I'm leaving on a jet plane

Captain Bryan hard at work

This is what he calls "Work"....looks like a good video game to me!

Ok..I better go find my seat and let the Captain get to flying...

Well, we made it to 3 years of wonderful marital bliss!! We decided that this year, so we could actually be together on our anniversary, that I would go to work with him. So, that is what I did. I went to work with him over the weekend and went on all of his flights with him. This was the 1st time anyone in our entire family has flown on a commercial flight with our favorite pilot at the controls. It was very fun. And to answer his never ending question of the weekend - No, I'm not tired of flying or airports yet. Not even close!! Here is a rundown of what we did:

Friday, I flew from Dallas to St. Louis. There I picked up his flight and we went to Dayton, Ohio, where we spent the night. He then had me walk 1 mile from the hotel for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Oh what a glorious walk. Those of you who know me - know that I don't exercise and walking isn't one of my favorite pasttimes. Plus, I had just walked 32 miles throughout airports. But, if we wanted to eat - that is what we had to do. We were staying at a Hampton Inn, and I soon discovered that not all Hampton's have changed over to the new "Cloud Nine" beds. If any of you plan on traveling to Dayton - and want to sleep - avoid this hotel. The bed was horrible, and neither of us slept well at all. So we woke up Saturday - and were exhausted. We spent the day in Dayton on Saturday - which was our anniversary. We had our anniv. lunch at Bob Evans Restaurant (cross between Owen's and a Denny's).

When we went to work that day - we flew from Dayton back to St. Louis - and then from St. Louis to Minneapolis/St. Paul. That is where we spent Saturday night. Once we finally got to our hotel (after a 45 minute wait on the shuttle...don't ask Bryan about it....he's still mad) we went to dinner at about 10pm. We had our romantic anniv dinner at - Denny's. When then had to go to bed - cause we had an early morning on Sunday.

Sunday - we got up and caught a shuttle to the airport at 8am, I had a 9:25 flight back to St. Louis. Bryan took me to the airport - even though his flight didn't leave until 1:35. I flew back to St. Louis - and then caught a 12:00 flight back to reality. Or, I could say back to Hellxas....man it's hot here!! When we left Minneapolis - it was 61 degrees. When I stepped out of the airport in Texas - it felt like an oven!! I could have done without that welcome back home.

Here are some of things I learned this weekend:

• Parents who take babies on airplanes should be offered Children's Nyquil by flight attendants....at no charge.
• Love Field really does hate American - and to prove it - they put their gates way out in the back 40...with no moving sidewalk.
• Getting to board the plane with the pilots - long before anyone else - is really cool.
• The ERJ has a really small cockpit.
• I fit in the First Officer's seat nicely.
• The First Officer does not appreciate being told to sit in the back so I can sit in his seat.
• Bryan's voice sounds different over the loud speaker of the airplane.
• Being first on the airplane is fun - you can hear what everyone says as they board ("oh my gosh...this is a small airplane." "why is there only 1 seat in those rows?" "I'd feel worse about the plane being so small if my seat weren't so good")
• Flying makes me have to pee.
• I don't like airplanes whose bathrooms are at the rear of the airplane - I feel like I'm going to fall out the tail end of the plane.
• I can accurately answer at least 1 question on the Mensa quiz.
• Bryan can get angry and forceful when he doesn't get his way - and rightfully so.
• The Hampton Inn's don't like Bryan.
• Spending our actual anniversary together was a wonderful gift.
• I'm the only person I know who can say that they ate in 2 different states on their anniversary (and neither were truck stops).

And most of all

• How absolutely proud I am of my husband - who made his dreams come true - and gets to do what he loves everyday. We should all be so lucky!

Also, something interesting (to me at least) - the entire weekend - everytime I was on the plane flying - I kept thinking about both of my grandmothers who have passed away. I can't explain why - but when I would look out the window into the clouds - I would think of them. I know the passengers near me thought I was crazy, a few times I did get teary-eyed. Maybe being up 30,000 feet made me feel closer to them - or maybe they were just trying in their little way to let me know they are happy and together, playing domino's in Heaven.