The turning point came a week ago when Sophie asked if we could take Elfie (our elf on the shelf) with us. Hmmm...opportunity...."Well, we can see if Elfie can get special permission from Santa to come with us on the airplane. Go ask him to ask Santa when he reports back tonight and he can let me know tomorrow."... Lo and behold, Santa agreed with the condition that Sophie was brave because Elfie had never been on a plane before and he's just a young scout elf, a little nervous about flying without magic. The elf and gravol are what pulled us through. Sophie was SUPER excited to wake up in the morning and find Elfie perched on the suitcase ready to go!
We got to the airport early because the roads looked like they might be bad, but it was fine. We had planned on going early to get past security early and have time for a sit down lunch. The line for check in was HUGE! I said to Jay.."we paid extra to choose our seats and get priority check in and boarding"...I could see the instant tension relief...we were suddenly the 2nd in line. Also, the security line was short, so we breezed right through. We went to eat at Casey's and started the vacation off with a marguarita on the rocks and a couple of beer for the boys. The Manager came over and checked on us and we told him everything was great. He came over again when we were done and asked if he could give the girls a gift..and if it was ok with us if he could take a photo of them with the gift..we said sure. So he left, came back and brought the girls the bill. Lol. Then he told them to rip it up!! Lunch was on them..WOW. Such a nice surprise! He took a photo as they ripped apart the bill for $124 as part of a holiday special promotion.
Back to the gravol...We dosed Sophie about an hour before the flight because she gets motion sick and she's afraid of the turbulence, so we thought we'd give her every advantage we could...and if drowsiness was also a side effect then it would be a win-win for all of us. Let me tell you about Sophie on Gravol...picture a squirrel on methamphetamine. Her pupils dilated and she literally ran circles around the lounge for 45 minutes. Literally. No, really...literally. Quiet circles, because I asked them to be respectful of the other passengers! Hahahaha. This is not our first experience with her on gravol, this just re confirmed that she does, indeed have what I would consider an 'adverse reaction'.
As far as her fear, she seemed fine right up to when we started to board when she started to cry, said she wasn't going and tried to bolt for the nearest exit. I put Jay in charge of Sophie because he can distract her with silly poop stories while I will either try to sooth her, which doesn't work or tell her to chill, which she doesn't. He did awesome - she calmed down and got in her seat, we had a 45 min de-icing delay where we had to sit in the plane, which helped her relax and then had an uneventful flight. We landed and she said "mommy, I did the whole plane ride without a single tear"..uh, we're just blocking out the 10 minutes prior to boarding the flight and walking onto the plane, but whatever.
We finally arrived at the house and let me say thank goodness I got the GPS! It took us right to the door down a couple roads that are not roads - picture steep gravel driveways after rainy season. Most of the roads were amazing, just the last 2 mins to the house. The girls didn't fall asleep on the plane at all, but crashed for the hour drive to the house, we didn't arrive here until almost midnight so they needed it.
The house is STUNNING. Exactly as shown on the listing on Homeaway. It's literally a private compound. We put the girls to bed when we got home and then had a quick swim before we went to bed ourselves...ready for a week in paradise.
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