Traveling H-E Double Toothpicks

I promise not to make this post very long- mostly because it is painful to relive! Basically, we were scheduled to fly to my Mom's house today and to complicate things a little bit- the Kirkland area got dumped on with snow the night before we were to arrive. And it wasn't just any kind of snow. It was the kind of snow that sticks like to the street like crazy and cripples the city. That being said, we were thrilled to learn that the flights to Seatac airport were not cancelled and we would be able to make it up there for our Christmas visit!

This enthusiasm is basically the last happy thought you will hear from me. Earlier in the day- my Mom called me and said that they wouldn't be able to get two cars out of the driveway to pick us up at the airport. She said she wanted to either get us a shuttle or pay for us to take a taxi home and I happily obliged and thought is was a great (and much safer) idea. Okay. So. We showed up at the airport and were in the longest line for check-in I have been in for a long long time. Matthew is still a lap child so I have to stand in a special line that took FOREVER! Then security was sluggish and then we learned our flight was delayed for 1 1/2 hours (which eventually turned into three hours). Picture kids going crazy, Matthew falling everywhere because he just needed to get on the plane and sleep, tons of people packed like sardines in the gate area, and then a call from my Mom saying that they called to see how long taxis were taking at the airport and someone told them two hours. Hmmm. Yeah. I was the one who said no to a shuttle earlier that day and really there is no blame to be placed here. We just wanted to get the heck out of San Jose and into Seattle so we could get to my Mom's house and relax.

We landed in Seattle at 10:00 p.m. All the kids had fallen asleep on the plane (their bodies thinking it was nighttime) and they were not happy at all to wake up and have to get off the plane! It took forever to get the stroller from the gate check, it took even longer to get our luggage, and we still needed to make our way to the taxi bay and catch a cab. It was about twenty-two degrees outside and yes people, the taxi bay was outside. We bundled the kids and headed outside to see one of the most shocking horrific sights ever. The line for the taxis was about 300 people deep. Yes, it wound around and around and around and I wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out! After thirty freezing minutes in line, all my kids were crying and I was trying to keep them occupied and push the six bags in line while I told Damien to go talk to all the limos and charted cars to see if he could work his usual magic. NO SUCH LUCK!

Okay, so this short story is now painfully long but apparently I need to get this out (you are all my therapy). Some guy comes by the line and says he has a chartered SUV and will take people to the Eastside (where my parent's town is). I said how much, he said $120. I said yes without really realizing I did. But I just wanted to get us out of there asap!!! The guy took us to his SUV and started loading the bags in the car when the head of security came over and told him NO, NO, NO! Apparently the guy wasn't licensed and didn't have insurance and the security guy told him if he saw him trying to drive people here again he would call the cops. Alrighty. We were now screwed. We had gotten out of line and were stuck again! I played the drama up a tiny bit to the security guy and said that we were now in trouble because we had gotten out of line! He told us to stay there and he would take care of us. Sure enough- the next minivan taxi that came up was ushered over to us and I didn't look back. Dude- load us up and get us the heck outta there! After a long, long, day- we made it to my Mom's. They were thankful to have us there and we were just happy to have the travel drama behind us. ***The pictures here were taken in the taxi on the ride home. Michael was done, done, done. Poor babies!