Flight to Utah

Ephriam packing

Our flight to Utah was one of those trips that every parent hopes for and I am sure so many parents have endured. It was miserable, but quite hilarious in retrospect. : ) We had 3 seats for my husband and I and our 2 kids (2 and a half and 1 and a half years old). Our youngest, Ephriam, is a lap child and we thought we would bring Johnny's upright car seat for him because of his wiggly stage and then have Johnny sit between Sam and me. Our scheduled flights were from Fairbanks to Seattle and then Seattle to Salt Lake City. Our flight left Fairbanks at 1:20am, February 15th. We thought this would be great because the kids would be so tired that they would sleep the whole way! Right?!?! Wrong! It was probably the most turbulent flight I have ever been on, which does not bother me too much. I even thought to myself, "This is really a rough ride. If I didn't have such a strong stomach, I would probably throw up." Then Johnny started complaining about how his "tummy" hurt. I thought to myself again, "I wonder if he feels like throwing up." Apparently I didn't voice that to Sam, but I thought it. The next thing you know, Johnny lost all of his snacks that we had fed him before boarding the plane. Luckily, everything landed right on the pillow that was on Sam's lap. 

Johnny all ready to go!

Epriam's Plane Ride Expression

Then came bed time. Ephriam would not sleep in the car seat, so we put Johnny in it and he finally went to sleep after about an hour into our flight and after throwing up. Ephriam, on the other hand, squealed and screamed and would not sit or lay still. We even created a bed of pillows, coats, and blankets for him on the floor. It was obvious that he was past the point of exhaustion. Every time he would somewhat fall asleep, the plane would shake so violently that he would then be wide awake again, screaming. Fortunately, they put all of the families in the back of the plane and next to each other. So when Ephriam stopped screaming, one of the children behind us began. It really was beautiful how coordinated they were in trading off on screaming. Ephriam finally fell asleep the last half hour of the flight and so did we. We then switched planes in Seattle and there was not chance of us getting any sleep on our next flight because of the daylight. I know maybe I should have felt bad about my child screaming, but I didn't. I figured that everyone endures a horrible flight at least once, whether you are the one experiencing it or your child is causing it. In our case, it was both.