Planes, rental cars, and mobile baby

We're blogging at ya from the great state of Utah, home of the Rocky Mountain Elk and where the television series "Touched by an Angel" was filmed. I'd like to begin this post by extending a hearty thank you to one Monsieur Henry for his outstanding plane behavior today. He was a flying dream baby. It all began when we arrived at the airport. Henry was so enthralled by the swarms of people he did nothing more than stare at the masses while I checked in for the flight, obtained our boarding pass, dropped off the one bag we were checking, went through security, and walked to the gate.

While I admit I haven't been flying recently, I was surprised when the crew starting admitting passengers before giving parents of wee ones time to board. Upon further inquiry I learned that Delta no longer offers early boarding for parents. I was disappointed - aren't these types of perks one of the reasons you have kids? - but we still made it onto the plane and into our seats without too much fuss. Henry nursed during take-off and was asleep before the wheels left the earth. We received little attention from any of the passing staff. (I did use my Hooter Hiders but when Henry pulled it away from his face so he could see, I did not cover him up again, although my bahoobies were well hidden.) The two folks who did notice Henry were grandparents sitting behind us who Henry easily charmed with his good nature (the two minutes they saw of it before he fell into a deep slumber). As Henry was still sleeping when we made our descent into Salt Lake City - factoid: It was originally named Great Salt Lake City, but the great was dropped from the name in 1868 - I popped a binky into his mouth to help relieve pressure in his baby ears. It must have worked as we didn't hear a peep out of him until we were on the ground and taxiing toward the terminal. After a grueling four hour drive we reached our destination. We settled into our hotel, letting Henry crawl all over the place and get into nearly everything and then headed out for a quick drive to the local store, stopping along the way to stare at the awesomeness that is Cedar Breaks National Monument: North view.
A nice cleansing rain just fell outside, which should do wonders to cool us off from a rather uncomfortably warm day. The bad news: The cold I caught from Henry earlier this week seems to have morphed me into an almost-completely closed throat, stinging eyes and running nose ball of sickness . And Ann, our gracious travel companion, was bit by a native creature on the top of her foot and now her foot is going numb. Assuming we all make it to tomorrow there will be more updates to follow. Oh, and to our husbands (that's one for me and one for Ann, lest ye be confused given our current location) the cell service is for $*&@ here but we'll call when we can.