Our trip to California

Holy cow!! Why didn't anyone tell me traveling with infants was so much work? Last weekend I took the kiddos to California for a wedding. I met the bride, Kari in 2006 when we worked at a summer camp for blind children. We immediately clicked and became great friends. A year later she was a bridesmaid in my wedding and I was honored to return the favor.
Matt wasn't able to go since he'll be starting a new job soon and needed to tie up loose ends at his old one. So, I convinced my mom to go with me. Luckily she knew it would be a great opportunity to spend quality time with her grandchildren and said "yes!".
I'm not a good traveler, I generally hate to be away from home. Stress tends to get the best of me and I know I can't be the greatest traveling companion. It all started pretty well, we left the house at a reasonable time, but somehow still managed to be late (according to my standards, I like to be ridiculously early, just in case). We finally made it to security and the fun really started. All of our stuff had to go through the x-ray machiene- and let me assure you, it was a lot of stuff. Then they had to test my milk. I can only imagine how crazy women get about this because the security officer kept telling me that he wouldn't dump any of it, or taste it (although he did let all the bottles topple over multiple times and told me it was "okay" when I asked him to be careful- I kindly let him know I worked really hard for that milk and it was "not okay" for him to let them leak everywhere). I have to give security credit, they were smart enough to close the line behind us knowing it would take a really long time.
When we got to the gate my mom noticed we weren't sitting next to each other. It turns out that you can't have two lap children in the same row because only 4 oxygen masks drop in each row, so there wouldn't be enough. I just wish I had known sooner- then we would have requested to sit across the aisle from each other. Instead I was sitting between two middle-aged men. I know they had to have been disappointed to see me coming, no one wants to sit next to the screaming baby. Luckily, my baby was pretty well behaved and smiled at them like crazy.
The one thing I learned about taking babies to social events is that people take your happy baby and bring back a crying one- usually when you are about to enjoy your meal. Ella did make a friend in one of the other bridesmaids, two nights in a row she slept in her arms for hours at a time.
The wedding ceremony was absolutely beautiful, it was outside in front of a pond on a golf course. Best part was they said their vows in English and in French. The groom is from France and Kari has been doing her best to learn so she can communicate with his family since they speak very little English. It's every girls dream to meet a foreigner and have him profess his love in one of the most beautiful languages ever...ahhh.
The flight home was better than the flight out, Ella and Bradley slept like angels. It was father's day, so we were very excited to get home to see daddy. While we were gone we left a gift for every day, so that Matt knew he was a great dad and we couldn't wait to celebrate his first father's day.