Made It

We're safe and sound in Colorado, and the boys had a great evening playing with their cousins Andrew and Alexander (or, perhaps more accurately, playing with their cousins' toys.) Happy Birthday, Andrew!

The cousins were great with our little guys. Andrew was James's bodyguard at one point, preventing him from climbing up the stairs!  (James was climbing EVERYTHING -- the fireplace hearth, which is taller than ours; the kiddie steps in the bathroom, the ottoman -- the kid is all about the vertical!)

James and Matthew also loved their cousins' big dogs (not afraid of them at all).  Fortunately the dogs were very tolerant of the babies' affections!

(Andrew, age five, was funny because he hasn't quite matched the names up with the babies yet, so he refers to Matthew as "the one who is walking." Although James did take those first steps, he's still mostly a crawler unless he has something to hang on to.)

The trip did not get off to the most auspicious start when James threw up just as we parked at the airport (note to self: bring TWO changes of clothes in the carryon luggage), but then we were delighted to have no line at all at security (which is good, because getting the boys out of their seats, putting the seats and stroller plus all the rest of our stuff throw the scanners, then reassembling the whole shebang, was quite a production.)

Of course, we checked in on-line at Southwest as early as we could to get a good boarding position, and then like idiots missed the boarding call for our flight (we weren't far from the gate but didn't hear a thing over the annoucement system), so we were later getting on than we wanted. The kind flight attendants saved a couple seats for us in the very back rows, so we were all able to sit together. And it turns out that being in the last row with a baby is kind of awesome, because when he throws his toys down, you know they can't go very far. :)

The boys were great travelers -- napped part of the trip and looked at their books or toys the rest of it. We didn't even have to pull out the Baby Signing Time videos!

One other lesson learned -- if you open a formula can packed in NC in CO, the pressure difference makes it explode out like confetti.  (The rental car people were kind enough to vacuum the front seat of the car out for us.)