First Plane Ride

July 15, 2008

Nathan took Katherine on her first plane ride on July 4th! They were headed to Wisconsin for a family reunion on my Mother's side - I had to work and flew out on the 7th to meet up with them.

Nathan was super nervous for weeks, even waking up from "nightmares" about losing luggage or missing flights or Katherine screaming the entire flight. Poor guy. The biggest issue was how to get 4 days and 3 nights worth of frozen breast milk to Wisconsin with out it spoiling. We ended up finding a cooler in the attic that was perfect. When fully loaded it held 21 six ounce cups of frozen milk and 6 bottles of thawed milk, for the way there. Nathan had this cooler hung across his chest along with the diaper bag and the snuggli with Katherine inside. He also had to tote their suitcase, which I had packed to it's absolute capacity.

I took them to the airport and stayed until they had to go through security. Funny enough, Nathan ran into my Uncle Randy (from Flagstaff, also on their way to Wisconsin) in the bathroom while washing off Katherine's pacifier. Randy went and got my Aunt Adele and we hung out until it was time to go through security.

The first flight to Chicago went very well, Nathan ended up getting to move into the emergency exit row and have an empty seat next to him so he could lay Katherine down. During the lay over before the next flight he'd gotten some food. There was a nice old woman next to where he sat down who asked if she sat next to Nathan if she could hold the baby so he could eat. She must have taken pity on Nathan as after walking from one end of the airport to the other was exhausted, sweaty and in great need of a break. Nathan appreciatively said yes...when telling me the story he was sure to include that she was in a wheel chair so couldn't run off with Katherine.

The next flight went well too and they met up with my parents and sister in Milwaukee. They stayed the night in a near by hotel (apparently a relic from the 70's with peed stained floors, smoke filled walls and nasty bathrooms) and then had a 5 hour drive the next day. All in all Katherine did fantastic and Daddy did too!