michigan | last day & getting home

I'm in love with the light in this photo.

Nice. A picture with both my kids in it.

Love it!

I saw lots of this on vacation.

I think it's time for a smart phone. My brain calendar is malfunctioning.

Our outbound flight was scheduled for Monday morning. I was comfortable with this. Everyone could get a good night's sleep and we'd be on our way. Since I thought the flight was at 11am, we had a nice leisurely morning, got packed up and made it to the Grand Rapids airport at 10am. Plenty of time.

As I was checking in, the attendant gave me a funny look and asked when my flight was. I said, 11am. He said there wasn't an 11am flight. I could hear my heart hitting the floor. The flight was at 10:11am. I asked if there was any way we could still make it on the plane, even if our bags had to fly out later. No.

To say I reacted badly, would be an understatement. I was hysterical. I had no idea what to do or how to get home. All of the flights for the rest of the week were booked except one on Thursday with 4 stops. An impossible option. 

So, I'm frantically trying to call Scott, going up to every other carrier to see if they have space, all while having a melt down. It was not my finest moment. I had to quickly book another flight with Frontier before our originally scheduled flight took off because otherwise we would have lost our flight credit. So, with much hesitation, I booked the 6am flight out of Chicago Midway on Tuesday morning.

I get truly nervous flying with both kids by myself, even under the best circumstances. I was mentally prepared to survive the next 3 hours getting home and now I was dealing with a situation from left field. I have never had a traveling snafu. I even made my flight during the blizzard of 2006 when thousands of people were stranded at DIA and I had to run barefoot from security to the gate. 

So now I am trying to wrap my head around the logistics of waking the kids up at 2am to drive 2.5 hours to make a 6am flight. Yes, there were lots of positives to the situation. We just packed up and went back to my mom's house. We were not stranded at the airport. My mom and Arlin were more than willing to wake up with us and drive us to Chicago, but I was frazzled. Vivi's clinging and whininess had worn me down over the week. I needed a break from the intense amount of emotionally draining childcare I had been providing. At that point, another day seemed like an eternity, not to mention another 20 hours of anxiety about flying by myself with 2 kids who, by that time, would be well off their schedules and very, very tired.

The above pictures are from our last day and I love them. It was the one day during this trip that Vivi played and actually seemed to enjoy herself. Avery was more than happy to stay and was pumped up for his middle of the night adventure.

2am came. The alarm sounded. Avery was delightful. He was in to the adventure. "Good morning, Night!" Viv did great too. She got transferred to the car, but did not go right back to sleep. It took over an hour, but she eventually drifted off. Avery too. He fought it and kept telling me that he "can't fall asleep."

Since it was the middle of the night, there wasn't any traffic and the drive was pleasant. We made it to the airport, checked-in, and went through an incredibly long security line. I was the model of fake patience. We had just enough time to get through security, buy milk and walk right on to the plane. It didn't even occur to me to check our seat assignments, but we ended up in the front row, and if you don't know, you can't have any bags in the front row. NOT an ideal situation when flying with kids. All of the crap (toys, books, DVD player) helps you survive. Avery held Vivi, while I frantically tried to decide what was absolutely necessary. I shove everything in the seat with them and our bags end up at the back of the plane. Shoot me now.

Luckily, I had the forethought to buy Avery 2 push-up pops and with the purchase of TV, he was set and had no trouble with his ears. Viv required constant entertainment and attention. My children DO NOT sleep on airplanes. There was some whining and crying and even during the worst of it, I kept reminding myself that with each minute we were closer to home, "Survive. Survive. Survive." I also purchased TV and watched the flight tracker channel the entire time. Nebraska is a wide state.

2.5 hours later we landed in Denver. Oh, the relief. Scott and Avery had a beautiful reunion at the baggage claim and one short car ride later, we were HOME. It was surreal. I hardly believed that we made. It felt so good. 

Yes, I know this experience is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but I was tested. I would have never made it as the pioneer I dreamed of being as a little girl. Laura Ingalls Wilder, I am not.

This is the last vacation post, so go ahead a scroll back to make sure you've seen them all.