Trip To St. Louis

Our trip to St. Louis was a blast and a tad bit crazy -- three children ages two and under for three days but we made it and here are the highlights:

Here was how we started... all our gear and the kiddos...

another angle

 Killing time in the airport because we were early to our gate...

Then we had to kill a lot of time because our plane was delayed

and delayed

and delayed

and delayed

and still delayed...

and finally canceled... so we made our way to a hotel nearby

played in the pool, stretched out, and got some sleep...

... so we could return to the airport for a 6:15am flight and try this all over again.

This time, all children were in pajamas.

And finally we got on a plane -- twins first flights (Tracey is there too, but she's buckled into her seat and the camera couldn't see her)

We had the shortest layover on the planet and ended up riding in an airport golf cart to make it to our connecting gate on time.

Another flight... 

And finally we made it to St. Louis...

We got the news as we landed that our nephew had just been born...

 

and we went straight to the hospital in order to meet him and surprise his parents.

Then we had fun with the rest of the family...

We had our first breakfast out at Cracker Barrel... we ate as fast as we can and left a mess on the floor between Tracey, Howard, and Caroline eating.

All cousins at the hospital at once to see Silas and take a picture.

This is the first baby Tracey has really taken an interest in, kept climbing up to peer into his hospital crib.  The picture is blurry because I think I dropped the phone to get her hands down as I was taking it.

Seven cousins in just over three years.

Seeing more family while we were in town

Extra cousin time before we had to head out -- Tracey and Zivah play so well together

Chilling at the airport before we headed out

Tracey at the airport play area -- the one in St. Louis is set up like a play airport for kids with cars and planes and baggage claims... this is Tracey moving toy suitcases.

Our night flights were a little harder than the morning flights on the trip to St. Louis.

 

But we officially made our first flying trip as a family of five and we now have our list of things we'll do differently before the next time.