We are here in Lubbock this weekend for the UT/Texas Tech game and to visit Popo (my Dad) and Nana for a long weekend. Cooper and I left Dallas Thursday morning with ALL the gear we needed for a 5 day trip. Fortunately, Cooper has the luggage we needed. When he was about 6 months, I bought him the largest rolling duffel bag I could find and a smaller matching bag for all his baby paraphernalia that had to be packed for trips to the lake or wherever. I was able to pack all of me and all of him into both bags plus I had his backpack/diaper bag as well. Add to that his car seat and his stroller and we were off. Oh yeah, did I mention that he and I were traveling alone?!!? Yes, all that and just the two of us. Luckily, Southwest doesn't charge to check bags and you can check them at the curb... also for no charge. So, Danny got us up there and checked and then he left me there with Cooper, stroller, backpack, and medium sized carry-on. I was truly afraid of how all this would go. But Cooper was a dream and we had no problem getting it all on and off the plane. (Thanks to Popo meeting us at baggage claim!)


Of course we arrived an hour early for our flight, which I had timed to get us into Lubbock around lunch time so we could get off the plane, eat, and put Cooper for a nap; reasonably close to normal times. However, our plane was delayed and hour! Augh! Luckily, Cooper has recently discovered airplanes and is fascinated by them. He points them out anytime there is one overhead; even when it is dark and you can just see lights. Sometimes at night we can hear planes gearing up at Love Field. He will stop what he is doing, look at me, point at the sky, and whisper "plane!" (or at least his Cooper word for it). So to kill time, we walked around the terminal until we found some windows looking out at the active run way and watched the planes take of and land.

Lots of things seemed to be working in our favor that day. The flight was not full, so I snagged a window and put Cooper in the middle seat in an effort to deter anyone who might be brave enough to sit by a baby just to be close to the front of the plane. He was riding in my lap because he can do that for free until he is two, so the extra seat next to us really came in handy. I actually did keep him in my lap the whole time. The flight was only about 45 minutes in the air and we ate snacks and played the whole time. He started getting grumpy and wanting to move around once we started our descent into Lubbock. So, I had to wrestle him a bit and distract him more to keep the screaming to a minimum. But all-in-all, I think that it was a rousing success.

Since we actually got to Lubbock late, we claimed baggage and were finally in Popo's truck at 1:30, so there was no time for lunch. Cooper was literally out in less than 2 miles from the airport. We are coming home on Monday, this time with Daddy, so I am expecting it all to go even better.

Well, off to bed now. I have more fun things to blog about in the next day or so. Including Halloween and the gaggle of geese that stalked us at the park today. But I thought I would sign off with a bug HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aunt Heather!! Hope it was a good one!