Traveling to West Virginia.

[navygreen]

Everyone else is occupied at the moment, so I thought I'd hop on for a quick update. Philip and his best friend Jason are playing a game of Super Mario Bros. 3 with A.J. (on A.J.'s GameBoy, I might add), and Jack is rocking away on one of those old-timey spring-loaded horses. They're all in the basement, and Philip's parents ran to the store to get things for grilling hamburgers and hot dogs tonight. Philip's brother and his family (who only live just around the corner) will be coming over for dinner, so there will be two 7-year-old boys (A.J. and Jared are only 13 days apart), one 4-year-old boy (Jack) and one 2.5-year old girl (Alyssa). It will be fun. :-)

Our drive to Kansas City was perfect. We made great time, and the weather was fabulous. We'd never driven that route before, so we left Bellevue at 11:30 for our 5:50pm flight. We ended up getting to the airport by 2:00pm, but we were able to use our extra time to mosey from the car to the shuttle bus, from the bus to the terminal and from the terminal to the gate - rather than being rushed and frantic. I'd packed sandwiches, drinks, chips and cookies, and we sat right down by the gate and had an early dinner. The boys were very impressed with our flight - it was Jack's very first flight, and A.J.'s twelfth (of course, all his earlier flights were before he was one year old, so he doesn't remember them). Jack sat by the window, and we watched the city lights at night as we took off.

Our flight served pretzels, drinks and the most wonderful fresh-baked, warm chocolate chip cookies. We all had either aisle or window seats, and we were just very impressed over all. I do look forward to the return flight home, however, if only because it will be morning then and the boys will be able to see something other than just darkness.

We arrived in Pittsburgh at almost 9pm, greeted by an enthusiastic Grammy and Papa George. We claimed our bags and then headed out to the car to start the drive home to West Virginia. We stopped at a McDonald's in Washington, PA on the way, and then made the last hour of the trip pretty quickly. We pulled in just minutes after midnight, and the boys had to run around and see everything. They reacquainted themselves with Grammy's cat Sophie, and they met her doggy Maggie for the first time. Jack banged around on Grammy's piano for a bit, and then we changed into jammies and settled into our beds - the boys upstairs in the two bedrooms next to Papa George and Nancy, and Philip and I on the hide-a-bed in the basement living room. It was after 1am before the boys dropped off to sleep, and after 2am before Philip and I did as well. Ahhhhhh!

We're having a relaxing time, and I'm sure it will continue to be this way for a few days. I'll write again more when I have the chance. As of this moment, we can't get into our email accounts - the dial-up service on this computer "times out" before the login page is fully loaded for our email. We'll see if we have better luck using a different computer, maybe tomorrow. Until then, if you need to tell us something, just leave it in a comment if you can.

Comments

[scenicbeauty.livejournal.com]

sounds like a good time so far. :)

When do you return? Do you fly back into Kansas City? Will you have extra time in KC? The boys and I would love to meet you if you're not too rushed to get back home. :) Otherwise, any other time you're going to be this direction, let us know.

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

We actually land around 8am in the morning. I've got an aunt and uncle in KC, and we've never yet met them in the 3+ years we've lived in Omaha, due to our never having a good chance to get down that direction. We're supposed to be meeting up with them sometime that morning, but I can't seem to get any concrete details from them. :-/

[theswedishchef.livejournal.com]

Glad you made it there safe and sound. Have a great time!

[hetterrific.livejournal.com]

Day 2-- still no poop on the rugs :) I turned the radios in the boys' rooms to NBC so the kitties could hear all their favorite shows. They said it was WAY too quiet in the house without the radios on.

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

For the kitties to have any favorite shows, I'm sure they'd be on N.O.G.G.I.N. or CartoonNetwork. ;-)

[chelelev.livejournal.com]

Where in West Virginia are you? Too bad you aren't into Longaberger anymore, you are not that far away from Columbus (really, it is an easy drive).

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's not too bad of a drive. I've been on it before, back when we lived here. Still, we've only really got about six days with family and friends as it is, and I'm not willing to spend a day or more of it someplace else. ;-)