Monday, March 27, 2017

takeoff trouble

I'm back!
No excuses for not blogging except the computer gets used less and less by me these days.  I have lots to share so I'm trying to get back to it!

Backing up to our spring break vacation...

I made this Mickey/Minnie Countdown for us to look forward to our trip!
The kids were so excited to take turns moving Minnie's bow every day!
When there was one day left, we were pumped!  We headed out of town a day early because Daddy had a basketball championship game and Kerigan had a tumbling meet!  Nothing like cramming in a ton of things right before our vacation!
We ran into our old friend Avery from Kerigan's old tumbling gym!  They were so happy to see each other!
My girl would've placed 3rd but she had a mistake that cost one of her scores to be removed, called a scratch.  She was such a good sport and was still smiling in 5th place!
Afterwards we stopped over at Craig's brother's house to see some family that was in town since Daddy was still at the game.
Then we headed to Ga Ga and Papa's house to spend the night since it was closer to the airport and they were already ahead of us in California!  They were predicting snow, but I didn't expect to see this when I stepped out of Target for a few last minute things!
Kerigan and I had fun giving ourselves a pedicure in Ga Ga's "spa!"
When the kids were in bed I cuddled up and watched the Bachelor on mom's cozy couch by the fire!
The next morning we headed to Minneapolis!  We called Ga Ga In Cali on the way and said we'd see her in a few hours (or so we thought)!
It was also Daddy's birthday!  We met Craig's brother and his family for lunch and they drove us to the airport.  We were leaving our car with them for the week!
So we checked our bags in and waited for our flight.
And waited.
And waited.
Suffice it to say, the plane was majorly delayed.  Apparently it had had mechanical issues in Chicago and that pretty much screwed up the rest of our day and night.  We were set to head out before the snow storm, but since the plane was so late, we watched it start snowing and I began to get nervous...

FINALLY....
They called us to board the plane!!  
At this point we were 6 hours behind schedule and had missed our connection out of Denver.
I took all these pictures of us saying thumbs up all around!  We were finally on the way!  They had set us up on another connection out of Denver which we would have to rush to when we got there...
Until....
They decided to deice the plane for the next hour.
So we busted out the reinforcements.  At this point I could've cried.  I held it together but I am a planner.  I had reservations at Disney for the next day and things were not looking good that we were going to make it.  We knew at this point we would be missing the second connection flight as well.
We finally arrived in Denver around 10pm.
And this is where I need to brag on my kids for a minute.
They were AMAZING, people.   I couldn't remember the last time we'd eaten, or slept, or gone to the bathroom for that matter. We were all exhausted and the kids just kept on going.  
Things get a bit fuzzy here, but I fought for about an hour with a lady from our airline (note- we will never fly Frontier again!) to get us out of Denver THAT NIGHT.  I told her under no circumstances would we be staying overnight and catching the morning flight to Orange County (at this point there were no more flights that evening to OC).  I told her to find a way to get us to California.  So we ended up switching airlines and flying into San Diego.  Which meant renting a car and driving another hour and half once we landed.  And baggage issues.
My girl had a very special appointment at the Bippidi Boppidi Boutique at 8am that I was not willing to miss.  For those that don't know, these appointments are impossible to get, and cannot be easily rescheduled.  And, you're only 5 once!
Whaaaat?!  You're telling me I'm going to miss my appointment!?

Anyway, as you can imagine our princess dresses were packed in our luggage and would be heading to the wrong airport in the morning.  So, daddy came to the rescue and ran down to go through baggage claim and check in AGAIN just to get our bags switched.  He also had a fight with someone who told him this process would take 45 minutes, which would put us on the plane and in the air without him!
Let's just say he was not willing to let this happen.  His facebook post said it best!  Ha ha.

A very nice agent from Southwest (the airline we switched to) made sure we got our luggage on the right plane, and came to personally escort Daddy through security so he wouldn't miss the flight to San Diego.

So.  We arrive in SD around midnight.  Still hadn't slept or eaten, and now had to find a car.  They directed us to a shuttle, which took us to a long line of rental places.  We went in the first one and were told they were out of cars.  The next place?  Same thing.  By the third time I was ready to lose it.  Thank goodness they had some availability and ended up upgrading us to a minivan, which was perfect!
They're still smiling!

So we pulled up our Disneyland hotel on our GPS and drove an hour and half to Anaheim.  We arrived at 2:30am (that's 4:30am back home!) and got a royal 5 hours of sleep before we had to be up and ready for princess day at Disney!
I have to say I'm shocked we actually made it.  We ended up being 9 hours late.  We were supposed to meet Ga Ga and Papa at Downtown Disney for dinner to celebrate Daddy's birthday.  So we were bummed. 

But I was so thankful we made it in time for this...


And my sweet neighbor made me laugh when I woke up to this on my Facebook feed...


More to come soon from the Happiest Place on Earth! ...



Saturday, March 25, 2017

march catch up

Our niece celebrated her birthday and everyone came to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They rented a hotel room and all the kids got to swim.  They all had so much fun together!  It was nice to have all the cousins able to make it.
The kids loved having water fights with their uncles!
Kerigan with the birthday girl, Abby!
Jack is the oldest cousin and he is getting so big.  He is so sweet with the younger kids and was playing with Kerigan and making her laugh!
A little fun in the hot tub
Everyone took a pool break for some cake!
These two are about a year apart and have become good friends this past year.  They love every opportunity to get together!
Then there's these two...
It's so awesome to have such great neighbors for the kids to play with.  Kerigan drew this the other day- her "plan" for getting all her friends together!  I love the circle with "I'm so happy" in the middle.
We decided to explore some of the parks in town one evening when it started warming up a little bit!
This one quickly became a favorite
Can't wait to start enjoying more days like these soon!
I think my favorite days are the days where the kids are outside from sun up until sun down playing with their friends on bikes, scooters, etc.
This girl came to my room after school and had chosen an Iowa State gymnastics book for her take home book!  I was so thrilled I had to take her picture!  Ha! 
Then one busy evening carting kids around to activities, this girl lost her first tooth!
Love that little toothless smile
The tooth fairy left $5 for how many years she had her tooth!
The kids school celebrated Dr. Seuss week.  This was green eggs and ham day in Kindergarten!
Wacky Wednesday
Then it was so funny because the following week the whole school did a Wacky Wednesday so Andrew was so excited to get to dress up.  Kerigan said she didn't really want to again because she was getting "sick of it."  Ha ha!  As you can see, she changed her mind at the last minute!
Then I got to go on the Kindergarten field trip to Hancher auditorium to see a performance called Circus Oz.  It was so special to be able to go with my girl!
A little fun with snapchat on Oscars night!  Ha!
A feline funny for you
My girl and I checking out Clarie's after her ice skating lesson.  There's a plus to having the ice arena inside the mall!
My sweet 4th grader had his concert right before spring break.  They had to wear red, white and blue for songs about America.
He did so good and actually sang this time!
I'll never forget as a little boy how he would just stand there and not sing!  At least he always looked cute!  Ha!
He said this was his favorite song because he got to play an instrument.
I loved the bow at the end!
My handsome boy.  How can he be 10 and going into 5th grade next year!? :(  Time slow down.
My loves
This is Andrew's best friend Tanner.  His family is so sweet and we have enjoyed getting to know them.  We found out that they used to live by us before we all had kids and lived in another town!  Such a small world.
They met us at our favorite froyo place after the concert.
Andrew's nice music teacher, Dr. Fairfield.
March was full of a lot of packing!  At least Belle found a comfy place to be right in the way! Ha!
Routine dentist appointments for the kids found this sassy girl with 4 wiggly teeth and no cavities!
Andrew does need a filling.  But it's okay because he loved playing with this dog just like he used to at our old dentist office when he was 3! #itsthelittlethings

I think I'm finally caught up to our amazing spring break trip!  Vacation updates coming soon!

Related Posts with Thumbnails