And so our trip began...

Today marks a week since our little family has been all back together.  As I'm sure can be gathered by the theme of this little blog, we kind of like each other and we really enjoy our time together so the three and a half weeks apart were hard on all of us.  Jake and I got the fun part of the separation.  We headed out to California for some quality time with family.  Arthur, on the other hand, was sentenced to a three week SERE training.  While he was one of three who finished the course with honors, I can honestly say that he had very little fun surviving, evading, resisting, or escaping so I will leave you with one quote that I believe summarizes Arthur's  feeling about his experience, "I would evade for one thousand years before I spent one day as a POW."

Moments after being released from SERE

Now on to California...

Arthur and I decided several months ago, that it would probably easier on Jake if Jake and I left Daddy rather than Daddy leaving us.  While it left Arthur home alone for a few extra days, we definitely made the right decision.  Jake did make it clear that he missed Daddy.  Whenever I caught him in a game of make believe the theme was always centered on some animal, car or tractor "looking for his Daddy."  And there were several nights (generally ones where he was up way too late after a full day of playing) where he would have a small melt down and start crying, "I just want to go home."  Other than that we had a great time and Jake was well distracted by all the love and attention he received during our trip. 

Of course no trip (that involves me) can begin without some sort of dramatic event, and this trip was no different.  Since we live very close to the middle of nowhere, we have to drive a few hours to get to an airport. So after getting up super early for our 10 o'clock flight, I was greatly disturbed to find the airport abandoned and hand written signs stating that the "Airport was Closed."  Immediately I burst into tears saying, "But I bought tickets."  Luckily, Arthur is a little more level headed than I am and calmly suggested that this must not be the correct airport.  Of course he was right and within minutes we were at our desired location saying our goodbyes and Jake and I were on our way.

 I would like to say that this was the end of the drama but that would be much too easy.  Our first layover was in Nashville.  Since we had a long wait we were excited to be in a place with live music.  It kept Jake and I entertained for nearly the entire time.  One musician loved Jake's enthusiasm for music so much that he dedicated a song to him and gave him a CD...a CD that was promptly thrown away after a few minutes of listening.  (The lesson learned: just because someone can do decent covers does not mean that have any talent for original songwriting).

We headed to our gate with plenty of time to spare.  Jake did get a little restless waiting and after taking off his shoes and socks, ran around a little and attempted to get everyone's attention and smiles.  He was pretty successful and I was only mildly embarrassed.

By the time we lined up to board, I was feeling very good about how our travels were going.  That is until I heard, "Jillian Orr, Jacob Orr this is your last call for boarding at gate C20."  C20 was of course the opposite side of the terminal.  Somehow in my rush to get Jake fed I hadn't noticed that Southwest had two flights heading to California within minutes of one another and I obviously had seen the wrong one.  Seriously, after a 3 hour layover we were going to miss our flight?  I grabbed Jacob and threw him on one hip and attempted to evenly disburse the weight of our three carry-ons around my body.  I had no choice but to make a run for it if we were going to have any chance of getting to the gate in time.  "Baby, I need you to hold on tight to Mommy," and with that we were off.  Somewhere in this decision making I had forgotten that I was 20 some odd weeks pregnant and that I haven't run in months, but there was no way we were missing this flight and hearing our names once again over the load speaker made me run even harder.  Like a scene from a movie just as our gate is coming into view, I saw a flight attendant closing the door.  Without thinking I start yelling from 50 yards away, "Wait!!! Wait!!  Jillian Orr and Jacob Orr are here!"  My throat was on fire, my legs were like lead, and I could feel my eyes begin to brim with tears.  I should have been embarrassed by the scene I was causing, but the thought of missing our flights and having to explain myself in order to board the next one was more than I could bare.  Then out of nowhere the pilot showed up.  "It's okay," he assured me as he unloaded me of my baggage, "We haven't even started the safety speech."  We found our seat and the rest of the trip went smoothly.  Better than smoothly actually.  Exausted from a late night (he was too excited to sleep), an early morning (he did not go back to sleep after being put in the car at 5am), and a day of traveling, Jake was asleep 10 minutes into the flight

...and he stayed asleep when the plane landed in Colorado...when people got off the plane...when new people got on the plane...when the plane took off again...

and through all but the last 30 minutes of our flight.  I think the people around us thought that I had drugged him.  My only real mistake, however, was that while I had bags of things to keep Jake entertained, I brought nothing for myself.
Without any other craziness we landed in Sacramento and were met by a very excited Ama and Tio Frankie.  They were a little taken aback by what a big boy Jake has become over the last 5 and half months, but he didn't hesitate running to them and giving them both long tight squeezes.  And so our trip began...