Austin, Texas, USA

We are here in Austin, Texas after a loooooong day of traveling yesterday. I can't believe how exhausting a day it was, but I must say the girls were amazing and really held together despite the fact that their parents could barely hold it together. We left our house around quarter to eight in the morning to walk to the commuter rail station near our house. We had the brilliant idea that we would take public transportation to the airport to avoid paying to park our car there for 6 days. However, I have to wonder just a little if it might have been worth the money to make our lives a lot easier... I'm sure we were quite the sight, Ethan and I, pushing the girls in the double stroller with a bag in the storage area underneath the seats and a garment bag draped over the stroller hood, pulling two suitcases along, carrying the diaper bag (packed - stuffed - to capacity), and trying to hold a Starbucks coffee in one free hand (not to mention my purse around my shoulder.) We managed to make it work and it helped to have the girls in the stroller, although the getting on and off of the various public transportation vehicles was a bit trickier, since we had to get the girls OUT of the stroller to fold it up and carry that on along with all the bags, and the children. At least we got our workout in for the day, and as awkward and bumbling as we must have seemed, we did manage to get both on and off the commuter rail, navigated our way through South Station, got on and off the Silver Line bus, then got to our terminal at Logan. Whew! Julia had a grand old time on both the train and the bus, and she even composed a new song while we rode the bus, and decided to sing it at full volume over and over and over and over as we rode the bus to the airport. I took a video of her singing it today so that you can hear what a crammed, packed bus full of commuters got to hear for about 20 minutes straight:



Our flight out of Boston was delayed, which is a good thing since there was a reasonable chance we weren't even going to make the flight at its original time. Julia was thrilled about riding on the plane, and as we went up into the air, she turned to Ethan gleefully and exclaimed, "Daddy! If a plane was trying to fly through a teeny tiny little hole, IT WOULDN'T FIT!" I really couldn't have asked for better behavior from the girls on the plane. Here's a photo montage to show you how they occupied themselves:



In this last picture Julia is watching Sleeping Beauty, which I assumed would keep her quiet for an hour + and give me a chance to read my book, but unfortunately, I was wrong. Despite the fact that she has watched the movie probably a million times, and can recite all the picking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel stuff, she decided to ask me a question about once per second. "Mama, why are they bringing Sleeping Beauty back to the castle? Mama, why is Sleeping Beauty sad? Mama, why's she crying? Mama, why did they say 'let's give her a minute?" Etc. However, I can't complain, because question-asking is MUCH preferred to whining, being bored, getting into mischief, or any of the various other difficulties I could have encountered with a 3-year-old on the plane. As the flight came to an end, Julia made up a new song, the lyrics of which were, "I have a trophy, I have a trophy!" Like her schoolbuses song, this one went on ad infinitum, but hey, at least she can carry a tune so the "audience" could have been worse off!

We got to Chicago around 1pm and our 2:20 flight was delayed until 3:15. Then delayed again until 4:35. Julia and I decided to take a walk through the airport to break up the tedium. We passed by a clothing shop with headless mannequins ("Hey, Mom, look, losers!") The flight was then delayed until 4:53. Around 5:30, we finally took off for Austin. The girls were exhausted, it was nearing bedtime as the flight progressed, but they really held up well considering. Julia decided to dazzle the people on board with a very loud rendition of "Once Upon a Dream." Madeleine started to fall apart near the end of the flight, and I wondered if she needed a diaper change, but since the fasten-seatbelts sign was on, I tried to change her across my lap. As soon as she got in that position, she assumed I was going to nurse her, then got awfully angry when that wasn't the case. In fact, she yelled out, "Maaaa-meeeee! Maaaa-maaaa!" Now, I'm not delusional enough to think my 7-month-old really spoke my name, but let me tell you, hearing that was enough for me to break down and nurse her after the diaper change, even though it wasn't time.

When we landed and were waiting to get off the plane, Julia exclaimed loudly, "Mommy, are we in Austin, Texas, USA?" That got a chuckle from many passengers around us, so she then said, "Mommy, I call it Austin, Texas, USA. What do YOU call it? Daddy, I call it Austin, Texas, USA. What do YOU like to call it?"

At long last we got to our hotel, got the girls to bed, and woke up today ready to start our vacation. We went out for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants, Magnolia Cafe, where Julia enjoyed some pancakes and bacon and got to draw on her place mat. She drew "a mean, mean guy with mysterious eyes":



Stay tuned for more Austin, Texas, USA updates as we enjoy our vacation...