Trent and I had the privilege of going back to my home of Minnesota over the holidays.  This is where the majority of my family lives, and all of my immediate family is there.  None of them had met Jedidiah yet, except through Skype.  We were really looking forward to this break, not only to travel and spend time with my family, but also for me to have Trent home for two weeks!  (Yay for Christmas break!)

We left on Sunday the 20th, EARLY in the morning.  Our flight wasn’t until 6:00am but we wanted to make sure we left with plenty of time since flying over the holidays can be unpredictable.  Our aim was to be at the airport by 4:30, which meant that we needed to be at Trent’s mom and dad’s (who were driving us to the airport) by 4:00, which meant we needed to leave our house by 3:30am, which meant that I needed to get up to feed the little man around 2:45 so that we would still have time to pack our last minute items.  Yikes.

Anyways, we did all of the above things and Trent’s parents drove us to the airport.  They dropped us off and we hugged goodbye.  I put Jedi in the sling and then our journey began- our first time flying with a baby (a 6 week old)!  It was a good thing that we arrived early- the lines were getting long and even with plenty of time, we only had a short time to wait once we finally made it to our gate.  We decided not to bring Jedi’s car seat, since my sister is close to having a baby and she had one in Minnesota for us to use.

We ended up flying through Houston (I don’t think we’ve ever had a direct flight right to Minneapolis), and then on to Minneapolis St. Paul.  It’s a short flight from San Antonio to Houston- only about 40 minutes.  Thankfully, he slept for this short flight.  I nursed him on takeoff and he fell right asleep (nursing during takeoff and landing is supposed to help their sensitive ears so they’re not in too much pain).

We had a three hour layover in Houston, so we ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and apples we’d brought along and then found our gate and chilled out.  Baby boy was awake for a little bit, and chilled with daddy.

We decided that it would be wise to eat a little something before our 3 hour flight to MSP, so I went off and found us an egg and sausage bagel that we could share.  It was delicious and just right to hold us over.  Eventually we boarded our second flight and were on our way to the cold, barren wilderness that is Minnesota in the winter time!

Jedidiah did equally well during the second flight.  He slept the entire time!!!  Even momma got a little cat nap.  Thank you Jesus!

Geesh, thanks Trent… not my best look

Actually, there were tons of babies on that flight and there wasn’t a peep out of any of them.  Initially we felt bad for the guy wedged in the window seat in our row because there was our baby in his row, and then another baby a few rows up, another one a few rows back… there was the potential for this to be a LOOOONG flight, but when we got up to leave, we saw that his jacket was advertising a school for the deaf, so maybe he wouldn’t have cared anyways!

When we arrived in Minnesota, both of my parents were waiting at our gate.  This is pretty rare since the 9/11 security changes, but both of my parents work in the airport, so they were able to meet us.

It was really cool to watch their reaction to their grandbaby.  They were immediately so in love.

We popped into the bathroom to change him quick and then he got passed between my parents for a while.  We were starving again after our flight so we headed to TGI Fridays for a late lunch (I’ll write another post about this later) before heading home where my entire family was waiting to meet the little man (I’ll also write another post about this).  It was a long day (I’d been up since a little before 3am) but a very special one for us and for our little Jedi.

The return trip:

I was a little more concerned about this part of our trip since we didn’t leave until 10:45 am.  The trip to Minnesota had primarily happened in the morning when he usually sleeps anyways; this time it would be in the afternoon… would he still sleep during the flights?  I hoped so!  When we got to the airport, we swung by my dad’s work to say goodbye before we headed to our gate.

This time the first flight was the long one, and this time I was extremely thankful that we ended up flying through Houston, as there had been some extreme winter storms and even tornadoes that had just torn through the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  In fact, it was snowing in Minnesota when we left and our departure was delayed a bit due to the weather and the need for de-icing.

Minnesota snow on our way to the airport

Anyways, the little man was amazing- he slept for most of this flight in the sling with mommy.

We had another longer layover in Houston- nearly four hours this time.  We sat down and ate a late lunch and then hung out at our gate for a while.  Daddy walked him around and Jedidiah LOVED looking at the lights.  He would lean his head back and just stare, mouth open, at all the lights.  It was so cute to watch.  He, of course, had many admirers as we burned the time.

Finally, it was time to go home.  Jedidiah nursed again on takeoff but stayed awake for the majority of this short flight.  But he was content to just hang out with mommy and daddy.  In fact, daddy was all sorts of entertaining and he got lots of smiles from baby boy.

Trent’s parents were anxiously waiting for us upon our return.  They also missed their little bubba while we were gone.  What a great traveler our little Jedi was!  We’re so proud of our little man.