We made it!

We made it to Colorado!

The girls and I woke up at 4:00 a.m. today so we could leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m. After a little glitch getting through security (first the car seat didn't fit in the x-ray machine, then they wanted to search my carry-on bag and made me throw out the girls' toothpaste because it qualified as a "liquid" that was over 3-oz.), we finally started boarding our plane a little after 6:00 a.m. After I gate-checked a stroller and hauled 2 kids, a very heavy car seat, and 2 carry-on bags to the back of the airplane, and got the car seat buckled up....I realized that I had strapped the car seat into the wrong seat. Oops. Luckily, the guy whose seat we stole was very understanding (he said he had young kids of his own) and was more than willing to switch seats with us. God bless him.

So we were supposed to take off for Detroit at 6:30 a.m., but instead of taking off, the pilot made us all get off the plane with all our stuff due to some mechanical delay. So that means that I had to un-buckle the car seat and haul 2 kids, 2 carry-ons, and a very heavy car seat right back off the airplane (AND grab the stroller that I had gate-checked) while we waited for the plane maintenance to be completed. Our flight was delayed for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let me just say that it was a LOT of fun trying to entertain 2 kids for that length of time.

Then we had to get back on the airplane, which meant repeating the entire process again. Oy.

Once the plane finally took off, Allison fell into a deep (but very brief -- 15 minutes) slumber......while Elisabeth tried to fight her boredom by coloring.The pilot did his best to make up for lost time and got us to Detroit by 8:40 a.m. (We were originally supposed to arrive at 7:30 a.m.) By the time we got to our gate and were allowed to get off the plane, we had 15 minutes to run to the next gate and catch our connecting flight to Denver.

To put things in perspective: we arrived at gate 60, and had to be at gate 8 to board our plane for Denver. And just to remind you, we had a big-a** car seat, a stroller, 2 carry-ons, 2 kids. And 15 minutes. Oy.

I'll just say that I got the work-out of my life today. Elisabeth and I ran across the Detroit airport (Allison got to ride in the stroller -- and thankfully she remained seated -- she has an annoying habit of hopping out of the stroller whenever I NEED her to sit down, so I was very thankful that she cooperated and didn't try any of her usual tricks today) and we got to our gate just in time. We were the very last ones on the plane to Denver. We had to hike to the very back of the plane (we were in the 2nd to last row of a huge jet) with all our junk -- huffing, puffing, sweating, and lugging the big-a** car seat, 2 carry-ons, and 2 kids -- while people stared at us. And that is when I had to break the news to Elisabeth.

"Honey, you'll be sitting right in front of me today. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you! It will be lots of FUN!"

Yep, you read that correctly. We didn't have 3 seats together, and the plane was FULL. It didn't look like it was going to be possible for Elisabeth to sit with me and Allison. At that point, Elisabeth went into meltdown mode and started crying. Now people were REALLY staring at us. I was trying to get the car-seat buckled in, Elisabeth was hysterical, Allison was jumping on the seat like a monkey, and I'm trying to convince Elisabeth of how much FUN it will be to sit right in front of me.

The guy that was supposed to sit next to me and Allison must have been horrified at the thought of spending 3 hours sitting next to a 2-year old (I don't blame him one bit), because he immediately (and graciously) offered to switch seats with Elisabeth. God bless him, too!

So the 3 of us did get to sit together, and we were finally on our way to Denver. We made it, just in time!

But that wasn't the end of the adventure. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that Allison didn't sleep at ALL on the ride to Denver, so I spent 3 hours trying to entertain her. In-flight entertainment involved several suckers, gum (yes, I know you're not supposed to give a 2-year old gum), Play-Doh, stickers, books, markers, crayons, pretzels, animal crackers....hell, I even let her wear my good necklace for a while! Allison even went potty in the airplane toilet (please don't even ask about that). Finally, it was time to land (alleluia!), and all of a sudden Elisabeth had to go potty really bad. And then Allison started yelling, "I have to poop! I have to poop!" So, for the final 20 minutes of the flight, all that could be heard from Row 25 was:

"Mommy, I REALLY have to go potty. I think I'm going to go potty in my pants!"

"I have to poop! I have to poop! I HAVE TO POOP!"

"Mommy, I'm serious! I REALLY have to go!"

"I have to POOP!"

But alas, we made it. We survived. We even managed to take the train from our gate to the terminal without getting separated (even though Allison DID decide to hop out of her stroller on the very-packed train), and Fred and his mom were waiting for us as soon as we exited the train area. Whew. What a day. Remind me not to do this again anytime soon!