O-H-I-O

We just got home from a fun and eventful trip to Ohio. Lots of fun staying with family, visiting Keith's college friends & going to a wedding (Keith was a groomsman). The one downside was the heat--85 degrees and HUMID every day. Yuck! I'm an "everything in moderation" girl and that definitely includes the weather! I'll take 70 degrees and partly sunny any day! :-)

Here are some trip highlights:

Thursday:
*driving to Cincinnati (1.5 hours each way) to see sister-and-brother-in-law's house (we'd never done this, so after 5 years it was about time!), hanging out with cousins Dominic (2.5) and Sophia (9 months), and a pizza feed at Matt & Caroline's house (Keith's friends from college)

Sophia, crawling (9 months)

Friday:
*playing at the park & picnic with more of Keith's college friends--Rachel and her 3 kiddos, Tyler and his adorable Beagle-Pug mix "McFly" (isn't that a great dog name?!)
*wedding rehearsal dinner

Rachel's daughter Rita, Maddie & my 23-week preggo belly :-)

Saturday:
*hanging out with family: grandma, grandpa, great grandparents, sister-in-law & brother-in-law and cousins
*Maddie & Dominic dancing up a storm


*Troy & Megan's wedding

Keith's hilarious college buddies, Brent & Scott

my hubby, who even looks handsome in PINK! :-)

Sunday:
*celebrating Father's Day with a family BBQ (Maddie says, "Mmmm! TASTY!")
*Maddie & Dominic playing in the sprinklers, "washing" the car & getting covered head-to-toe in melting ice cream treats
(Note: Up until Uncle Chris spoiled it {hee hee}, I'd had Maddie convinced that the truck that drives by the park all the time was just the "music truck". Well, when the "music truck" went by this time, Uncle Chris treated the kids to ice cream. Now it's "MOM, did you know the music truck has ICE CREAM in it?!!") :-)
*squirting Grandpa with the new motorized water guns he bought for the kids

Monday:
*relaxing with the grandparents until our evening flight home

Now, here are the *lowlights*: Summary=Airlines suck! On our flights to Ohio, we left Portland at 2pm and got to Denver at 5:30 (their time), expecting to board our next flight at 7pm and arrive in Columbus by midnight. Well, United (hate them) informed us that there was a "mechanical problem" with our aircraft and that they'd need to FLY IN the replacement part. That's right folks, hurry up and wait. So there was much snacking-running up and down the terminal-racing on the moving walkways-sitting on concrete floors going on. Want to know when we actually got on our flight? 10PM, people! Yup, 4.5 oh-so-fun hours waiting in an airport with a fussy 2.5-year-old. Joy of all joys. Oh, and when did we get to Ohio? That would be 3 in the morning...with a little girl who only slept for 1 HOUR on the plane (which by then was 11pm her time) + no daytime nap = Meltdown City.

So, I figured that since we had an awful flight there, we deserved a smooth & uneventful flight home. No such luck. We are cursed! We didn't leave Columbus until 7pm, had a good flight to Minneapolis, and got on our next plane at 9:30pm. A 3.5 hour flight, putting us in to Portland at 11:15pm if all goes well. About half-way into the flight (1am Ohio time & still no sleep for Maddie), the captain gets on the loudspeaker to announce a medical emergency & requests any doctors or nurses on board to help. The patient is in the aisle in 1st class, they're giving oxygen & hanging IV's. At this point I know I should be more concerned with the person's well-being, but I'm also annoyed because this happened to us on our last trip to Ohio too! 20 minutes pass and the captain comes on again: we'll need to make an emergency landing and the closest place is Great Falls, Montana about 30 minutes away. Great! We land and are greeted with flashing lights on fire trucks and ambulances on the tarmac. The EMT's come on with a stretcher, the captain has to fill out paperwork, etc. Then he announces that FAA regulations require planes to carry certain medical supplies and since they just used up the oxygen tanks and IV bags, we'll have to wait for these to be replaced before we can take off again. This just keeps getting better! Finally, an hour and a half of sitting on the tarmac later, he says they found a "loophole" in the rules & we'll be taking off without the medical equipment and says, "OK, now nobody get sick on the flight home!" Yes, I'm thrilled to be leaving, but also hoping it's not me that needs help next! (Sorry, out of luck lady!) Maddie finally falls asleep for the last hour (3am Ohio time) and we land at 1am...she's safely in bed by 2am...Keith and I collapse at 3am (as he mutters, "I don't ever want to travel again!")...and my poor hubby drags his body out of bed at 7am to go to work.

Now we need a vacation from our vacation! :-)

P.S.--Tomorrow is "doctor day"...morning appt. with my OB, then afternoon appt. with a genetic counselor and our perinatologist for another ultrasound. I'm hoping we'll at least get some shred of good news. One positive update is that, since the last appt., our baby boy has become very active and I'm feeling him move all the time--incredibly reassuring for me, especially since I hardly ever felt Nicholas move, even at this same age.

Oh, and our little guy now has a name...please continue praying for James Alexander Frank. :-)