Man, am I the only one who cried during what felt like EVERY commercial break that existed last night?! I mean I get it, tug at the heart strings and make and impact … I am a marketing major after all, but good grief! Can I get a little humor or something, puhlease?! At least my girl Katy Perry stepped in with some trippiness to take my mind off the tear jerkers! Although, if I'm being honest, I was a little disappointed in her opening song attire. I feel like she could have stepped up her game and gone for a little less Katniss Everdeen in her opening skit and a little more love singing without a track … regardless … she's still hoot.
Anywhoodles, I'm here today to check in and FINALLY begin to share the long awaited Australia recap posts! I don't know about you, but I have been so excited to share this trip with ya'll and it's about dang time I got back into some kind of routine so I can recap this puppy! Geesh! Who blogs about Christmas in February?! Apparently me :)
Alas,
So to start it off, let's talk about the travel shall we?
I plan to do a separate post for all the gimmicks and tricks that helped along the way, for anyone that is traveling long distance with a toddler in the near future. In hopes SOMETHING may help them.
We headed to the Louisville, KY airport on Wednesday, December 17 around 12:00 in the afternoon. Our plan was to take a van cab because we had SO. MUCH. STUFF. Buuut that ended up falling through, so we called our buddy, Jason, and thank goodness he came through in a pinch (Gracias Señor). We loaded up his SUV and rushed off to the airport. After we finally unloaded all of our belongings and made it through security we grabbed a quick bite before we settled in for the long haul.
We took a (what seemed quick) two and a half hour flight to Dallas, TX where we had a 4 hour layover before boarding our LONG flight to Sydney, Australia. Bennett worked the airports like a pro.
We discovered the American Express lounge and took advantage of a few "free" cocktails and goodies while we waited.
Bennett loved the kids room and all the free apples :)
Soon after we heard the call to board our plane. We boarded an airbus and learned we were taking the longest direct flight in the world, on the largest plane (double decker) that flys. Woot!
Boarding the plane, so excited to start our adventure!
We meticulously placed all of our things (this took embarrassingly too long), got all settled in, ate some questionable airplane food and hung as best we could on an airplane.
A few hours later we changed boy into his PJs so he would be nice and comfy and turned on some Mickey Mouse with his
iPad holder (GOD BLESS THIS INVENTION).
He was so into his show and being so good. Shane and I looked at each other and shared mutual looks of "HA, maybe we were worried for nothing?!"
But in true toddler fashion, Bennett quickly reminded us not to speak too soon. The airplane quickly became his jungle gym.
But luckily, after he pounced and played he quickly tuckered out and nodded off.
Again, hubs and I shared "Huh, this ain't gonna be so bad glances."
We busted out his port-a-crib
(similar here) and nestled him in.
Then, we added a little canopy to block out the light, high fived one another and turned on a movie of our own to "enjoy" the flight.
Ahem, WRONG. Hit that 3:00am toss and turn routine our son usually carries out (he often wakes up, repositions and falls back to sleep) but, mix it with a tiny airplane seat and a dark strange place and we had a full fledged EPIC meltdown on our hands. I'm talking an hour straight of inconsolable crying. Add receiving dirty looks from the other passengers whom's snooze sessions were being interrupted and you've got two sweaty parents that are fumbling all over the place. It felt like we were back in the newborn phase trying anything and everything to get him settled.
At this point we agreed we just needed to deal it with and opted to take turns and try to each get a few hours of shut eye. Little man was making it very clear he had zero intention of getting back in his seat, much less head back to sleep. So, hubs took first shift and proceeded to let him walk up and down the stairs at the back of the plane for the next three hours.
It was a lot of up and down, back and forth from this point forward for the next 12ish hours and we lived to talk about it. Thank goodness my child is entertained by an iPad and wore headphones .. that's the only thing I can talk positively about.
One of our favorite parts of the flight was the camera at the back of the tail of the plane. We're getting close!
We landed in Sydney!
Not for long however, soon we met up with PaPaw, GoGo and Max to board
another plane and head to Cairns!
FINALLY! No more planes for a few days! 31 hours of travel later.
And naturally, my child wants to get back into an airplane at the airport. Ha!
We made it, and our fatheads made it too :) Let's do this Aussie Land!
Next up, Cairns and the beauty of the Australian Rainforest in North Queensland.
