On Thursday, we went out with my parents, John's parents, Andrew, Jessica and Kaiden to TGI Friday's to have a dinner to celebrate Isabella's birthday since we were going to be in Mississippi on her birthday. I bought her a "little" cupcake for her to smash into at dinner.
We started the trip on her birthday, getting up at 0400 and leaving for Columbus at 0500. Our flight to Atlanta left at 0725. Isabella fell asleep about fifteen minutes into the flight. What's a mommy to do but to fall asleep herself! We arrived in Atlanta about a half hour early; instead of only having a one hour, forty-seven minute layover, we had a two hour and fifteen minute layover. I let Bella watch a movie while we waited for our next flight.
The second leg of the trip was uneventful as well. Except for the older gentleman who started out our flight with "Great, I get to sit next to the baby. Good thing I like babies. *pfft*" (Yes, really, he made the *pfft* sound). Luckily the seat next to us was empty, so Bella and I moved over and looked out the window until she fell asleep again. Which also meant mommy got a second nap! The pilot also gave her a set of wings!
Landing meant that John was waiting for us. We were so excited. Me especially because Bella hadn't started walking until after he had returned to California after Christmas. I was so excited to see him and for Bella to see him. We got our stroller and off we went out into the terminal and there was John! I don't know who was happier.
Isabella was so funny after we landed. She walked every where and made John chase after her. She kept trying to get us to open some random door for her. Then she would try to run into the bathroom. I think she was showing off. It took her a little bit to warm back up to John, but it didn't take long for daddy to be her favorite person.
John took us to Keesler AFB where we had lunch and he drove us around a bit before we went to the hotel to get setting in and clean up from the flight. John played with Isabella while I took a nap. Isabella was so excited to be with her daddy. I'm pretty sure they spent most of their time running from one end of the hotel room to the other end while I slept.
We went out to Red Lobster for dinner that night. Isabella did a really good job of eating Macaroni and Cheese while also distracting all of the wait staff with her adorable self. John and I had bought a little puppy shaped cupcake cake for Bella to squish at dinner. She really liked the frosting.
We didn't do much on Saturday because it was kind of an overcast and cloudy day. We did go to the mall and walked around a bit. John bought Isabella a new little backpack that she absolutely loves. Most of the day was spent in the hotel room, though. Isabella ran around making daddy chase her, ate some cheese puffs, and explored all of the cabinets in the room.
Sunday was our busy day. The day started less than hopeful as we woke up to thunderstorms. It cleared up around lunch time, but then seemed to rain again. All hopes of making to the beach seemed out of reach. We decided to walk out onto one of the piers, though during a break in the rain. Isabella had fallen asleep (of course) by that time.
Surprisingly enough, the rain did decide to stop AND Isabella decided to wake up. We drove a little further down the road and stopped at another beach. We went out onto the sand and let Isabella walk around a bit.
I'm pretty sure she's a fan of the beach!
After the beach it was time to head back to the airport and start our trip back to Ohio. John and Isabella got in a little more time playing while we were waiting for our flight to board. Isabella is just really funny at airports. We got to the airport pretty early and there weren't many people there, so we let Isabella run around a bit and be a little loud because she wasn't going to be able to do much walking once we were on our way. At one point, John went into the restroom and she just kept trying to follow him in. I would chase her to the seats and she would dash back toward the bathroom.
The whole trip was that way. Daddy was her FAVORITE person. It made me so happy.
Unfortunately it had started to rain again and our flight was delayed. John wasn't able to see us off because he had to return the rental car and get back to the base. Our return to Ohio was much more eventful than our trip to Mississippi
Since our flight out of Gulfport was delayed, we made it to Atlanta with only 40 minutes to make it from A terminal to E terminal to catch our flight to Columbus. After waiting for the stroller we raced (I ran, Isabella rode - laughing and clapping her hands the ENTIRE time, goofy girl) to terminal B where I caught the train the rest of the way to E. By the time I made it to E terminal I felt like I was dying; I couldn't catch my breath and I sure as heck couldn't run the rest of the way. I had eight minutes to make it to the gate (at the end of terminal E). After finally making it to the gate they DELAYED OUR FLIGHT!!! I just kinda sat down on the floor and talked to Isabella while we waited and caught my breath.
Isabella did not sleep AT ALL on the flight to Columbus. The poor men we were sitting between were very nice. She decided that she needed to throw her toys on the ground for the guy next to the window and grab the guy's shirt on the aisle. I kept apologizing and they just laughed and told me it was okay. Then came the inevitable - changing her diaper on the plane. That was an adventure.
When we finally made it to Columbus, we went to baggage claim to collect our suitcase and Isabella's car seat. After our suitcase came out, I pulled out Bella's pajamas and went to the bathroom to change her while mom and dad waited on the car seat. The car seat never arrived. Come to find out it had some how gone missing in Atlanta. Please explain to me how a car seat goes missing on a plane? They had no record of it being unloaded in Atlanta.
They gave us a loaner car seat to get Isabella home. Now we just had to wait on the airline to find it.
Since I've been trying to finish this blog since the 18th, I'll just continue.
I called EVERY day from the 17th to the 20th asking about the car seat. I was advised on the 20th to go ahead and file a lost baggage claim with all the items and their values because they still couldn't find it. The claim came out to be close to $500. In the bag holding the car seat were also my blue NY&C coat, Bella's coat, the new backpack John had bought her, formula and a bottle.
At work on the 22nd, I received a phone call from Delta in Atlanta - THEY FOUND THE CAR SEAT. We got the car seat back that evening. Bella is SO happy to have her car seat back. I'm being serious. All she did was cry in the loaner car seat. She sat in her car seat for the first time on Sunday on the way to her birthday party and instantly fell asleep.
As a closing, I'm just going to put this picture again because it is so darn cute!
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