33 months 5 days

MORE PICTURES TO COME

Day 1008. Last night I went to bed before midnight. We had pretty much everything ready for our departure in the morning. Once in bed, it still took me a while to fall asleep, with stuff going through my mind. In the middle of the night I woke up with Emmy next to me. I asked Randy to take him to his bed, and it worked out. In the morning the alarm woke us at 7 am. Emmy was the first one up, saying that he was not crying because he was not startled or scared. Tammy also came running. I gave them fruit and bread, while Randy was making his oatmeal, and we sat down to eat. They didn’t eat very much. They wanted to get cleaned up and dressed, and that’s what we did.

Randy started taking our stuff to the building entrance. Tammy and Emmy were eager to get going and sitting by the door waiting to leave. Our friend and driver came early, and Randy put our three car seats into the van. He also folded the stroller and put it in. Then we all left the apartment. The kids were eagerly walking to the building entrance. Emmy sat on his carry-on dog going down the ramp, while Tammy was pulling hers. We put the kids into the van, me between Emmy and Tammy, and Sammy in the back with Randy. It was going on 9 am, when we drove off to go to the airport

There was a lot of traffic, so we lost some time, but I’d made sure we had plenty of time. Everyone was having a good time in the car. The airport has two main terminals, and Air France had moved to Terminal 3 during the pandemic. I had looked up whether they were still there, and they were, and so we parked there. We got all our stuff out and put Sammy into the stroller. We said good-bye to our friend and made our way inside the airport. I did not see the Air France counter, and as there was an information booth, I asked them there. I was told that Air France had moved back to Terminal 1 that had reopened after its renovation. Great! And so we had to start walking to the other terminal. I went ahead with Sammy, while Tammy and Emmy were following me, and Randy came last, encouraging them to go on. It was a long walk, and they started to say that they were getting tired, but by then we had reached the counter that was still in the same place as before. And there was no line, as it was still early, just one couple was before us. We were waiting for our turn, with Tammy and Emmy running around. When it was our turn, I asked whether we could take the stroller all the way to the plane and then check it through to Cancun, since we had so little time in Paris. No problem at all. We checked our two suitcases in, and left to walk to security.

That was a new part of the terminal. They had completely redone the area, putting security right in the beginning. There was a special entrance for strollers that we took, but it was still tricky. You had to scan your ticket, and then the doors opened, but only for a short time. I shoved the stroller through and then the doors were shut. I quickly put another boarding pass on the scanner and went through with one kid, while Randy took the other kid through. Then we continued walking, and walking, and walking. I myself had not eaten anything yet, and we still had plenty of time. We decided to keep going to get close to the gate and find a place to sit down and eat something. There was a big board there, but there was no specific gate for our plane yet. There was also a big restaurant, and we sat down by a table with four chairs. I left them there and went to get something, and ended up with scrambled eggs and bacon for everyone, and tea and coffee for the adults. I got forks for everyone, and so everyone could help themselves to the food, which they all did. We stayed there for quite some time. Randy left with Tammy and Emmy at some point to go change their diapers. Two changing rooms nearby were closed, so he had to find another one. When he came back, he saw in the distance a sign that said “Kids’ Corner”, and so we decided to go check it out. They had just put our gate number on the board, our gate being right there. We walked over to the Kids’ Corner and found a metal plane that you could climb into and slide out of. They were having so much fun. Emmy finally got to be a pilot and stayed in the pilot’s seat most of the time, while Tammy kept going down the slide. Sammy wanted to go inside as well. Randy ended up climbing inside himself to make it possible for Sammy to sit in the other pilot’s seat, and it was worth it, as much fun as he was having.

With 11:30 approaching we decided it was time to get going and walk to our gate. Tammy and Emmy sat on their dogs, so that Randy could pull them. We didn’t have far to go. I went all the way to the counter with the stroller to ask whether we were leaving it there or at the plane. It took a while before the lady was available, and then she told us that they were about to board families with children. And so I went to get Randy, and we all stood in the front of the line to wait for boarding. There was an older couple behind us we started talking with, thanks to our cute kids that smiled their way into their hearts. Then boarding started, and off we went. We were the first ones. Having reached the plane, I went inside with my carry-on and Tammy and Emmy, and we walked all the way to our seats. Randy had to take the stroller apart, and I guess I had not thought about how he would do that with no one to hold Sammy. And then a lady from the ground crew came up to me carrying Sammy. Randy came just a little later.

I had three seats with Tammy and Emmy to the left, while Randy and Sammy sat across the aisle. I got my phone out and let them watch Thomas, the train (a new discovery). That way they sat still in their seats watching, while everyone was boarding the plane. We had so little time in Paris that it was paramount for us to leave on time, but it was not meant to be. We left 15 minutes late, as they had to remove suitcases from people who had not made it through security. When we finally took off, the kids let me put their seats belt on, which is a big change from 5 months ago, when we traveled.

This is where my blog entry ends as I never had time to finish it.