A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Ohio (and by funny, I mean, not funny)

For months I've been dreading our upcoming 5 hour flight with Judah. I panned the interwebz for advice and bought enough new toys, snacks, and books to entertain a village of toddlers, which I planned to break out only during the flight.

Well, on the day of, Spouse and I congragulated ourselves on a smooth morning--packing 6 bags, cleaning out the fridge, arriving at the Oakland Airport a whole hour early for our mid-morning flight. Judah enjoyed riding the long-term parking shuttle bus.

We were all smiles until we began scanning the flight monitor, looking for our gate. After a few seconds, Spouse looks down at our boarding passes and says--Did you know these say SFO?

*silence* 

Long pause...

What????

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU*%&%$^%!!!!!

My stomach sank to my knees. I involuntarily let out a string of curses, thankful that Judah was still too young to repeat what mommy says! Honestly, this is what a hyper-active toddler can do to you. Prior to Judah, we've never showed up at the wrong airport. Now I'm always losing my keys, wallet, cell phone, train of thought...my mind in general.

Thankfully we were able to get on a red-eye flight that night. This time we way over-did it and arrived at SFO two hours early (you know, in case we went to the wrong airport again!) I suppose it was good for Judah to run around the airport and tire himself out.

Judah handled staying up 3 hours past his bedtime surprisingly well. He was all energy and smiles--waving 'hi' to literally every person he saw and running up and down the walkway escalators no less than 38 times.  I call him my happy-drunk.

Our gate had a play structure for kids to climb on. Judah, delirious with sleepiness, probably thought he had died and gone to toddler heaven. He started hugging and shaking hands with all the other kids.

And then, minutes before we boarded, he finally had the much anticipated meltdown--screaming, wailing, the works. Thankfully we were able to nap him before we boarded and he basically slept the entire length of the flight, taking up the length of 2 seats.

So we didn't end up using the truckload of toys and snacks I bought for the occasion. The real lifesavers turned out to be (1) the ergo carrier which we used to nap him (thanks for that tip Mandi!) and (2) the extra plane ticket just for Judah (thanks Grandma and Neil for that much-needed extra room!)