Early morning travel to Missouri!
Early airport mornings with my little travel buddy!
As you may have gathered from my blog, my little man and I love to travel together. Generally we leave early in the morning, but this trip may have been the earliest we ever left our front door. Our flight left at 5:00AM, which meant I set my alarm somewhere around 2:30AM ET. Drew was a good sport and promptly rousted out of bed to join me on our flying adventures! We were flying to Missouri to see our close friends in Kirksville! This time was also compounded by the fact that I was fairly pregnant and looking forward to traveling alone with a toddler, at least he was too old to sit on my lap and required his own seat! Drew was already too old, but this luxury was definitely worth the extra cash - I don't think he and the baby would have both fit, my baby bump was very obvious!
Playing in St. Louis airport – next stop, Kirksville!
The little guy was such a champion and was able to take in a few episode of Daniel Tiger on the first plane ride! We connected in Charlotte and then again in St. Louis. The first two flights were on normal sized planes, but the third one was an absolute adventure as we were connecting from St. Louis to Kirksville. On the third plane we had to check in and tell them how much we weighed and how much the luggage weighed! Not exactly a number every pregnant woman wants to broadcast, lol! We walked up to the plane and they put our carry-on luggage in the wing. I could only take on a few snacks for Drew and hoped that he would do well. The plane was warm from a sunny summer afternoon, so the pilot open his side window as we were taxiing to give us some fresh air. It was so unreal being in the small plane with the pilot a few feet away! The little guy didn't even seem to recognize this was different than the other planes. The noise was much louder and he was immediately asleep! It was such a cool experience and surprisingly cheap at only $40 per flight to Kirksville!
Couldn’t quite handle the last leg of the trip… on our 8 passenger plane!
Mom, you’re telling me we flew on that?!
When we landed we were welcomed by our close friends were waving at the fence! As you can imagine our luggage came out quickly and we were on the road to the farm! The morning went by quickly and we were so excited to be in Kirksville visiting the Erwin family! My parents were driving down from Wisconsin and arrived later that afternoon. We took a tour of the city and of the farm. All day long we were surrounded by good food, great friends and good conversation! All of the family stopped by to say hello in the evening for a big family dinner. It was so nice to see everyone and to see the farm in the summer!
Tour of the farm and picking tomatoes for the ponies!
Future cowboy in his crocs!
We walked around the farm and Drew loved seeing the ponies, the horses and the new baby horse that was just welcomed into the world before we got there. I was so proud of my little man. He definitely has a little country in him, as he started climbing the fences to the horse barn! Good man - don't loose that adventurous spirit!
Looking at the mama and new baby horse! Ruby Red!
As always, our time in Missouri came shortly came to a close and we were packing up the truck to drive back to Wisconsin! Last time we did this road trip, Drew was a few months old and did a lot of sleeping. This time, at 2 years old, I was going to have to get a bit more creative. We read books, napped, ate chicken nuggets and listened to toddler music while cruising down the highway. My parents were introduced to the terrible toddler tunes we rely on for a calm road trip. Overall, he did wonderfully and we didn't have any meltdowns! What a great little traveler! I can't wait until our next trip to Missouri!!
Life is good.