Southern Belles

Loran: “What do frequent fliers do?”

Ella: “Frequent fliers keep their feet flat.”

Doing our part to promote airline civility. Friday the 13th (dun dun dun) we embarked to North Carolina to visit our friends, the Dieffenbachs, our BFFs from our time in Connecticut. Ours is the kind of friendship where upon seeing each other for the first time in three years, we seem to pick up right where we left off, as if we’d been hanging out the previous weekend.

Ella took her twenty-somethingith flight. Lily was on her third (we’ve totally slacked with her). Loran cashed in his gold status to get our bags checked for free, priority boarding and sent his wife up to first class for the trip to Charlotte. Seriously, prince among men. I keep peeking back from my perch in 1A to see how it was going. Lillian was on the aisle and in my sightline, so I had to keep ducking back so she wouldn’t see me and cause a ruckus. Probably utilizing air marshals. The first guy in coach kept looking at me strange because he was also directly in my sightline and probably thought I was playing peek-a-boo with him. Both girls and Loran did great, the girls even fell asleep through landing, which was somewhat hard and bumpy. I also had a nice flight. By nice, I mean exquisite. My side of the plane only had one seat per row. So, it was just me, rocking out to my tunes, reading “Parents” magazine, eating my airline provided lunch of mandarin chicken salad, breadsticks, fresh fruit (my favorite fruits too! No cantaloupe or muskmelon!) and a peanut butter brownie. Aside from being unable to initially figure out how to open the bathroom door (an actual door knob that you turn rather than just pushing the door open like in coach), I think I blended in well.

We were greeted at the Dieffenbach compound by Dillon and Matthew (3 3/4) and then headed out to pick up Zachary (almost 6) from school. We started to catch up with Dillon as he prepared dinner. The two girls and two boys got acquainted. Last time we were there, Zachary called Ella – “Baby Ella”, Matthew couldn’t move and Lillian didn’t exist. What a change! The house was a-rockin’, Amy was on her way home, the wine was opened and dinner was coming together.

The night was pretty low-key. Dinner, catching up and early bedtimes for all. The girls slept well in their little guest room after Zachary read all of us a bedtime story.

The next morning, we were greeted with breakfast and were off to the zoo. The guys had the little girls in one car and the ladies had the little boys in the other. One car was quiet and calm, the other was a little chaotic. Halfway through, at a rest stop, the chaotic car got a little chat from their father and the rest of the ride was smooth sailing. We stopped for some good old Southern BBQ before heading to the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina.

Note the southern kids in hats and gloves…everyone kept apologizing for the cold weather (upper 40s). It was 9 degrees at our house.

Lily’s first carousel ride!

Lillian made fast friends with Dillon and was eager to join their family.

Seemed the older children preferred the rides we brought for the younger ones and the younger ones liked being free range.

The zoo had a kangaroo exhibit that you could walk through and be among the kangaroos. Only one was hopping around, the rest were laying around like cats, sunning themselves.

We took a little snack/restroom break. Amy handing out graham crackers reminded me of feeding pigeons.

We took the tram out to the gardens. Ella ate a spare cheeseburger we had in our backpack…Lillian again dissed our family so she could hang out with Dillon.

The gardens were gorgeous, even in January. I had to pinch myself that it was indeed the middle of January, the fountains were on, there were flowers growing and some green foliage. The kids burned off some extra energy running down the hill and then dancing in the amphitheater.

After a full day at the zoo, we set off toward home. The girls were completely out a few minutes after leaving the zoo which was nice since the drive was 1.5 hours.

Once back in the suburbs of Charlotte, we attempted dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Upon hearing there was a two hour wait, we gathered our ornery, hungry children and did the next best thing – Costco run! Amy and I got the children some food to hold them over from the café while the men gathered meat, wine and cheese. Once home, the guys grilled up some great steaks and shrimp and we feasted. And because they were steaks from Costco, we feasted on that same food the next night. So delicious! Another night with the children in bed, catching up and having great conversation. Perfect in my book!

Sunday we were up and our children, now feeling right at home, were downstairs eating breakfast by the time we got down there. We got everyone cleaned, dressed and in the cars to enjoy church together, just like old times in Connecticut. Minus, the children. After church we all caravanned to Uptown Charlotte (there is no downtown) for lunch and a visit to Discovery Place Museum.  The line was out the door. So, being the big shots we are, we moved to the will call line, brandishing our laminated Duluth Children’s Museum passes – with science museum reciprocity and kind of jumped the line. Or at least got in the shorter line that was inside the museum…you know, because it was so cold and everything.

The children had a great time in the museum. Luckily we had man on man coverage as each child went a separate direction with a parent following behind. After thoroughly terrorizing the main floor, we moved to the lower floor where they again went in four different directions. Once we reassembled the troops, after much searching for one another, we were all tired and ready to go – Dillon categorized his temperament at that point as nuclear. I think we were all getting there. It was fun, but busy.

Lillian loved this contraption which shot a tennis ball into the air.

The building are was naturally a hit, even when the woman building the giant tower toppled it.

We had originally planned to have a sitter come so the adults could go out and hear a friend’s band play at a club. But, now that we’re so old, we all decided that a night in with leftovers and comfy clothes was in order. As we were chatting around the table, we all started to smell a strangely familiar, yet clean smell. It was out of context, so I was having a hard time placing it. Had I been in the laundry room, I would have immediately placed that smell as – BLEACH! We all ran from the table searching for the bleach and the child in question. Thankfully, Lillian was already in bed. We found Matthew, with Ella hovering nearby in the living room with an open bottle of bleach, CLEANING their sofa. The adults went into triage mode. Amy had Matthew and was stripping him down, smelling his breath and cleaning him off, I removed Ella from the scene and the guys started in on the couch. Cushions stripped, and put in the wash. Thankfully, the children were okay but we weren’t so sure the couch would be. There was some lecturing about the dos and don’ts of cleaning, some timeouts and a few prayers put forth to the sofa gods. Despite Matthew’s clothes being bleached, the bottoms of my and others socks being bleached, the sofa was okay. I don’t know how that worked out, but it did.

Monday morning, our day of departure, the Ds were working from home. Lillian woke up sad, tugging on her ear and crying, “Eaaaaar! Fiiiix iiiittt!” Dillon and Zach escorted us to Urgent Care where Lillian was diagnosed with a double ear infection by Doctor Better (no kidding)…four hours before our flight. On our way back, we got Lillian’s prescription and Chick-fil-A for the group. Ella sent me in with an order for a cheese burger. Apparently, being from the North, I didn’t realize that the name indicated they only sold chicken. Stupid Unioners. Lillian perked up a bit with ibuprofen and lunch and we were off to the airport. Loran called ahead to decline any upgrades (a first for the gentleman at Delta manning that call) and we all piled into out row as a family. Lillian was doing alright on take-off, huge relief. She was super cranky though. She hadn’t received the memo that frequent fliers keep their feet flat. The more I tried to keep her feet off the seat, the worse she kicked. Eventually, she fell asleep. No problems with landing either – yippee! We did it! We flew 939 miles with a toddler with a double ear infection!

Two frightening things: Ella with a drum set and Lillian with a double ear infection before a flight.

Despite the ear infection scare, we had a great trip. We’ll have to make sure we see the Dieffenbachs sooner than three years from now. Both girls did their part to charm Dillon and Amy – even while sick. I only wish we could see them every weekend like we used to. Great friends can be hard to find, but there is no way we’ll be letting them go. Miles may separate us, but we’re friends to the end.