Part 2 of 3: The Airplane Ride

Prior to boarding the plane, I bought the kids a bunch of snacks. They would have bought everything in the store but I scared them by telling them that they would miss the flight, which they did not want to do as they were very excited to spend the weekend away from their Dad who yells a lot. (Just kidding Mark)

(Editor’s Note from Mark: As for me, I was minding my own business taking the deposition of an expert witness who was charging me about $275/hour to ask him questions while he tried to avoid simply admitting that the defendant that hired him was at fault. While I was trying to keep him from avoiding the truth, I get not one, but two text messages from Alexis. Assuming it was something important – she did know I had spent many hours preparing for this key deposition – I stopped the deposition to read it. I knew Alexis was traveling and thought it must be something that was very important for her to send me a text message during this deposition. Something that needed my help, and only my help. A text message that would undoubtedly need me to come through for her quickly so she could travel. What was this vital text message? “Plane taking off now. Kick some expert butt.” Maybe, just maybe, that one could have waited until later?)

Anyways, we all settled into our seats. Pierce sat next to my Dad in one row while my mom, Ariella, and I sat in the row across the aisle. I think my dad fell asleep before we even took off. Of course, my dad’s sleep only lasted a second because Pierce woke him up to play cards. After cards with Pierce, my Dad was reading our book, The 13 Biggest Mistakes that Can Destroy your Arizona Injury Case. (Yes, I had to put a plug in for our book – we are very excited about our first book and are having an interview with a reporter on Wednesday about the book.) My Dad then started to get a little dizzy. I told him that maybe he was dizzy because the book had too much information for him to handle, but he assured me that was not the case. Pierce didn’t care about his grandfather’s health, though. Pierce insisted that my Dad – dizzy or not – still had to play cards with him. My poor Dad continued to play cards with Pierce. My dad even tried to bribe Pierce to let him take a nap, offering to give Pierce a dollar, but Pierce turned him down, flat. Apparently, Pierce would rather play cards with the Dizzy Grandfather and keep waking him up as opposed to just taking a dollar. Of course, I was not surprised my dad had been able to fall asleep as soon as we got on the plane, as I think my Dad can fall asleep anywhere – even standing up. The only other person I know who can do that is my husband. (Editor’s Note from Mark: zzzzzzzzzzzzz)

When I sat down, I purposely situated myself in the window seat furthest from my Dad so I had planned to have very little communication with the kids. Well, that plan worked for only a short while before the kids actually wanted my attention. To make the flight a little more hectic, Pierce eventually figured out he could go to the bathroom and that would give him an excuse to get up. The child showed excellent self-control, however, getting up to go the bathroom only about, say, 70 times or so. Luckily, my mom got up with him 90% of the time. She offered to help, so I figured I might as well let her! (I think she was very tired at the end of the plane ride!)

Part 3 continued until tomorrow….