Our Last Minute Adventure

I will start blogging vacation details and pictures in the next day or so....after I have recovered. I just wanted to "quickly" explain our last minute adventure.

We left my parents' around 5pm, headed back for Seattle where we were to catch the flight home. It was another red-eye, leaving around midnight and getting in just before 3am. I made the "we made it to the airport safely, call ya in the morning" phone calls and proceeded to try to wrangle three kids in the airport for three hours. We get on the plane; Joey, Ethan and I in the very last row, Nick and Nick on the other side of the plane a couple rows up. It started out as the perfect flight. All three boys were asleep before take-off! I was just praying that they would stay asleep until landing. That was not a difficult prayer to answer.

As it was, Mt. Redoubt, a volcano 80 some miles from Anchorage (I'm not real sure about the specifics...just thought I'd throw in some "knowledgeable" info) decided to erupt, three times, in fact. So, the pilot came over the intercom and said that although the Anchorage airport was currently open, it would close before we got there and we were sent back to Seattle. So we landed back in Seattle a mere 60 minutes after we took off. We were told to pick up our baggage and leave, call reservations, because they were not re-booking flights that night as they had no idea when the Anchorage airport might be open.

By now, it was 1am, we had three sleepy, irritated little boys, and we had to find a hotel as quick as possible, knowing that we were not the only flight that had been redirected. So, Nick got on the phone as soon as he could, calling all the cheap hotels first. No such luck. Finally, we booked a room at the Double Tree Hotel, a very spendy room. Unfortunately, the hotel shuttles stop running at 1am, so we had to rent another car that would fit three car seats (not the cheap kind of cars, either) and try to get some sleep.

We finally got settled and the boys to sleep around 3:30-4:00am. When Nick called the airlines the next morning, the first flight we could get was for 4:10pm on Tuesday! So now we had a day and a half to waste in Seattle.

Needless to say, I have just now got home, eaten dinner, and gotten the boys in bed. So now I have to decide whether to unpack now or leave it for tomorrow. Who am I kidding? There was no thought in my head about unpacking tonight!!!

Have a blessed week. I will be in recovery for the next few days. Feel free to communicate in any way, I will still be playing secretary around here.

Thank you Mom and Dad, Mary and Chuck, and Angie and Steve for all your hospitality. Thank you Josh and Stacei and family, Aubrey and Gary and family, Megan, Grandma and Grandpa Dooley, Paul and Taylor, Grandmama, Aunt Karen, Aunt Carolyn and girls for taking time out of your schedules to spend time with us. I love and miss you all, and can't wait to get back to see you in July.