St. Louis

A little over a week ago, the Nortier family took a mini 'vacation' to Saint Louis for a couple of days. Daneel actually had a business trip and his work said that Avalon and I could go along if we wanted to buy the extra plane ticket. 

The ticket wasn't very expensive and I jumped at the opportunity to take a fun getaway for a couple of days. Somehow in the midst of thinking about getting away on a little trip, my brain forgot to think about all of the fun and adventure that a 2 month old can add to anything. And by fun and adventure, I mean craziness.

We learned a few things while traveling with our favorite daughter. 

The first is that walking onto crowded plane with a fussy baby does not increase one's popularity rating whatsoever. 

The second thing we learned is that Avalon and hotels do not get along all that well. We had reserved a crib for the room but the crib they brought in looked really old and rickety and the bedding didn't look like it was in great shape. I didn't want to put Avalon down on that, so I had her sleep in her car seat. She slept great the first night but the next day she would not take a nap. I think it was too many new sights, smells, sounds... for her system to adjust to. On top of that our room was freezing cold. When we arrived, the AC was running on high. I tried to adjust it but nothing seemed to change the temperature. Finally I asked Daneel to call down to the front desk and ask how to make the room not quite so frigid. This was their response:

'Oh, you can't actually control that from the room. If you don't want the room to be so cool, you can put pillows over the air vent.' 

Terrific. 

So I bundled Avalon up and we went on a walk to Starbucks and Macy's - both of which were very warm :)

For dinner we all went out to a nice restaurant. We were hoping that since Avalon hadn't napped at all during the day that she might sleep through dinner. It was a really nice thought, but Avalon had different thoughts. She wasn't a big fan of the restaurant and she cried and cried and cried. Fortunately it was a noisy restaurant and we weren't near any other tables so it didn't bother anyone else. Daneel and I traded off eating and standing up and rocking her. After a little while our waitress came over and said that she didn't have any other tables tonight and that she'd be happy to hold Avalon while we ate. We handed her right over.

I think the waitress might have been an angel.

Back at the hotel I was sure that Avalon would sleep well since she hadn't slept all day. Apparently I don't know our daughter very well. She woke up and cried just about every hour. Finally I put her in the bed with us. I didn't want her disturbing other hotel guests and since we were all awake anyway, I didn't see the point of getting out of the nice warm bed to rock her in the very cold room. 

The next day we were all very tired and ready to get back home to recover from our getaway. 

Avalon must have sensed the excitement too because she was absolutely PERFECT on the plane ride home. 

When we got on the plane she was cooing, smiling, and looking all over the place with her big blue eyes. Everyone was smiling at her and telling us how sweet our little girl was. Multiple people offered to hold her, including a man who informed me that he was a certified grandfather and would be happy to take her at any time during the flight. 

Bringing a happy baby on a plane does increase popularity points, so I think we're back up to zero after our negative rating from the first flight.

Thus concludes the tale of our first traveling experience with Avalon. I am glad we went. We did have some fun times, but we probably won't do it again any time soon. We're currently looking into places for her to stay when we go to Los Alamos for Christmas. Any takers?

Just kidding. We know our parents won't let us stay with them if we come home without their only grand-daughter. So we're going to leave her with them while we take a real getaway :)

Warm and cozy in the hotel room

Looking in the bathroom mirror