Tuesday, March 10th, Day Two

As the last post eluded, Tuesday morning came very early. We were all excited, but I was just ready to be there! I don't know why, but I am a bit of a tense flyer. Mainly just checking our luggage, getting our boarding passes, getting through security, being on time. All of those things make me nervous. Once we get to the gate and are waiting to board, I'm good.

Well, this flying experience was no different, and I would like to say that I had every reason to be uneasy. You see, my family doesn't fly very often. I usually fly a few times a year, and mostly know the routine. So you can imagine, that all the details of getting to the airport, what terminal, boarding passes, etc, fell on me. Remember, I was flying with my mom & dad, Kristy, Ashlyn (7) and Cole (20months).

So at 8am we caught the shuttle from the hotel to catch our 10am flight. You would have been embarrassed to see the amount of luggage we were bringing (sorry, :( no picture). We get to the airport, go to check our luggage, only to find out that 2 of the 5 bags we were checking were too heavy. So, we get out of line, go use the helpful extra scale that the airport has set up for people like us, so that we can redistribute our belongings and not have to pay $50 per bag that is over 50 lbs. After much distribution, sweat, feeling like I might throw up because I hate this, and precious time, we manage to get all of our luggage to exactly 50lbs.

So, luggage is checked. Now I'm telling the lady that we have a stroller and a car seat to check. She tells me that you can only check one of those items for free per infant. I told her that's not what it said online. We go back and forth, back and forth, I was frustrated, but finally said whatever, that we would pay $25 for the second item. The unfortunate thing was that I forgot that we were going to take the stroller with us to the gate and just gate check it, so the whole argument was void, I looked stupid, and they refunded us our money.



Next stop: security.

Us on the airport train thing to take us to the right terminal.

Ashlyn thought this was pretty cool.

My dad insisted I take this picture. We saw this on our way to our gate.

Things went smoothly through security, thankfully, since checking in had taken so long. We get to our gate just in time to go to the bathroom, grab some food and magazines and then begin boarding. Once we boarded we had a 30 minute delay for some computer problems on the plane. Thankfully it did only talk 30 minutes, but still seemed long, having to entertain a 20 month old in a confined space.

The flight was pretty uneventful. Cole slept part of it. I entertained Ashlyn. We had lots of extra seats around is so the kids could spread out a little bit.

We were soooo excited to land in San Juan. Got all of our luggage, waited for a shuttle to take us to the rental car place. My dad, being the car salesman that he is, talked the guy into a free upgrade (which was good because there was NO WAY all of our luggage was going to fit in a midsized sedan), and we managed to fit all of our stuff plus us in the minivan.

We got checked into the MAGNIFICENT hotel!!! Could not believe how nice the lobby was. Everyone was so nice, helping us get settled. Yes, we felt like kings and queens (hey, I told you, my family doesn't travel often, and this place was NICE)!

Once we were settled in, it was decided that my mom, dad & I would venture to K-mart. I won't give you the details, but just know, it was far away, the GPS on my phone gave us wack directions, we finally ended up asking a cop and having him escort us there. Mind you, we were all exhausted and had no business worrying with a grocery trip late that night after a long travel day, but this is what we did.

The reason we had wanted to go that night was because we needed some perishable items that we had wanted to put in the welcome bags for all the guests coming to the wedding. When we got back Kelly & Brandon were back from dinner, so we all began stuffing welcome bags and getting things as ready as possible.

I'm not sure what time it was when we got to bed, but it was late. My mom, Kelly, Kristy, Ashlyn, Cole & I were all in one room. My dad & Brandon in another.

All in all, it was a long first day in Puerto Rico! We were ready for some lounging by the pool! You'll have to tune in for Day 3 to see if I got to finally chill with a virgin drink at the beach!

Super Duper: headed to Temple for Bradley's 1st birthday party
Super Pooper: behind in school work :(