TRAVEL

Wow...I'm finally taking a deep breath after our most recent travel adventure. It was a doozy! This past Sunday, I was planning on flying with the kids to Missouri for the week. I'm in a wedding this weekend, and this week is Carley's spring break, so we decided to make a trip of it! Well...all of the flights Sunday were overbooked, but we decided we'd try anyway.

The first two flights of the day looked really bad, so we decided to not even TRY those! Leaving the house at 6am with the kiddos didn't seem worth it. Well...as it turns out...we WOULD HAVE made those flights!!!! GRRRRRR. So, feeling hopeful, we left to try and catch something like a 12 or 1 something flight. I got the kids to the airport, car parked, luggage checked, through security and to the gate. As it turns out we missed the next flight. Not enough space. On the bright side, our missing that flight meant we could meet Syd at the airport since he had just returned from Hays, KS! So, we met up with Syd and hunkered down to try and wait for the next flights. We were sitting a couple gates down from where we were supposed to be and both kids were crashed. We had the laptop up and we were watching the next flight's list. Syd decided to walk down to the gate as they were boarding just in case. I stayed with the "camp". Long story long...a bunch of people ended up missing that flight and they called our name. Syd was there and said "here!" but the lady said you have to get on NOW! We were en route, but we were skipped because we weren't right there. Lesson learned. How frustrating. So- we waited through two more flights that night and didn't get on, so we headed home.

The next morning my friend Libby was headed to the aiport early to get on a flight to FL with Wes. We rode with her and told Syd if we weren't on a flight by afternoon, he might have to come and get us! So, we got to the airport at something like 7am and waited through 4 more missed flights. Every hour or two we'd go to a new concourse, get all camped out, maybe get a snack, go potty and wait to be called on a flight. It was heartbreaking to explain to Carley why the airplane wouldn't let us go to see Brady and Kate and Parker. However, she was extremely resilient for a three year old and we'd just keep going. I'm so thankful that she is so helpful and easily entertained. She was wonderful! Finally, we were waiting for a flight that left at 3:55 p.m. We'd been there something like 8-9 hours and I was out of formula for Graham. If we didn't make the flight, Syd was coming to get us. Both kids were completely passed out. A bunch of people must have not made their flight, because this flight was oversold too, but we MADE IT!!!! The flight wasn't easy breezy, but it wasn't terrible. I also didn't get too overwhelmed taking both kids by myself because I know that to Missouri it's only a 1-1.5 hour flight.

I think I was in la la land when we finally landed. We had to claim our baggage at the delta office since it arrived the day before. Then we were off to Kate and Brady's house. It was so good to finally be here.

All in all, that's the price we pay to fly free, I guess. :) And...if you would have told me that was going to happen before we went I would have laughed. That's probably just about the worst case scenario- missing 8 flights while trying to keep two kids happy at the airport- but we survived and it wasn't so bad. I think that since I kept trying to convince Carley it was "no big deal" I must have believed it myself!

Due to our tardiness, we didn't get to go to the zoo like we'd planned, and had to cancel/rearrange some other plans. It's had me a little out of whack the past few days, but it's ok! I can't believe it's already Thursday!

We had some relaxing time at Brady and Kate's house Monday night. Came back to Mexico Tuesday. Spent time with mom yesterday, running around Columbia visiting family and doing a little shopping. Today we're just hanging out at dad's and getting ready to visit Grandpa Heath. Coming back to Missouri gives me a chance to clear my head for a few days. I probably get on the computer every other day, I don't make lists...or at least not big ones! We just hang out and play and visit family!

Tomorrow night starts all the wedding and rehearsal fun!

More to come later!