I told Andy I had to do one last post on our vacation and he said, “The problem with that, is that I’m going to come off like a jerk.” But he’s really not. Promise. Lemme ‘splain:

We had a delightful last evening in St. Thomas. We dressed up and took the girls to a fancy restaurant. This was the nicest place we’d ever taken them and I was slightly concerned it might be a disaster. But they had the most impeccable manners and did us proud. They were sort of the darlings of the restaurant that night. (Why can’t that they do that EVERY night at home?!) Photographic evidence of dressing in something other than a swimsuit on the island:

I may have had more trouble behaving than the girls:Lilly had so much fun using “grown up manners” that when we suggested we order dessert to bring back to our room she pleaded, “But dessert is better with grown up manners!!” So we ate the most scrumptious dessert with equally scrumptious manners.

The next day, amid a downpour of rain (we left on the right day!) we boarded our plane to head home. Andy had been bumped to first class. Since he gave ME his bumped seat on the way in, I told him, “You take it on this flight and enjoy. I’ll hang with the girls.”

Before take-off Lilly fell asleep. “This flight will be a cinch!” I thought. *Cue ominous dramatic music because that was NOT to be*

Two minutes after take off, Lilly woke up, got a funny look on her face and started throwing up. Excellent. Do you know that Delta no longer keeps their sickness bags in the seat-backs in front of you? I do. I know that because there were none to be found as I frantically looked in every seat-back I could find. Because when someone gets sick, they have loads of time to go hunt down a crew member to get a bag, right? Makes sense. I finally threw an airline blanket on the ground so there was SOMETHING to catch it all. I stayed with her until she was done then started to stand up to get supplies for clean up from the cabin crew. And who was walking towards me? Andy. He had a funny feeling and had decided to come check on us from up in First Class. He immediately volunteered to clean it up while I went to go wash my hands. See? Not a jerk. Cleaned it ALL up. There wasn’t much else he could do so, now armed with sick bags, I sent him back to his seat. The flight crew seemed to think it was airsickness. Our girls have flown plenty and not once gotten queasy, let alone sick. This was some kind of bug.

I’ll spare you the rest of the details but Trin came down with it about halfway through the flight. We arrived in JFK with Trin holding a Delta bag to her mouth like some kind of reverse feed-bag. Too much? Sorry…it’s the visual that fits. She was wearing a pair of my running shorts (cinched WAY in) since her pants had been collateral damage earlier in the flight. We happened upon an airport store that had clothing. I stood with Trin outside while Andy went to find some sweatpants or ANYTHING she could change into. “Whatever daddy gets, it’s going to say I heart New York,” Trin observed pathetically. It’s true. That’s all they sold. Items that said “I heart NY.” As she put on the small, adult, jammie pants (the best we could do) over her shorts she told Andy softly, “I do not heart New York.” The poor kid just wanted to be in her own bed.

Lucky us. Our flight from NY to Philly was delayed. We would now have to wait 3 hours and 40 minutes for a 20 minute flight.

Here’s our girl waiting at the gate:

I tried to cheer her up by telling her that sometimes our worst travel experiences later become our best stories. She looked at me like she really wanted to believe me but couldn’t summon the energy. We found an out of the way spot where the girls could lay down. Trin was resistant at first, until I told her all REAL world travelers end up sleeping in an airport at SOME point. She promptly fell asleep for the remainder of our time in New York.

We made it home by midnight and when they woke the next morning, both girls were feeling MUCH better. Now that they’re a little more removed from the experience they have a great story to tell…and dare I say, they are slightly more seasoned travelers to boot?