A Special 6 year old

It's still hard for me to believe but our little girl is now 6 years old! She has had quite a celebration already. We celebrated with both my family and Brian's family while in MN, we had a special day today at home and on Friday she gets to have her friend Sabrina over for a sleepover. Plus Daddy took her out for a special ice cream treat today, just the two of them. She lucked out because it's parent teacher conference week so she has early release from school all week long. She was completely spoiled for her birthday, which is what every 6 year old deserves! We could not be any prouder of her.

Dear Delta Airlines

Dear Delta Airlines,

I wanted to let you know that for almost the entire duration of our 3 hour and 9 minute flight from Minneapolis to Seattle, my daughter Adelyn and I had a great time in your airplane. She especially enjoyed the inflight TV experience and the ability to choose from several different Disney movies or TV shows. I enjoyed this as well as it allowed me to get some much needed sleep on the plane. Everything on the flight was almost perfect...until we landed. 

Just moments after touching the ground in Seattle and pulling into the gate, my daughter told me that her tummy didn't feel good. I asked her if she thought she might be sick, and she said no. Less than a minute later I could tell that something had changed. With seemingly no notice, and her eyes filled with fear, she covered her mouth in an attempt to hold it back, but it was inevitable. I tried searching the seat pouch for the infamous barf bag, and was horrified to find there was none. With no time left to prevent the most disgusting moment imaginable, my daughter had no choice to but to throw up. All over her and all over me. Unfortunately it happened again and again and I improvised to the best of my ability, but was woefully unprepared for such an event. 

Apparently I was not alone in being unprepared as no one from your airline offered me any assistance at all. I graciously let everyone depart the plane before bringing our unfortunate situation to someone's attention. Upon review of the scene, the only assistance I was offered was that of a plastic bag in which to put my daughter's belongings into. No washcloths, no wipes, not even a napkin.  Just an inquiry of, "is it all over the seat?" and "is it on the seatbelt as well?" to which I answered yes to both. I tried as quickly as I could to clean up my daughter and get her into a change of clothes (pajamas was all I had access to), but it was clear I was risking your on time departure for the next flight. 

I deeply regret that your plane had no barf bag which therefore meant that the most unfortunate of travel events was that much more unfortunate for both myself and my daughter. I shudder to think about the poor individuals seated in 40E and 40F who were getting ready to board the next flight. No matter how magically skilled your cleaners may be, I can't imagine how they will get that smell, which is now burned into my memory, out of the plane. 

I will never look at a plane seat the same and I will never travel again without immediate access to wipes and a change of clothes. 

I hope that my lesson may serve as a lesson to you and your airline and to travelers everywhere and that you will add "check for barf bag" to your checklist of things to address before allowing a plane to depart.

Sincerely,

Megan

A Birthday, a Baby and a Wedding

Phew! Addy and I are back from our biggest whirlwind trip to MN ever. I think we were only there for about 60 total hours and we couldn't have squeezed in any more if we tried. We had a great time and saw so many people. As I said to my family, we would have all come back for the trip but it turns out traveling is 50% cheaper if only 50% of our family travels.
So Addy and I made the most of our girls weekend. We got to see Great Grandma Ruby just days before her 98th birthday, we got to celebrate Adelyn's birthday with family, Adelyn and I met her new baby cousin Etta, we danced the night away at my cousin's wedding and Addy got to sleep with her cousin Izzy in a hotel. It was super fun and just as exhausting as it sounds. Most of the pictures from the trip were taken by my dad so I will update more with photos once I get them.

No More Diapers for Cameron!

It's official, Cameron is not only potty-trained but he's not even wearing diapers at night anymore. He told us the other night that he didn't want to wear diapers and he hasn't for about a week and we've had no issues. I'm so proud of him and am so excited that our diaper days are officially done! At one point I felt like this day would never come, now it feels like it wasn't that long after all. Congrats Cameron we are so proud of you.

Field Trip

Today Adelyn's class took a field trip and Brian got to go as one of the chaperones. They went to a local farm that had animals and a pumpkin patch. They had a ton of fun and got to pet the animals, have ice cream, watch a live 3 little pigs show and pick out their own pumpkin.
Brian managed to fit onto the school bus (barely) and survived the day with 80 kindergartners. I don't know who was more exhausted when it was done, Addy or Brian.

3 Wishes

We've recently started another daily ritual which is that every night the kids each get to pick out a question from a bottle and we go around and each answer them. It is quite interesting and entertaining to hear their answers. Tonight one of the questions was "If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?"

Cameron said:

1. To see Batman and Superman

2. To eat cake and ice cream

3. To be Thor because then I could pull Daddy's ladder down

Addy said: 

1. To eat dessert everyday

2. To watch a show every day, oh wait I almost already do that so I won't wish for that

2. To play outside every day

3. To be in the Disney store forever with the doors locked so no one could come in

My three wishes are with me at dinner every night. I couldn't be more grateful for my incredible husband and kids. 

So You Think You Can Dance

The last couple weeks we started a new routine of a "Dance Party" after dinner. Brian or I get videos queued up on the TV and then we dance like crazy people. At first we started with videos from songs the kids know (mostly Frozen) and then Brian tried some songs from our youth (Michael Jackson and Paula Abdul). Most recently we've landed on current pop songs, but the best ones are the videos showing how to do the dance. We don't have one of those dance video games (gasp!) so this is still novel to all of us. It truly is my favorite part of the day. Addy, of course, takes it very seriously and tries to match the dance moves perfectly, concentrating the entire time. Cameron just wiggles all around and is a total goof ball, and Brian is probably my favorite. He goes for it completely, acts super tough (especially during hip-hop) and talks about how he's going to pull these moves out next time he's out. Lucky for him (or maybe everyone else) he never goes out.  So I think the dance moves of the entire family are safe within our house. When I asked Brian to comment on my dance moves he had two words "Not graceful."
I don't have any pictures because a) they wouldn't do justice to how awesome our family's dance moves are b) Brian would kill me if I shared them with anyone and c) pictures can't capture just how graceful I really am.

A Maize Maze

Today we took our annual trip to Bob's pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day but it had rained a lot yesterday so it was muddy. But we were ready with our rain boots! Addy took one digger in the mud but it wasn't too bad. I really don't know who loves going to Bob's more, me or the kids. I just love everything about it. Pumpkins, hay rides, corn mazes, corn on the cob and pumpkin donuts! This year they had a new maze which was super fun.

We had a great time, with the exception of the huge meltdown both kids had when it was time to leave. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. 

Fun on the Farm

We didn't make it back for Buoya this year at my Grandma's, but the kids still got to spend a fun day at "the Farm." Brian took the kids to Kris & Sarah's where they got to see the horses, chickens, dogs, goats and the rabbit. But I think their favorite part was Lilja's new toy - the trampoline! The kids had a great time and enjoyed some time by the water. Cameron was so excited he went right in.

Beach Bums

We've had some beautiful fall weather the last few weeks so Brian was able to take the kids down to the waterfront. They love it down there as they can see boats, ferries and trains and they love to explore in the sand and the water. Here is a cute pic of the kids on "Shamu"