A Visit to Kingston!

Well, Hannah and I made it to Kingston and back and survived!  We left the house at 4:30am on May 8th and hopped on our first plane!  Hannah was a hit (not just on this plane ride, but on all of them...Except for with one person, but I'll get to that later).  She did so well on every flight (4 in total, there and back), she hardly fussed and shared her smiles with everyone.

  

Usually when I am doing something for the first time, I run through scenario's in my head to make sure I'm prepared for what may happen.  I knew I would likely have to change Hannah on the plane so I was prepared, or so I thought!  I wondered where the change table on the plane might be, as I had never seen one and there was no way there was one in those tiny bathrooms...Or so I thought!  Sure enough, the change table folds down from the wall in one of those tiny bathrooms - it was about the length of Hannah (I feel sorry for people with longer children!).  I squeezed, Hannah, myself and the diaper bag into the tiny room and was stuck!  I had to maneuver us around so we were actually facing the change table and figure out a way to hold Hannah down, balance myself through turbulence and change a diaper!  Well, we managed but I thought to myself, "we are not doing that again unless we absolutely have to!"....Half an hour later Hannah had a pooplosion and it was back to the bathroom for a change and new clothes!  I won't go into details on how I managed to go to the bathroom myself while holding Hannah (note to new mothers, get over being paranoid about strangers and germs and let the flight attendant hold your baby!)  

We arrived in Kingston at around 4:30 and my good friend Julie picked us up.  We then had about a 2.5 hour drive to Kingston.  It was a long day of traveling but well worth it to be back in Kingston!

Hannah and I stayed with my friend Jenn and her 4 month old baby, Lauren for a few nights while her husband was away with the military.  

Hannah and Lauren hit it off right away and us Mom's think they will be friends forever :)  We might make them pen pals, hehe!

On day one we met up with Holly and her 5 week old son, Caleb for a picnic.  When I left Kingston, we were all pregnant, look at us now!

After staying with Jenn for a few nights, we headed to Julie's for a couple nights!  One night we had a get together with a few gals from work and some of their kids!  It was so great to catch up with everyone and watch the kids interact!

Colleen, Michelle, Keagan, Leah, Hannah, Brooke, Callum (photographer Julie)

 When we lived in Kingston, Julie and I would often go for long walks down to Portsmouth and along the water.  Although it was chilly and super windy, we braved the elements and went on a reminiscent walk!

On Sunday we popped over to our friends the Prost's where we had a bible study reunion pot luck!  It was so great to see everyone and catch up.  We skyped Carl and he got to chat with everyone there...We were both almost in tears after that evening, missing our friends :(  Eric and Mary have made a 3 year plan for us - the house next door to theirs will be going up for sale then and they've offered to put in a 2nd bathroom for us :) 

On Monday night a we went to my friend Jose's house for dinner.  Jose and I were lunch buddies at work and Julie's mom is friends with Jose's wife.  Because Julie is a Leafs fan, we had the game on...It was a sad night, but dinner was delicious! On Tuesday, the day before our departure date, Hannah and I took one last walk downtown and bid farewell to some of our favourite things about Kingston, the waterfront, city hall and the farmers market.

We then drove off to Tweed to spend our final afternoon with Hannah's great great great Aunt Joanie!

We are missing 2 generations here

Aunt Joanie just turned 94 and still insists on making us a huge meal everytime we visit.  We enjoyed ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, salad and of course, pie for dessert!  We had a great visit with her, Fred and her daughter and son in law, Nancy and Gerald. 

Hannah, Aunt Joanie and Fred

Wednesday morning came to quickly, it was time to head home!  Our friend Keri drove us to the Ottawa airport where we boarded our first plane...Thats we then promptly unboarded as it was going to be delayed 1.5hours due to a wind storm in Toronto where we were to catch our connecting flight.  Well we missed that connecting flight by about 2 minutes and had a 1.5 hour layover in Toronto!  Finally, we boarded our last plane, we were on the home stretch.  Since we were moved to a different flight, the only seats available were middle seats.  We took our seat and waited to see who our neighbors would be, hoping they would be just as nice as every other person we had sat beside.  Two ladies approached us and before they even got to their seats beside us, they began complaining about having to sit close to a baby.  They looked at me with disgust saying "I am not sitting with that thing in between us!", referring to Hannah. Then the one lady went on about "oh, everyone thinks babies are sooo cute but not me, I am not a baby person, I am like, get them away from me!" It went on and on, I was in such shock I didn't say anything back but instead, looked out the window (I moved over) and shed a few tears.  Of course, Hannah didn't make a peep, she slept for some of the time and was so well behaved.  When she was awake she accidentally brushed the lady's leg beside us and the lady, with a disgusted sigh moved herself farther away from us. Luckily the flight attendant saw what had happened and half way through the flight was able to move us (and gave me a $250 flying voucher)! The rest of the flight was much better! 

We arrived home 2.5hours later than expected but none of that mattered once we saw our man waiting for us :)  Overall, we had a great trip!  A part of me wanted the trip to be terrible so that I could let go of Kingston...But it was great, it only reinforced what a great city Kingston is and what great friendships we have there!