Nags Head: Getting There

We recently returned from an Outer Banks (North Carolina) week long vacation with the Watts clan. When Mike and I made the travel arrangements a little over a year ago we opted to fly as opposed to drive the 15 plus hour trip with a one year old. We flew from Louisville to Baltimore to Norfolk, VA on the way there, and then had to rent a car and drive two hours from Norfolk to Nags Head. Although it was still an 8 or so hour travel day, it was much easier than dealing with a two day car ride. 

As you can imagine, flying with a one year old, there was a lot of anxiety as a parent not knowing whether or not we were going to be "those people" on the plane with a screaming child. Owen was an absolute trooper. On the way there he didn't so much as make a peep. When we landed, the man in front of us said he didn't even know there was a baby behind him! AMEN! The people behind us saw plenty of Owen-his favorite thing to do was stand on my lap and stare at anyone and everyone behind us who would make eye contact with him. 

The trip home, we would rate his behavior a C+. We excused his fussiness because of the never ending ear infection (more to come). The most embarassing part of the trip home is when he was facing backward and launched a ball at the woman behind us. It hit her right in the face and then knocked the ice out of her cup. After many apologies, he found his plastic shovel and was attempting to poke the woman in front of us through the crack. When we told him no, he got really mad and Mike had to take him to the back of the plane. Sigh. All in all, he was great. We couldn't have asked for much more!

Terrorist? Nah, plane going down? Nah-just Owen being Owen!

On one of our flights, the flight attendant got on the radio and made it a point to tell us every seat would be taken on the plane. Mike and I took the window and middle seat (Owen was a lap child), leaving the aisle for whatever brave passenger decided to sit next to us. Turns out there was one open seat on that flight. Yep, ONE. Guess which one it was. The one in our row. Normally people fight for aisle seats, but we were passed up by pretty much everyone boarding the plane. It worked out well for us because we sat O in the seat and it gave him some extra room to play!

Southwest Airlines is the absolute best. While we were on the ground in Baltimore waiting for people to board, the flight attendant asked if we wanted to go into the cockpit with Owen. The picture turned out terrible, but it was really cool. As we were standing in the cockpit, I said to Owen, "It's your first airplane ride, buddy." The pilot looked at me and said, "Mine too." He thought it was hilarious, but I found it hard to laugh!

This is his new thing. Anytime something excites him, this is the face we see!