(san jose -> Denver) Merely a 2 hour flight

It simply amazes me how what should be a 2 hour trip is really actually entirely too many more hours of adventure. We left for the airport 2 hours ahead of time, so departed at 5:00 pm. We checked in to the hotel at 2:30 am. Granted there's an hour difference (-1hr), that still makes for 8 hours of walking, running, hauling, comforting, entertaining, controlling, soothing, and waiting. Nikolai was about as relaxed as a fart on a skillet for every leg of that journey. When we would stop moving, he insisted on getting out of his stroller to run.
When we got on the plane he climbed right into his seat and buckled the seatbelt himself. I was impressed that he knew exactly what he was supposed to do, but even more impressed that he actually *did* was he was supposed to do. The airplane flight was absolutely fabulous. I was exhausted and going through my typical claustrophobia/airplane panic attack, but Nikolai was very well behaved and sat quietly and watched his shows. All in all it was a pretty smooth trip, it just takes forever to get from point a to point b.