Vacation: Part 2

When we headed back down to NC, Hayden decided to say "mama" for the first time. Jay is convinced that Hayden thinks "mama" means "food", but I say otherwise! We stopped in to see my brother and his family, and to wish Zoe a happy birthday. She opened a few presents, ate a cupcake and showed us her princess bouncy house. We had a blast with the kids and spent the night.

Saturday was bright and early, and the day of Hayden's first haircut! His hair was starting to get in his eyes and was so long around his ears that we decided it was time to cut it off. It was a good experience for all of us! Hayden and I were wrapped in capes and I held him on my lap while Jay took pictures and Kevin snip-snip-snipped his baby hair. I was so surprised at the amount of hair that was left on his head after the amount that was cut off. He has a ton of hair! He looks like such a grown up little boy with his new haircut, not a baby! At the end he was rewarded with a lollipop, and hung out with dad while I got my hair cut.

Saturday was also the day of Zoe's birthday party! She had lots of friends over for her birthday cookout, and they all enjoyed the bouncy house. It was a hot day, so Hayden spent most of it inside, exploring and testing out his crawling skills. We watched the kids play, eat cake, open presents, and melt down one by one. Birthday parties are rough on the little ones! Saturday night we attempted to watch the UFC fight but it was hard to find a place that we could even get in the door, so instead we got some JP Looney's wings to go and enjoyed a quiet evening to ourselves.

Sunday we were back in the car and headed to South Carolina to see Jay's grandmother, Gloria. It was a beautiful day at the beach, but we arrived a little late to go to the ocean. We relaxed and ate a great dinner (so much food!) and headed out to Barefoot Landing to see the shops and get some ice cream. I dropped mine, and now I understand why kids cry when that happens! So sad. We took our tired little boy home to rest up for another day at the beach! Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on Monday, but that meant a day of shopping! We hit up the outlets and dodged most of the rain all day. Hayden and I took naps while Jay ran errands, and we finally got some Calabash seafood! We also got Krispy Kreme doughnuts (after passing the "Hot doughnuts now" sign about ten times).

Tuesday was our day to drive back to NC, so of course it was a perfect beach day. But we had too much to do to hit the beach. We shipped boxes back to Germany because there's no way all the stuff we bought was fitting in our suitcases. We stopped on the way back for some BBQ, and had hit almost all the food we wanted by then. Except Outback, so we went there for dinner. It's Jay's favorite, and I can't believe we were in the states almost two weeks before he finally got it. Hayden got to spend some time with his only great great grandmother and some more fun family. We bought our tickets for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince showing the next day (!) and headed home.

Wednesday morning we dropped Hayden off with my parents and mamaw and headed over to Battleground to see the much-anticipated movie. Two and a half hours did not disappoint us! We picked up some Ghassan's for lunch and went back for our little buddy. He had a blast with his grandparents and great grandma, but didn't nap much because it was too exciting. We discussed our steps for the journey home, made some phone calls and decided to fly to Philadelphia in order to catch Space A flights from McGuire AFB the next day.

Thursday morning we packed up and headed to Raleigh where we returned the rental car and made it to our gate just a few moments before boarding started. I was nervous about the traffic and security but it all worked out for the best. For this flight Hayden was a "non-ticketed lap child" so we passed him back and forth for the hour-long flight. When we landed, I called McGuire and found out that in the span of our flight, the flight to Germany for that day had been cancelled. Jaime was picking us up, so we made some more calls and decided our best bet was to spend the night with her and try the next day to go to Germany. We got some water ice from Rita's, drove around the city for a little driving tour for Jay, and had a great dinner.

Friday morning our first thought was to try Dover AFB, which had listed five flights back to Germany. After some more calling around, we discovered there were some flights out of McGuire that we didn't know about, so we packed up and headed to New Jersey, our sixth state of this trip. After waiting a couple of hours, we were manifested on a flight at 3pm that was supposed to board around 4:30pm. Boarding time came and went and there was no plane. A few more hours went by, we asked lots of questions and were effectively given the run around. We ordered chinese food at 7:30pm since we were finally told that boarding would be around 8:40pm. At 9pm, we were finally told that our plane needed a part for maintenance, and that it was on its way from Dover. Were this a commercial flight, I would have been extremely nervous. But being that this was the Air Force, I was a little less stressed since this is basically their job.

We finally got the call to board after midnight. Once through security, it was another wait for the bus to take us to the plane, and yet another wait for another bus since we all didn't fit on one. We were the last ones to board the C5, and of course there were not three seats altogether. In fact, most of the seats were in exit rows, where children are not allowed to sit. Finally, Hayden and I ended up in a little "cubby" in the front (which was actually the back) and Jay was sitting a few feet away. After a couple of hours, Jay moved to where we were and hung out in the floor in front of us (because you can do that on military planes!). Hayden slept the majority of the flight which in hindsight was a terrible idea since it only prolonged his jet lag. He wouldn't keep the earplugs in this time, so we went without them. 8 hours later, we were back in Germany! One more hour of customs and luggage, and two and a half more hours of driving and we were back in our house. It was a great vacation with tons of adventure, but we were certainly glad to be back!