A day of airports and more!

I had been preparing myself for the worst day of travel in my life---between lugging my "active" (people say that like it is a compliment, but I personally think it is a little bit of a curse) 18 month old around 4 airports, expecting the same 18 month old to then sit quietly through a total of about 10 hours of flying, and having John and myself being worn out from weeks of working extra to get prepared to be gone for 2 weeks, I truly believed this was a recipe for disaster. However, I am proud to say that Warren did great! (See having low expectations really worked out good for me in this case.)
I had been doing my research, and boy did it pay off. I had fun, new toys that Warren hadn't seen before to keep him occupied--thanks Parents magazine. (On a side note, we were restricted from using some of these toys do to noise--come on a little train that you can barely hear going "peep, peep" over the sound of the engines? Me thinks first class is a little snooty personally!) I had a bag full of snacks that came in handy for Warren (if we could keep Daddy from eating all the fruit snacks). I also let Warren have the pacifier most of the day---I feel a little guilty about this, but I am so paranoid about my ears, that I couldn't stand the thought of Warren's giving him the same pain that I have when I fly. I did have a nosy man with his 15 month old tell me that I shouldn't have let Warren have the pacifier after 11 months, and that I should just take it away from him. I did find this a bit rude, but it did pull at my "I am a bad parent" guilt strings a little.
We rode in first class on the way out here since that was the only seats available using our Dividend Miles---I am happy to report, that aside for having the extra room with an infant in lap, I will still choose coach until the day I can just throw money away. I mean don't get me wrong, it was nice to have a cushy seat with a lot more room...and to get the free food and snacks...but they do weird things up there. For example, on the first flight almost as soon as the airplane took off, the stewardess passed out warm washcloths; I was very unsure what to do with these--were they for the hands or face? I tried to discreetly look and see what other people were doing with them, but Warren was moving a little too much...so I just sort of wiped it on my face and hands and tried to hide myself while doing it so there would be no judgement. (John had a better tactic and he just didn't use it.)
Well, we arrived safely into Canada---and John made friends with the Canadian border control as they discussed "24". He now loves Canadians!
I will update more as I can---I am not sure what my internet accessibility will be over the next couple of weeks.

Play table in the AVL airport.




Fruit bowl from our first class breakfast.


Snow-capped mountains as we descended into Vancouver.