On a Jet Plane

Last weekend Jackson took his first flight - to Nana & Papa's house in Denver.  Drew stayed behind to hold down the fort so Jack & I were on our own.  Fortunately, the stars aligned and the trip both ways was an absolute breeze.

We talked a lot about airplanes (or nah-nanes as Jack calls them) leading up to the trip.  And I made several trips to Target's Dollar Spot to stock up on distractions activities for the ride.  My backpack was armed with snacks, colors, stickers, books, a toy plane, mini magna doodle, several new iphone apps (Duck Duck Moose makes Jack's favorite ones) and did I mention snacks?  As it turned out, I barely needed any of them.

The best part was just after clearing security in Kansas City on our way to Denver.  The minute Jack got a glimpse of the planes lined up at the gates he made a mad dash for the windows and shouted "WHOA"!  Everyone within ear shot was cracking up.  Here he is watching out the window as we waited to board.

We flew Southwest and luck was on our side.  I didn't purchase a ticket for Jack (since he is under 2 and still qualifies for free travel) which meant he would have to be seated on my lap.  Fortunately, both flights were only about half full so we ended up with an entire row to ourselves.

On the way to Denver, we sat behind a woman with her 2 daughters.  The youngest one couldn't have been much more than 8 mos old and she and Jack entertained each other the entire way.  He was playing peek-a-boo with her, sharing his goldfish and always concerned about what "the baby" was doing.  She made quite an impression because on the return flight he must have asked me 10 times where "the baby" was.

The Denver airport was equally as exciting as the flight itself.  Between the escalators, people movers, and train to baggage claim it was one adventure after another.  And I have to say, much more enjoyable than strapping him into the car seat for an 8-hour road trip.

If only that free ticket policy lasted until he was...I don't know, 18.