We just returned from a week long trip to Minnesota, visiting family and friends. It was so wonderful to be home and see people, but the actual traveling part is quite an adventure! I'm very grateful that for the most part, the boys are both good flyers. Even still, navigating airports with two young kids, a stroller, and a diaper bag stuffed to the max (plus Ronan's little suitcase that he carries and my purse) is just a pain. Our flight to Minnesota was fairly uneventful. We got to the airport fairly close to boarding time, so I only had to chase the kids around for a little while. Then we had a very brief layover in Chicago - in fact, by the time we made it to the gate, they were just starting the boarding process. Neither boy slept much on the flight to Chicago, but Tristan, following his brother's footsteps, passed out literally just seconds before the wheels touched down. He stayed asleep even as I carried him off the plane, put him in the stroller, and got to the next gate. He woke up as soon as I picked him up though to get on the plane and was awake for the whole flight. Figures. He started getting a bit fidgety towards the end, but luckily didn't start screaming or crying.
While in town, we did a whole lot of stuff. On Wednesday, my mom and I took the boys to Como Zoo, despite the icky weather. I love going to Como. One of the big differences I've noticed between MN and OH (at least where I live) is the amount of fees for everything here. The lake by our house (which is man-made) charges $10 a person. The actual lake by our house, which would be free, doesn't allow swimming. The small zoo here also costs money, and doesn't have nearly the variety that Como (donation-based only) has. I like going to our little zoo here, but I would love having something like Como. Anyway, we had a good time there. That evening, the boys and I went with my dad to his horse-back riding lesson, at the same place where I used to ride way back when. It was really fun to go back there and I was amazed by the fact that the only things that seemed to have changed were the horses and the instructor (though apparently many of the women who worked there when I was taking lessons are still there as well). Ronan thought the horses were cool, but then he discovered cats were there and his night was made. We went into the ring to watch the lesson and Ronan had an unintentional effect on Dad's lesson. Every time the horse came near us, he'd pick up the pace - he heard Ronan making clucking noises at the cats, trying to get them to come closer, and thought it was a cue for him to speed up. At the end of the lesson, Ronan got a chance to ride as well. They did two laps (walking) and afterwards, Ronan thought it was awesome. During the ride, though, he looked a bit nervous! I'm glad he had fun though.
On Thursday, my dad took us to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. That was also a great way to spend a rainy day. If we lived there, I would definitely buy a membership - it's just a perfect place to spend bad weather. We started on the fourth floor, where there was a great play area for the kids and we spent a lot of time there. Tristan had a lot of fun running around too. I did have to laugh, because Ronan would throw a huge fit every time we told him it was time to move on to the next room, but as soon as we got him in the next one, he was enthralled with it and then wouldn't want to leave that one either.
The weekend saw a series of visits with friends. On Friday, we went to Rick's workplace, which is pretty cool. Ronan loved the koi pond there. Then that evening, we were all invited over to my parents' friends' home, along with their daughter and her son, who is Ronan's age, and some other friends. Ronan had an absolute blast playing with someone his age and the two boys were constantly on the move. At the end of the night, there was even a request for Ronan to sleep over (which did not happen, but it was sweet). On Saturday, I had a chance to grab lunch with a couple of old friends from high school. Two of the three of us live out of state now, but just happen to have trips up to MN overlap, so we jumped on the opportunity. My parents watched the kids and it was wonderful to have a break and catch up. That afternoon, my cousin and his wife and their kids, along with my grandparents, came over for a cookout. The kids did great together and had a wonderful time. The sun even came out and the temperature heated up enough that they got the hose out and spent quite a bit of time spraying each other (and everything else). On Sunday, two of my closest friends came over with their kids, as is now our tradition whenever I come up. We took the crew (five kids, plus us three adults) to Snuffy's for dinner (oh how I love Snuffy's!) and it was kind of crazy to see us again at an old favorite hangout as parents of young kids, rather than high schoolers. It was so good to see them, though I think Ronan was running out of steam by that point. What was sweet, though, was seeing him with my friend's new baby (four months old). He was very gentle and sweet with him. He also pointed out that we had a baby too, but it's getting pretty clear to me that Tristan isn't much of a baby anymore!
On Monday, my dad came home after lunch and we all went to the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis and looked at St. Anthony Falls. Then we headed over to Nicollet Island, which is where my prom was, and looked around briefly. Ronan found geese, so that instantly made it a win. By that point in the trip, though, he was pretty much running on fumes. He started getting very cranky and irritable, and was just ready to go home. We took it fairly easy on Tuesday, going to the park with my mom by her work. Then it was an early night, as we had a very early flight home.
That turned into a whole other adventure. I was up by 4:30 a.m. (our flight left at 6:30) and felt absolutely awful. Terrible headache, queasy stomach, not fully with it. As a result, we ended up leaving a bit later than we planned. Got to the airport and there was a huge line to check-in. I'd checked in the night before, but with Tristan flying on my lap and two bags to check, we still had to go through. I've never seen a line move so slowly. We finally got up there and the woman warned us that our bags might not make it because we were so late. Ran to security and a sympathetic TSA agent let us go through the priority lane and cut ahead of the long line there. But as we were getting to the machines, I heard the final boarding call for our flight. Managed to get through without issue and I didn't even bother to put my belt back on. Threw everything on the stroller and raced to the gate (which, since it was the small terminal, was just across from security) and were the last ones on board. Since we flew Southwest, there's no assigned seating and by the time we got on, there weren't any two seats next to each other. Thankfully, the agent got on and asked if anyone would be willing to move so Ronan and I (and Tristan in my lap) could sit together, or if anyone wanted to babysit a four year old for an hour, and someone moved for us. I was very grateful and all three of us collapsed into our seats and slept for most of the flight.
Then we got to Chicago, where we had a nearly four hour lay over. That was torturous. I'd rather be racing to the gate then spend that much time with two kids by myself there again. The boys wanted to move and I wanted them to burn off energy, but there just wasn't any good place to do so. For awhile, I just pushed Tristan in the stroller while Ronan walked/ran down all the moving walk ways in our terminal. Unfortunately, one of the straps in the stroller broke during the flight, so I couldn't belt Tristan in anymore and after awhile, he started standing up or turning around in the stroller. So I took them back by our gate where they had a TV set up with cartoons, let Ronan sit next to the stroller and watch that while I chased Tristan around the area. After that stopped working, Ronan decided he wanted to be in the stroller, so I let Tristan run and pushed Ronan in the stroller after him. Ronan kept trying to catch Tristan from the stroller, which reminded me of the scene in Planet of the Apes, where the apes, many on horseback, are hunting humans. It was all fun and games until Tristan suddenly darted around me and walked on to one of the moving walkways, going the wrong way. He fell, hard, on his face and then started sliding to the end. I managed to grab him (thinking only of those horror stories of things, including fingers, getting torn up by the belt at the end), but he had a giant bruise and cuts matching the lines of the walkway on his forehead. Finally, though, it was time to board the plane and once again, he slept for most of the flight. We had a lot of turbulence on both flights as well (though thankfully Ronan thought that was fun). All in all, I was pretty happy to make it home. (and our luggage made it through too! Hooray!)
Tom's working today though, and it's raining here. Tristan's up from his nap, so now it's time to figure out what we're going to do today. Sucks not to have grandparents around to entertain!
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