1st of Many Travels by Plane with Our Son

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Thinking back to last Fall, I remember when my cousin told me they were going to get married on 5/17/14. I knew I was pregnant at the time but hadn't shared the news with family yet. Our Due/Guess date was 4/11/14 and I knew if we went late that flying back for the wedding would be pushing it as many airlines want newborns to be 2 weeks old to fly. As a First Time Mom(FTM) so many thoughts went racing through my mind: will the baby get sick from being enclosed in the airplane for 4 hours, will the baby scream the entire 4 hour flight, what will we have to pack and are we crazy to travel 2,000 miles with a newborn? Sure it would be wonderful to introduce our son or daughter, as we didn't find out the gender of our unborn child, to my Family and Friends in IL but what were we getting ourselves into.



Looking back at all this worry now, a year later, it was simply pregnancy hormones raging and a lot of anxiety that was causing too many questions racing through my mind. I am thankful that we booked the trip and went back to IL for a planned 8 days which then turned into 9 days due to tornadoes in Denver, CO.



Quick over of our trip to IL and travel snafus:


• Learned to book Nonstop flights after being stuck 4 hours on our stop in Denver as Midway & O'Hare were shutdown do to a Control Tower fire
• Bennett flew great as he ate during takeoff and landing and slept due to the hum of the plane
• Had an amazing time introducing Bennett to my Friends & Family in IL at the Meet & Greet my Parents hosted for us
• Had a 4 Generational photo taken with my Mother, Grandmother & Bennett (sad not to have the 5 Generational photo that my Sister has with her Son)
• Loved experiencing The Farm & The City (Chicago) with Bennett
• Enjoyed my cousin's wedding as the rain stopped for the ceremony and the sun came out
• Was stranded at Midway airport on our way out as Denver (DAMN Denver Airport) had 2 tornadoes touchdown at the airport, rerouted to Phoenix for that flight to be cancelled. 1st time in ALL of our travels to leave the airport and return the next day to fly out. Thank Goodness for my college roommate to live nearby who hosted the 3 of us for another night in their home.
• Wore Bennett around Chicago with our backpacks and luggage, took all forms of public transit with him

Many friends, family and our society say "Once you have kids you won't travel as much". When we lived in China and traveled to 17 countries we would see and visit with many European, Aussies, Kiwis & Canadians to learn that you can travel, it is just different.

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Photos

1st Plane Ride
1 day shy of 6 weeks old

4 Generations
87, 62, 33 and 6 weeks old

Fellow TEFL Teacher we met in 2009 in Shenzhen
now she lives in Madison, WI and made the drive to meet Bennett

Meet & Greet Bennett & Baby Mosher due June 3rd
My Sister in Law, Baby Mosher hiding behind the cake, Bennett & I

Mr & Mrs
Main reason we fly to IL

Graduation Day @ University of Illinois
Lin is from Longgang, the district we lived in Shenzhen 2009-2010

Former Coworkers at ERAC in San Diego
we had boys who are 5 weeks apart