Robertson, Party of FOUR!: May 2013

Boone and I took our first solo trip back to the states. Jeff was gracious enough to let us head back "home" to see friends and family while he stayed back in frosty Canada and worked away. He's such a good guy. I don't tell him nearly enough, and this is just another example of how selfless and sweet he is. Until... I realized that he was sending me into the lion's den... or a solo flight with Boone. We've traveled with Boone before, but we were both there to tag-team the process and help each other out. Also, Boone was only three months old during his first travels, so he mostly just nursed and slept on the flights.

Now, as I hurried around packing up for our trip, I looked at my then seven-month-old. His arms and legs looked like a windmill furiously blowing in the wind. He was moving so much and so curious with everything in his world (not to mention wanting to chomp on anything and everything he sees.) So, I knew that my peaceful trip from last December would not be repeated this time! The icing on the cake this trip was that little Boone and I had to fly through Dallas-Fort Worth airport... a 3 and a half hour flight from Calgary... I mean it's not flying across the ocean or anything, but in my book, that's a long flight.

The morning of our flight from Calgary got off to a bit of a rushed start. We got to the airport with plenty of time to get through check-in and customs, but as we sat in a standstill line to check in at our airline, the minutes began to tick away. After waiting for over 30 minutes in a line to check in, an airline representative offered to have one of their associates help me through customs, as Jeff would not be able to go with me, and I couldn't drop my mountain of luggage off until after I made it through customs. I happily agreed that a helper would be great and they sent me off with a man who looked less than happy about what he had been tasked with. We hurriedly said our goodbyes to Jeff and turned the corner into the customs room. And there it was... a long line snaking back and forth through the room that must have had several hundreds of people in it. Our airline helper muttered something to me about going in the NEXUS and special needs line. I was apprehensive as I thought that this line was meant for only a select group of people (which didn't include me no matter how much I would have loved that) but I trusted that he was official, so he knew what he was talking about.

As I approached the U.S. Customs official after only waiting a few seconds in line, I quickly explained that I was traveling by myself and the airline official had told me I could come in this special line. The stoic official looked at me and said "Well, you aren't supposed to... but I won't make you go to the back of the other line now." Usually when you deal with Customs officials, they are so cold and "by-the-book" that I knew that this was a rare situation, and I should be extremely grateful he didn't kick little Boone and I to the curb. He asked me for my paperwork from Jeff stating that I could take our child out of the country by myself, which I happily turned over (still worrying that if I took too long he might summon us out of his special, short line). Thankfully, we had spent some money and gotten a very official looking document that stated that I wasn't trying to kidnap our child. I had thought this paper would be completely unnecessary, but I was asked for it both leaving and coming back to Canada... so money (very) well spent!

Our flights to Missouri went well with only a few brief moments of unhappiness from Boone. We were blessed with a friendly couple on the first flight who was heading to a two week cruise, so needless to say, they were in a very cheery mood. The wife held Boone for me while I got organized, and the husband even played peekaboo with Boone towards the end of the flight. Phew... one flight down with little fanfare. On the second flight, and nice gentleman sat down next to me. He was from Monterey, Mexico and by the end of the flight I had seen several iPhone pictures of his cute kids and even watched a video he took on his phone from Easter. Super nice man that offered to help and was very kind to us the whole flight. I trusted God to send us kind people, and boy did He come through.

Our time at home was so wonderful. We spent lots of time with both sides of our families and all the grandparents got lots of Boone cuddle time. Here's a few shots from back in Missouri!