Kwame, Mars and I went to visit Kwame’s mom in Nevada for Thanksgiving. We got there Sunday and just got back tonight. It was Mars’ first vacation and his first time on an airplane! Of course, like most airport experiences, it was stressful but we made it home safely.

We got up at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday to make our 6 a.m. flight. We got to the airport at about 4:30 so we would have plenty of time to get checked in and to check our bags. However, the line to check bags was so long we made it about half way through the line by the time our flight started boarding. We rushed through security to try and make our flight and we did make it! But once we got on the plane and got seated the flight attendant informed me that I left my purse at security. I had my medications and my wallet and keys in there so I had to go back for it. They wouldn’t hold the flight for me even though I made it back only seconds after they closed the gate. Fortunately Southwest was super helpful with getting us all on a new flight just a few minutes later. On this new flight we had a layover in Denver which ended up being best because we were traveling with Mars. We ended up taking two shorter flights instead of one long flight. Mars did so well. He slept through most of both flights and only got the tiniest bit fussy when we were descending, probably because of the pressure change. So we land and Kwame’s mom picks us up from the airport, but she had been waiting for two hours because we forgot about taking time zones into consideration with the itinerary... Vegas is two hours behind Kansas City!!!

We soon forgot about all of the stress of the airport because we had such a good time with family. Mars met his cousins and his aunts for the first time. Mars has a cousin, Nia, who is only a week older than him. Mars did not do to well in the high altitude and spent a lot of the time fussing. He also didn’t sleep well and his schedule was off because of the time difference.

Getting back wasn’t quite as stressful as getting there but Mars developed a cold while we were in the dry air and high altitude. Poor thing was coughing and sneezing the whole ride back. He did fine on the one longer flight! We did give him some Tylenol before we boarded which seemed to help his fussiness. He just wanted to get home!