Amazing how quickly three weeks with your children fly by. The original plan until about 5:00 on Saturday was for their mother to fly out on Sunday and fly back with them on the redeye, but, the planes were packed (such is the randomness of flying standby as a non-revenue passenger), so she called me while we were on the way back from the Arroyo Pool and asked if I could send them to ATL on the 11:50 flight yesterday morning, where, assuming they got on the flight here in Sacramento, she would meet them and take them on to BDL (the airport abbreviation for Hartford, CT). They would fly as unacccompanied minors; they'd done this before on a short flight from Savannah to Atlanta but SMF to ATL is a four hour haul (although I honestly can't see that much of a difference between a 40 minute vs. 4 hour flight other than its likely one child or the other will need to go to the bathroom perhaps. Airport mugshot...)
Both of them have already flown multiples of the times that I've flown in my life going places with their mother (mostly to Savannah) so they are very experienced travelers and know how to behave on an airplane (as well as in an airport). This, however, would be my first time placing the children unaccompanied on the plane by me, and I was very nervous about it... not actually them getting on the plane - I mean, hey, once they're on, the plane buttons up, and flies off, they're not going anywhere LOL but still, I'm their Dad, and I worry about what I can't control when I'm not with them.
I must say the Delta counter staff at the main counter and at the gate made it all very easy. Probably what was making me jumpier during the wait - to see if they would actually get on, and they don't know if they'll actually get seats until about 20 minutes before the flight's scheduled leave time - was having my iPhone 4 (yes, I jumped off the cliff with millions of other lemmings, and I *like* my iPhone very very much) go off about every four to five minutes with updates from the Ex on the seat status. Now, the actual calls aren't the issue so much but in my own twisted sense of humor I used the "Alarm" sound for her cell number and that damn sound will make you jump out of your seat sometimes.
After being a Bad American Parent and feeding them Burger King (hey, they're on vacation, they love Burger King, and they really don't go out to eat that often at home), we killed some time by walking down to the opposite end of Terminal A - where Southwest has its gates - in the 3+ years I've lived here, I've never been to that part of Terminal A, and just as we get to the end, the phone goes off, and Meredith says in a dramatic voice "Mom!" I about dropped the phone laughing, but it was her announcing that they were on the standby list and would get their seat passes.
(As you can see in the picture above and the one below, Meredith got both of her pairs of glasses on Thursday and has been a good girl and not complained too much about having to wear them... except this morning she apparently forgot to put them on when she got out of bed and they were out and about doing errands (I talked to them around lunchtime today). I reminded her and The Ex that if you don't want her to have that wandering eye become permanent, she needs to keep the glasses on. Also, don't you think the above picture makes excellent blackmail material for when Davis is a teen (and I think he's started puberty; he's got a few zits now and its time for the loofah and the Phisoderm, I guess) - "Look, Davis made bead necklaces!").
Gave 'em a big hug good bye at the gate, and I wasn't nearly as teary-eyed as I was last summer seeing them off. Perhaps not seeing them in their mother's clutches helped LOL - but they're so much more grown up than last year. I don't see any reason in future trips for her to accompany them beyond the connecting airport to bring them out.
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