I've rarely been home for Easter since I was in high school, but the pace of the weekend seemed as if it were making up for lost time. We got in dinner at my brother's apartment where we met his lovely girlfriend and her warm and crazy family, we watched a Silly String fight unfold between my step-niece and -nephew, we ran with the kids around the yard as they hunted for Easter eggs, we let Oliver gorge himself on chocolate until his lips and the perimeter of his mouth was smeared with brown, we enjoyed the attention our children attracted from every single little old lady who lived in my grandmother's retirement home where we were staying. By the time we got home on Easter Monday, I wanted a nap.
It was great to spend time with my family, but the visit was not without some effort given that we had to get our growing family on a plane and fly from Minnesota to Philadelphia. It wasn't the flight itself that was the difficult part, it was transporting our stuff. We packed three large suitcases, three carry-ons, a stroller and two car seats - for a four-day trip. I felt ridiculous when I finally had everything packed up the night before and realized how much we were bringing. I'm sure we turned some heads at the airport with Chris carrying a backpack and pushing Oliver's stroller with his car seat draped over the back while pulling large suitcase #1 behind him, and me with Soren strapped to my front in the Ergo, carrying a backpack and pushing large suitcase #2 and pulling large suitcase #3 behind me. I saw no way to avoid the amount of luggage. We couldn't not bring the car seats (at least we checked them this time) and then there's all the gear and a gazillion changes of clothes kids need. Our carry-ons duplicated, just on a smaller scale, the contents we'd packed in the suitcases - extra change of clothes, diapers, wipes, toys, books, snacks and so on - because you have to be prepared for anything once you're confined to your seats on a plane. The only thing low-profile about our packing was that the only stroller we brought was an umbrella stroller instead of the double stroller I sometimes refer to as "the tank."
After everyone and everything made it safely to the airport, we boarded a 7:15 a.m. flight. While it was painful to get up so early, the morning flight was perfect timing for the kids. We made the slightly-over-two-hour flight to Philadelphia before Oliver's nap time, which meant he was actually in a great mood the whole flight. We set him up with his coloring books and an iPad loaded with Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder movies and he was happy. Soren has reached the point where he needs to nap in his crib, so it was a struggle for him to fall asleep in my arms, and he fussed a lot from the time we pulled away from the gate to take-off. About a minute after take-off though, his eyelids started drooping and 30 seconds later he was out.
We almost made it to our final destination without one mishap or meltdown when we hit traffic. At 11:30 a.m. on a Friday. With two suddenly overtired and hungry kids screaming in the backseat. And a Garmin that was determined to detour us through the "real" side of Philadelphia. Our luck turned around when we ended up driving through the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University campuses and found a parking spot behind a row of gourmet food trucks and across the street from a park. We ended up eating some of the best food of our trip and Oliver got to run around on a gorgeous sunny spring day. It was an adventure, but the experience did make me worried about ever attempting to travel by myself with the kids or even how we'd travel with a third kid.
The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind time with extended family, some of whom were meeting Soren for the first time. One of the most precious memories for me was watching my grandmother hold her newest great-grandson for the first time. She'd brought him a book and he sat on her lap and looked intently at the pictures as she read to him. Then he leaned in and tried to eat the book.
Another favorite moment was watching my grandmother play with Oliver on the playground we went to the next morning. She "drove" the bus with him, pushed him on the swings, played hide and seek and, ever the nervous type, helped spot him as he climbed on the play equipment.
After commenting on how many neat improvements they'd made to the playground over the years, (she used to bring me to this playground when I was little) she examined a spiral ladder and announced she thought it'd be fun to climb. I encouraged her to go for it. "Nah," she said. "Maybe if no one was around," she finished with a bashful smile.
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