What a journey

Thursday Dec 20th Erica took our family to Phoenix to catch a plane to Chicago then on to Moline Ill. where we would be picked up by my father in law and drive 35 minutes to Muscatine Iowa and spend the Christmas then on Dec 28th my father in law would take us back to Moline Ill. to catch a plane back to Chicago then onto Dallas/Fortworth for a wedding then back to Dallas/Fortworth on Jan 1st back to Phoenix I know it sounds simple but here is what really happened.

Erica took us to the Airport on Dec 20th just as planned (Thank you Erica) we boarded our plane and flew to Chicago just before we landed Joshua who had been sleeping woke up and the boy was on fire hot I had no thermometer with me but my guess would be around 103ish the good news I travel with Tylenol for kids so I gave him some medication we got off the plane and went to our connecting flight to Moline. We had to board the plane outside in the wind and snow temp somewhere around 20-30 degrees. I am wearing Capri's, sandals, a short sleeve shirt and a light zip up hoody, Joshua has no jacket it was in the suitcase and Brian and Hannah were OK. I had Hannah give Joshua her jacket and I gave her mine and out into the bad weather we went to board a plane we got on the plane sat there for a while then the pilot says sorry this flight can not leave the visibility in Moline is bad so it's been cancelled everyone has to go back in the airport and back to the ticketing counter to see what they can do for you. Then they proceed to tell us they can take us to Peoria Ill. 1 1/2 hours away from where we needed to be in the morning and they would give us a coupon for a discounted hotel room for the night or we could sleep in the airport I was trying to keep my joy and my witness as I tried to explain that my son was sick he has no jacket and why should we have to pay for a hotel and the ticketing agent had no sympathy at all so I decided to go sit down and let my husband deal with it. A few minutes later Brian came with a voucher for a free stay at the Sheraton (Thank you Lord) We then asked if we could get Joshua's jacket out of the suitcase they just took off the plane and was sitting outside the door and they told us NO we couldn't touch our suitcases, so we went to catch the shuttle to the hotel it is now midnight and we had nothing with us. The nice man at the Sheraton gave us toothbrushes and toothpaste. (OH yes I forgot to tell you all this time I have been hand carrying the dress that Hannah is to wear in the wedding to make sure it gets there) After a warm night at the Sheraton and some vomiting by Joshua we got up and went downstairs to catch the shuttle back to airport and as we were sitting on the shuttle ready to pull away I realized I left the dress in the hotel closet so the shuttle driver told Brian he had 3 minutes to go and get back because he was leaving thank God Brian made it. Now on to catch our flight to Peoria and it's 6am. (mind you we have no brush either so we all looked so pretty) We get checked in and go straight to a place where I can buy a comb and we all comb our hair we look somewhat better so we go to get on our plane and they tell us it too is cancelled due to bad weather and they don't know when they can get us out. We call Brian's dad who is on his way to Peoria to get us and he decides he will just drive to Chicago and pick us up (3-3 1/2 drive) so we found a play area and let the kids play while I drank water and Starbucks and waited for Brian's dad to come and get us. He stopped so we could eat breakfast and Joshua who is still sick says to us " I can't burp" then proceeds to vomit all over the table.

This was the beginning of our trip. Then Christmas Sunday rolls around and Brian and I are so excited to go to church we needed to be fed and just take in God's word to refresh us so we went to the Calvary Church in town (one of the big churches there we have been before amazing worship and preaching was OK) we get up drive there and the place is empty we were so baffled then the big marque sign out front said "Service Cancelled" with no explanation. We sat there for a little bit watching families pull in and leave as they read the sign too it was so SAD. Brian and I said who cancels church? especially on Christmas Sunday (you need to understand our choices for church are very limited and the only other place was E.V. Free (great pastor not so good worship we have been there before too) but by the time we go to the other side of town in the snow we would miss most of it. We decided to go have breakfast and when we walked in they asked me smoking or non smoking I was taken off guard I said "Why would you let someone smoke where there is food?" then I remembered I wasn't in Calif. or Arizona anymore. I said non smoking please let me tell you the place stunk like stale cigarettes gross.

We had a nice visit with Brian's family and then came the day to leave Dec 28th we drive to the Moline airport, check in our baggage and go to the gate the catch our plane and they they say over the loud speaker that it is beginning to snow hard and they are cancelling our flight and without thinking I screamed out loud "You have got to be kidding me" so we went back to the ticket counter (thank God Brian's dad waited to see if we took off) and waited in a very long angry line to be told OH we can't get you out of here until Monday (this is Friday and the wedding is Sunday) I told the lady that was unacceptable I had to have my kids in Texas for a wedding on Sunday she said there was nothing she could do for us unless we were willing to drive to Chicago and catch a 9pm flight from another airlines (let's just say compassion was not her gift) we told her we would drive to Chicago whatever it took to get to Texas. (I started calling my family & friends and said please pray we have to get out of here) I went and told my father in law what we had to do and he was not happy he did not want to drive us in the snow to Chicago so we rented a 4x4 SUV and off we went to Chicago. (it's a good thing Brian grew up driving in the snow.) We got on the road and the interstate was very well plowed and we got there in a little over 3 hours and that was even with stopping for gas and driving through Burger King. We got all checked in and found out our flight was behind schedule and we wouldn't be leaving until 10pm. 10 pm rolls around and we are on our way to Dallas/Fortworth, we land and catch a shuttle to the rental car place we get our rental car and find out our luggage doesn't fit in the trunk of our full size vehicle. (we came back with 2 more suitcases than we left with due to Christmas) so we squished the kids a large suitcase and a stroller into the back seat and got to the hotel at 2am. We checked in got to our room and there is only 1 bed in it I told the family to just sit still and I would go down and take care of this and they got us a room 3 doors down with 2 beds Millage's get to bed 2:30am.

We had a great time in Texas with our friends and the wedding was beautiful. The kids were so cute and the bride beautiful beyond words. I love Texas. We all spent new years eve at the bride and grooms apt. having dinner and playing games and watching TV and enjoying ourselves.

We left New years day to go back to the airport first we dropped off our rental car and carried our 7 bags into the rental car terminal looked to catch the shuttle back to the airport we looked at the departure board to see what terminal we needed (American flys out of A,B,C, D, & E) and our flight wasn't up there so Brian called American Airlines to find out what terminal our flight was leaving from and they informed him that the flight on our itinerary didn't exist. (by the way I got sick with a fever and sore throat and coughing at the wedding reception) this information was more than this sick mommy could handle and I began to cry. American told us that the only way they could look us up was by flight number and since ours didn't exist they couldn't help us we had to call travelocity who booked our flight for us. Brian called travelocity who had to look us up through our email address and research all the emails they sent us to figure this out then tell us oh yes they changed your flight however no one let us know after we found out what flight we were on and checked the board we realized it was leaving earlier than our original flight so we took the shuttle back to the airport where the driver left us off at the arrival not the departure and told us she was not allowed to go up to the departure and we could go inside and take the elevator up to departure (we have 7 pieces of luggage to check in two kids and a stroller) thanks to a very helpful daughter and an amazing husband we got it all up there and got checked in hurried through security and went straight to our gate and boarded our plane, as we took off I was so relieved we were on our way back to Phoenix.

Let me tell you when the pilot said were beginning our landing into Phoenix I looked out the window and told Brian I had never seen anything so beautiful as Phoenix. My sweet friend Erica as there to greet us with a smile and a big vehicle and she got us home safely.(Thank you again Erica) We put the suitcases into the house and went straight to Urgent care for mommy. I was told I have a viral infection and given a prescription for Vicadon for the pain in my throat and my headache. We are so glad to be home and needless to say we will NOT be traveling by plane during the holidays ever again.

The Millage's are back in Surprise and so happy to be here. The first thing Joshua asked us last night was "when can we go to church I want to go to church" I know the feeling we are looking forward to Sunday so we can get fed and be with our church family.