a travel day from hell.

The alarm went off at 3:35 on December 26th for a pick up time of 4:45 to arrive at the airport by 5 for our 6am flight to Arizona .

All was going well; we arrived to the airport right at 5:00am.  We asked which line we should be in since we need special assistance with the "infant in arms" ticket.  You can't get your tickets from the kiosk.  The lady sent us to the back of a long line (the regular check in line)-- me, Eddie, CB, both boys, a stroller, 5 bags (4 bags plus a golf bag) and our carry on suitcase.  After waiting in that line for about 10 minutes, a Delta worker saw us and said, "that baby have a seat of his own?" about Andy.  We told her no, he was riding on my lap.  She told us we were in the wrong line and needed to go to the special assistance line....like I asked the first time.  Sooo, we hopped to the back of that line and waited.  And waited. 

These two weighed themselves while we waited...

When we finally go up to the counter, we were told that because it was 29 minutes until our flight's departure, they would not accept our bags.  You must be there 30 minutes prior to departure for your bags to make it.  She told us that if we had only 2 bags, she would take it, but since we had so many, there was no way she would.  Thanks, lady.

So, we started trying to figure out a way to re-route us.  At first she didn't see anything until 4:00 in the afternoon.  Fine.  I called my dad and told him to come back to get us.  Then she found a flight that left at 9:30.  Fine.  I called  my dad and told him never mind. Then she tried to actually rebook us.  My sister in law and I have the exact same name: Carrie Elizabeth Williamson.  This set off ALL kinds of red flags in the world of airports.  They wouldn't let us book, why should one person need two seats? etc etc... it was a mess. 
 After chatting with our friend for over 45 minutes, we headed to security.  That went smoothly, thankfully.

We headed down for some breakfast and that went well too... then we had time to kill before our 9:30 flight.  It was only 6:30.  THREE HOURS to kill in an airport with two young boys.

THANK GOD for CB. Eddie gets a little anxious flying so he spent most of this time watching the weather forecast for Detroit (where we were re-routed), which was being hit by a blizzard... CB and I took the boys from one end of the terminal to the other.  We ran, we skipped, Andy dropped in the middle of the floor and did somersaults.... whatever we could do to provide entertainment...

Andy spotting airplanes...
    

Running and running and running.... (actually here he was about to go push the emergency alarm button on the elevator right behind him...it's perfectly eye level for him)...

I seriously wonder how many people saw...this.... and thought, "dear lord please do not put them on my flight!!!"  At least they were smiling, right??

With CB's help, we were all calm, collected and happy.  Seriously, I would have died without her.  CB, are you reading this??? THANK YOU!

Andy's lovie went everywhere with us.  It was SO SO nasty by the end of the trip. 

Going to the bathroom with my shadow.  I spent $10 a pop on some Delta airplane toys and the boys were loving them.  Greatest $20 spent...

We finally took off at 9:30-- woohoo! As we are boarding the plane-- we are in the very last row of the plane-- the flight attendant comes back and says, "hold on tight to those kids, it's going to be really bumpy." Excellent.  Have I mentioned that Eddie is not a great flyer? Cal was tired and when he's tired he wants his momma.  Eddie and Cal were on one side of the plane and me, CB and Andy were across the aisle from them.  Cal was crying because he wanted me and there was nothing I could do.  We held hands across the aisle.

We took off on what I can only describe as a realllllly bumpy flight and it was HOT on that airplane.  There was no cool air blowing out so both CB and Eddie start to feel a little ill.  CB requested an airsick bag from the attendant (it was that bumpy).  

Andy was exhausted and finally gave in.  He slept for the last 20-25 minutes of the flight...

When we landed in Detroit, Eddie turned on his phone to see a text from Delta alerting him that our next flight was delayed 3 hours.  

So, we did what any other normal person in our case would do...

As we were delayed, the blizzard came in more and more....

The boys had a great time watching it snow. I was nervous that we wouldn't get out because the board showed a ton of canceled flights. 

Our flight was supposed to leave out of one gate and then they announced that it was rescheduled to another gate, 65 gates away.  So, off we trekked to the next gate... are we having fun yet?

We finally boarded our next flight and then got in the de-icing line.  Our plane had to de-ice before take off...along with every other flight taking off out of Detroit.  This line took forever.  We waited over an hour.  Andy finally fell asleep (but didn't stay asleep long....sigh). 

Once we got in the air, Cal fell asleep in his seat with his head on my lap.  I panicked because I knew he didn't have a pull up on, and he is SUCH a heavy sleeper, he still has to wear them at night/naps.  I started smelling something urine-like and felt his pants. He had soaked them. I think he probably peed 4 or 5 times-- they were that soaked. 

I let him rest a little while longer, then woke him to take him to the bathroom with a change of clothes.  Do you know how small those bathrooms are? They are really small.  The two of us squeezed in there and attempted to change him.  He decided he had to pee again, so I turned him around to go in the toilet.  He pointed his penis straight up and sprayed the ceiling and walls instead. 

After changing clothes and wiping down the bathroom, we were back in our seats.  phew.  The first flight attendant gave us drink vouchers for it being such a miserable flight, so CB and I had a cocktail on the plane to calm us down.  It was lovely...especailly since the flight attendant told us to keep our vouchers-- it was obvious we needed them....!

A while into the trip, I leaned over and told Carrie we only had about 20 minutes left.  Then the flight attendant came by and told the people next to us we still had about an hour and a half.  I thought Carrie and I were going to cry. 

We landed and Tricia was there to greet us.  The hotel was really nice and we were thrilled to not be traveling! I quickly unpacked-- to find my entire can of hairspray had sprayed out (it had a cap ON and was in a plastic zip lock bag) all over my clothes.  So I threw my clothes and Cal's stinky pants in the sink to attempt to do laundry. 

We were supposed to land at 10am, and instead got in around 8pm.  At least we made it!!! And, to their credit, the boys were wonderful the whole day.  They just rolled with it all!

More on bowl week next post...