Check the seat pocket in front of you...AAUGH!

We're home! Other than overcompensating for traffic and naps on our way to the airport therefore leaving us with two hours to occupy the children the trip went much better than our flight there. Leg#1 had us keeping the kids up to get them back on west coast time. Leg#2 and they were both asleep within 5minutes after take-off. Yipppeee!

I proceeded to pull out my Apple iPod nano which is an essential in most of our travel these days. We love it as we can load movies for our daughter on as well as for ourselves. In this case I was reaching for it to listen to some tunes and drown out the plane noise and the DirectTV our seat mate had blaring so loud I could hear the entire broadcast word for word despite her headphones.

Unfortunately it didn't help a lot...I think I snoozed about 20min of our 2+ hour flight. Our seat mate was rather large. Having once tipped the scales myself I did feel for her. She had to use the seatbelt extender and had to constantly shift in her seat every 90seconds due to discomfort. So by the time we landed in NorCal it was 11:30PM, which is 2:30AM east coast and I was exhausted. I slipped my nano into the seat pocket in front of me as we prepared for our descent and I tried desperately to get my daughter who was crashed across my lap somewhat officially into her seatbelt for landing . Normally I am religious about not putting anything there. I have left too many items.

We finally stir the kids enough to get them off the plane and into the stroller on the jet way. We take a stroller and gate check it when we have a trip with connections. It helps us move faster from one gate to another if we have a tight connection. And it allows us to tour them around, make a fort, or sleep if we have a longer layover. And who-hoo...our bags are some of the first off at baggage claim. 12:15AM (West)/3:15AM (East) and we are in the car on our way home.....

That is literally how I sounded when about 1/2hr into our drive home when I realize I tuned out that flight attendant when she said "Please check the seat pocket in front of you for any belongings you brought with you." I left my nano on the plane in Frontier Airlines Flight #221 Seat 14B Seat Pocket...right there in front of me.

We will get another one...it is too valuable to us in our travels.
But I learned my lesson AGAIN!