat in, Kingston wanted to sit in it!  
Uh-oh, big problem, he's an infant, and doesn't get a seat, he was not happy, he was tired and cranky, and had enough of planes the week before, so my sweet angelic happy baby, screamed for an hour and forty minutes of that 2 hour flight!  Yeah we were super popular.

The layover in Minneapolis wasn't too bad, I dropped Craig and Hunter at our new gate with all our stuff and I took the younger 2 out through security to the check-in area, so that we could meet my friend Michelle who lives in Minnesota.  She came with her little boy Camren, who is an April baby like Kingston, they were fast friends.  So we tried to visit for an hour, while the boys ran around and Kenzie rounded them up.  Then we went back through security, the worst part in America is they make you take off your shoes and put those through the x-ray machine too.  Even the kids!  We picked up some happy meals on the way back to the gate, and the kids had barely finished eating when we were able to board the plane.

I guess those Happy Meals worked, because Kingston was way better behaved on the flight to LA which lasted 4 hours, and he couldn't get enough of Craig, so I got a few minutes to myself.
  So we arrived, a little hungry and a lot tired at about 7pm. Of course  we were still on Detroit time which was 10pm.  We managed to collect all our luggage, and there were no new injuries to anything.  Craig and I pushed a trolley each and Hunter pushed Kingy in his stroller.  He did great, it's scary in the crowds at LAX but he followed right behind Craig.  Our shuttle came quickly and we were on our way to the happiest place on earth......

I sat beside Kingston and we watched the lights of all the planes circling to keep him awake.  Hunter and Kenzie fell asleep pretty quickly after the shuttle left the airport.  It took about 40 minutes on the freeway before we arrived at the Paradise Pier Hotel.  Hunter woke up super excited, but I had to hold Kenzie, she was too tired to even open her eyes.

We were able to check-in quickly and head upstairs to our room.  Kenzie woke up by this point, and they were starting to get excited, we were really at disneyland.  The hotel room was very cute, the beds had been turned down for us and little Mickey chocolates had been left, as well as some chocolate dipped Mickey shaped Rice Krispie treats - try saying that 5 times fast!
We ordered some room service, because it was 9pm and we were hungry, but too tired to go out, after we ate, we watched  Cinderella tell a bedtime story.  Kingston was playing in his cot happily, and I think I was the first one to fall asleep.  It had been a long day.

No comments: