What happens when you take an active 17 month old on a plane well past her bedtime?

Day 78:

Yeah, there were moments on that flight I wanted to kill Doug Tomlinson, but he was 2 rows in front of me.  Luckily for him, Kora eventually fell asleep and my anger subsided or my ADHD prevented me from holding a grudge. Either way, he wormed his way off the hook.

The story of us taking a vacation started a year ago when Air Asia was running a really good sale. We purchased tickets a whole year in advance and got an awesome deal.  We booked the hotel last December when we had Christmas money from family (so thanks grandparents...this trip's on YOU!)  When you get a crazy good deal on plane tickets, you have limited options on when to fly and it worked out that we booked for a 10:45 pm flight.  Which, in theory should mean the kids will sleep, and eventually they did, but the first 30 minutes of that flight were rough, not to mention the hour at the airport where Kora ran around like a wild woman. Thankfully Doug chased her for most of that.

I guess, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.  Since our flight was late in the day, it was a weird Monday. Kruu Jeab came for language study in the morning. We went out for lunch and to our foundation office to pick up our 1 year visa.  So thankful to have that!  It means we get to be here another year, not in Phuket, but in Thailand. :)

He's a cowboy, but not the ugly orange guy with the gallon hat. (O-S-who?)

Cars!

She is just so sassy, independent, and what's a nice word for stubborn....persistent.  She HAD to feed herself.

Kees loves chicken and rice!

Yummy!

He's the last one eating.  This is not news.

Love her smiley face!

This is where we ate, in case you're ever in town and wanted to know. ;)

Accidental "selfie", "selfie" is what the kids are saying these days when you take a picture of yourself. I heard Amanda Hemperly say it last week and now I keep seeing it on Facebook. (P.S. Did anyone notice my mom's comment on my blog yesterday about giving her a "shout out"...how does SHE know hip slang words???

I can stay until this date!  Notice I slipped my fabulous finger nail in there, I'm still proving a point to Doug Tomlinson.

Our new friend Caleb drove us to the airport.  It was really nice, and I was a little shy to even ask since we haven't known them very long. But when you say hello and good bye as often as we have, some of the normal social customs go out the window.  Hopefully they won't think we're weird.  And guess what, we accidentally left a carry on suitcase in his car and he had to come back to the airport. As if I didn't already feel bad about asking him to drive us.  As soon as we get back I'll have to think of a way to pay them back. ;)

Yep, we're missing the gray carry on.

While we waited on Daddy to come back.   This was after she ran off, usually when she doesn't get her way, her first act of defiance is to remove her headband, but maybe it was a little tight considering you can see exactly where it was. Whoops.

While Doug went out to meet Caleb and grab our neglected bag, I wrangled the kids. Well mostly Kora. She ran off and I had to chase her down. The whole time we were waiting she was running around, trying to talk to people, and she became very obsessed with the water fountain.

Doug coaxing Kora away from the water fountain (for the 15th time), my mom exaggerates by saying "17", I use 15, it improves with each generation, maybe my great great grand daughter won't exaggerate at all.

I filled my cup with water 4 times. Kees helped me drink it and we ate all our plane snacks in the waiting area, which came back to haunt us when they provided no snack and we both thought we might not survive the two hour journey.

I'm tired, can you tell?

I *thought* she'd sleep the whole flight. I *thought* she'd fall asleep before we even took off. I *thought* wrong.  Keep in mind, ninety nine percent of the airport population LOVED her. And the one person who didn't ended up sitting next to me on the flight. And Kora kept insisting she needed to climb over onto this person's lap.  It was awkward and embarrassing to say the least.  The three ladies in front of us loved her and they wanted to play with her, but it was like she sensed the person sitting next to me didn't like her and she wanted to win them over.  (I can't rightly say if it was a man or a woman, so excuse my lack of specificity.)  She did finally go to sleep and other than having two numb tingly legs when we landed, I survived.  But I am insisting that Doug arrange to sit NEXT to us next time, so when Kora feels the urge to climb all over the place it won't be onto a reluctant stranger's lap.

Don't let her fool you.

Sleepin babies.

We had a hiccup with our ride to our hotel and I may have been a smidge stubborn about the price the drivers were asking for. We had tried to arrange a ride with our hotel, but somehow the wires got crossed and no one was available to pick us up. Also, that late at night, transportation options are slim. We finally agreed on a price and got to our hotel around 2 am.  The kids looked around a bit and then we went to sleep.

Kora's first two orders of business in any hotel room: use the phone and find the tiny pencil and try to write on something. Thankfully she only wrote on the pad this time, at the last place we stayed she wrote on the trash can.  Both of these items have been removed, so this won't continue to be an issue all week.

Before we ever left our house I started this blog so I wouldn't forget and addition to my good word from the previous day, so here it is:

{Okay, as I was posting yesterday's post about the crazy cake.  I realized I didn't take any pictures of the cake. But that's the funny thing, it tasted completely off, but the cocoa did not inhibit the baking of the cake.  It looked just fine, it looked delicious.  And that's when it hit me. Sometimes the reason we don't care about those "issues" in our life is because no one will ever know about them unless they actually taste the cake or get to know you on a deeper level. So we should care about our substance and character regardless of who is watching.  We should be seeking to please God and no one else.  It's all about HIM after all.}