I'm Premier

We had talked through our plan of attack many times. We knew when we would wake up, how we would get ready, who would pack the car, who would feed Ainsley, and when we had to take off to make it to the airport on time. But no one factored in the power of Scott's new phone -- the Droid. On the morning we were to leave for Vegas, Scott decided to set up his new phone. Eager to be fully functional, he was on call with a top-notch rep from a Verizon. I admit, I enabled him by allowing him to hang on line until all of his contacts had fully transferred to the new phone (cue robotic Droid sound).

Needless to say, we left the house an hour before our plane was to board. Hitting every light on the "fast way" to the airport, we careened along the exit ramp to long term parking. We ended up in G16 (for those familiar). At least in the same lot as the tram, it's about as far as you can get from the tram. We literally hauled derriere, only to make it to the landing as the doors closed. At least Ainsley enjoyed the experience as she was wheeled in the umbrella stroller at an MPH most definitely banned by Federal Children Safety Departments....

Finally reaching ticketing, we high-tailed it to the pre=checked luggage area which was..dum, dum, dum...closed. At this point in our adventure, I was at a loss, wondering how we could make it through security with not only the sheer number of our bags and gate checked items (stroller and car seat) but given the volumes of lotion, baby wash, gels, etc.

That's when Scott -- the Solutionator -- stepped in. As we were waved to a long check in line (given the closure of the pre-checked bag station), he stated to the United Rep, "I am premier." This is not true, but he sold it. We were then whisked to the nearest counter, where we were informed that we were too late to check our pre-checked bags. Scott then led us over to the premier security line, where again we were allowed entree, along with our more than 2 bags per person. We took off shoes, compressed strollers, and combined bags faster than 100K businessmen. When asked about just one of our variou carry-ons which contained liquids, Scott said with confidence, "The liquids are for the baby" and then he had me wave to the screener...Miraculously, this worked.

As Scott was finishing replacing his laptop in his bag, I ran over to check our departure gate to find we were leaving from the furthest gate in the C terminal. We continued our sprint over the moving walk way, and I did have a moment of, "I don't think I can do this..." but then remembered that I had made it through 32 hours of labor...so the momma adrenaline kicked in.
In the end, we made it to the gate as folks were boarding and Scott managed to find places for all of our luggage. Moreover, we had fantastic flight attendants who fell in love with Miss Ainsley and introduced her to the captain and many other passengers throughout the flight -- they also kept us in cups (for stacking) and full bottles of water. Our mantra for the trip became, "we are premier."

Happy to have arrived in Vegas, we embraced Scott's parents, told them our tale, and then went on to enjoy a fantastic 4.5 days. We visited the Hoover Dam and saw the new bridge construction taking place to join NV and AZ, strolled along the streets of Boulder City, took in some playgrounds, enjoyed time with family friends, and even got away a couple of nights for a movie, some light gambling, and dinner at Fleur De Lys @ Mandalay Bay. We all had a wonderful time. I just hope we haven't used all of our good travel karma for the rest of our lives...