Can We Get a Refund?!

Hello everyone! Chris, the girls and I just returned from Canada. We took the girls to visit Chris' family and had a wonderful time! It was their first trip to Canada AND their first airplane ride and they did great. I'll post pictures later but I want to devote this post to our trip up there.

Or as I like to call it "the trip from blazing, hot Hades."

Seriously, it was so bad it gets its own post.

It all began last Friday before we ever arrived at the airport. We are all loaded up and pulling out of our garage and Chris says, "You have a flat tire."

"What?" I say.

He repeats with much greater emphasis, "You have a flat tire."

You have got to be kidding me.

Luckily for us, Chris keeps car seats in his car so we only have to move everything to his car - including the kids - and we take off. But still, not the way you want to start your trip.

We arrive at the airport and the girls are excited. We have talked about flying for a couple of weeks and they are ready.

There's only one problem. Lily HATES loud noises and they were doing construction at the airport. As we were walking to security it got really loud.

The screaming ensues. "I want to go back home! I want to go back DOWN the escalator! I want to go DAT WAY!" Lily screams as she points backwards.

I try my best to calm her down, but she's having none of it. So as she screams, we trudge on.

We get to security and we start putting our belongings on the conveyor belt. Then it hits me. Lily has to put Bunny on the conveyor belt.

Again, you have got to be kidding me.

I think I have pointed this out before, but Lily doesn't go anywhere without Bunny. Bunny will be under her bouquet at her wedding as she walks down the aisle. Mark my word.

"Um, Lily, you have to put Bunny down," I gently say. So, screams of "I want to go home!" turn into "I want my Bunny back!"

Oh this trip is going to be great.

We finally get through security and get Bunny back. We get to our terminal and Lily wants nothing to do with getting on the airplane.

I say to Chris, "You know how we always said we never wanted to have THAT kid on an airplane? Well, we have THAT kid."

But you know what? She surprised me. Once we got on the plane, she was fine. I mean, she loved it!

Thank you Jesus! Score one for mommy.

Let me back up a little. As we were waiting for our plane, we were informed that it was delayed because of thunderstorms in Atlanta (where is where the plane was coming from).

It ended up being an hour late. As we finally boarded, the pilot said he would get us there as quickly as possible to try to avoid us missing our connections. We were sweating it. The flight attendant told us that while we were going to be late, we probably wouldn't miss our connection because almost every flight in and out of Atlanta was being delayed.

Famous last words.

We land about 20 minutes before our flight is about to take off. I still have some hope as long as we run to our flight. But then the pilot comes on and says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we've had some miscommunication and the ground crew here in Atlanta wasn't prepared for our arrival. We're going to have to wait a few minutes."

Say it with me now - you have got to be kidding me!

So that eats up about ten minutes of precious time for us. We finally get off the plane, and Atlanta being Atlanta, we arrive in terminal B and our next flight is leaving from terminal D.

Chris scoops up AC and I pick up LB and we are hoofing it through the airport. I mean, we are running. We jump on the trains, finally get to terminal D and run like the wind to get to our destination.

We make it! There's our plane!

But the door is shut and there isn't an agent in site. We can't get on. It's five minutes from take off.

We just missed our connecting flight to Buffalo.

Chris and I just look at each other like 'this is not happening.'

We find a ticket agent at another gate, tell her we just missed our flight and ask if she can help us. She looks us up in the computer and says, "They've already re-routed you. They have you flying into Charlotte."

"Charlotte?" Chris says. "And then to Buffalo?"

"No," she answers. "Just to Charlotte."

I thought Chris was going to lose it.

"Why Charlotte? We are not going to Charlotte. WE ARE GOING TO BUFFALO!"

She answers, not at all concerned about any of this, "I don't know sir. You need to go to customer service."

Now let me just have a quick aside and say this - And the airlines wonder why they are going bankrupt!!

Back to our story:

We go to customer service and I pick up the phone to talk to an agent. She tells me the only other flight to Buffalo is at 8:20 p.m.

That's FIVE hours later. Keep in my mind we have two little ones with us.

Can we say it all together now - you have GOT to be kidding me.

When I ask if she can get us there any sooner, she tells me no and that the 8:20 flight only has four seats left.

Fine. I'll take it.

Forget that we won't land until 10:30 p.m. Forget that after our drive to Chris' house, we won't arrive until 2 a.m. Here's my most immediate problem - how am I going to entertain my kids for the next five hours.

Lucky for them, their mother is neurotic. Before we left, I went and bought five brand-new DVDs and new coloring books and activity books (new being the operative word there. I didn't even let them see them until we left the house that morning)so they would have plenty to do on the plane. So, we ate lunch, parked ourselves outside our gate and they did great.



I'm telling you, I could not have asked for them to better. We even had people approach us who had noticed we had been sitting there for days and comment on how good our kids had been.

The Lord was watching out for us.

We FINALLY boarded our plane five hours later and made our way to the great white North.



LB fell asleep on the plane and AC watched one of her new DVDs. They were so good. And we pulled into Chris' parents' driveway at 2 a.m.

I'll tell you this, I've never been so happy to arrive at my destination in my entire life.

The rest of the trip, however, was wonderful! Believe me, it was all uphill from there!! I'll post some pix from our trip soon.