And we're back

Hello! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! In all the holiday crazy, there was no blogging for the mama before we flew to Grandma and Grandpa's in the land of dial up.

Christmas was lovely. It took some figuring and bumbling, but we had our first family Christmas Eve and Christmas. We shot for a meld of Gentry-Lewis traditions and I think it was good. But lest I attempt to play blog catch-up for the past 3 weeks, I'll refrain from the whole holiday play by play and share a couple glimpses into how we spent our time.

Post Christmas, the girls and I packed up for Iowa. Papi took us to the airport and hopped the Metro for work. Lots of hugs, no tears, we're cool. Weather forecast for Chicago was sketchy, but we boarded on time. It was Round 2 of Mama, Olaiya and lap baby Naomi. Our Thanksgiving run went seamlessly. This time, it did not. No, I do not speak of restless, bleary-eyed children that want to be anywhere but the plane, but of our travel plans. They did not keep. Once settled on the plane, we got to stay there, on the runway, for two hours - Chi-town weather wasn't doing too well. Thankfully unlike Round 1 of MOLBN, Mama remembered to pack snacks ($3 cookie anyone?) and beverages. Once we did get to take off, the girls did great and Naomi slept for 30 minutes. I thought, no problem, she'll sleep on the flight to Des Moines after lunch, 'cause hey, that one will have been delayed by the weather too, right? No. That flight's not happenin'. The next flight is 5:40p - it's just after 1p. Okay, not awesome - I was supposed to be pulling into Mom and Dad's driveway at that time, but we're okay. O'Hare has a Macaroni Grill - can I get a hi-5? Semi-luxurious dining for the traveling mama and butcher paper covered tables for all to be entertained. Plus Pasta Milano, the best chain restaurant pasta dish ever. So we hung there. We made phone calls. We went to the restroom. We checked flights. We walked around. We ate snacks. We went to the restroom. The girls did laps. We went to the restroom. And hey! It's 4:45! Woowoo! Let's go girls!

And then, we get a further taste of what our Round 2 MOLBN destiny is to be: our flight's delayed. We make phone calls. We hear there's a children's museum and hang there and try not to lose the children. We go back. Our flight's delayed again. We make phone calls. Papi declares there will be no future rounds of MO(LB)N. We go to the restroom and put on pjs. We get snacks. We camp at our gate. Our flight's delayed again. We make more phone calls. At this point, we're slated to arrive in Des Moines after 9 pm. The plan was for Uncle Clint to pick us up post lunch and head South to Farmburg. Now there's snowy roads in Iowa and our ETA at Ma and Pa's is 12:30a. Awesome. Thankfully, the delays stop and boarding begins at 8:00p. The girls sleep on the flight and on the drive to SE Iowa. Total time in airport: 7 hours. Total travel time: 18 hours.

We made it home for Christmas. And it was sweet. Scot and Allison and Jonas in from San Diego, Clint and Lindsay, the whole gang minus Kurty. It was the first time the cousins were old enough to play with each other, and it was so fun to see. There was snow all over and Grandpa had a game plan for getting his coastal kiddos out in it - a steep snowy ditch hill, a long snow-packed gravel road hill, a collection of runner sleds and tobaggons, a four wheeler, and some rope. Now that's some makin's. Jonas and Naomi didn't think snow in the face was too fun, but Olaiya couldn't get enough. Hopefully the cold fronts will realign for future Christmases.

Since Kurt was headed to "the meetings" in New Orleans for 4 days after the New Year, the girls and I hung in Iowa for 8 days and were scheduled to return home the day after Kurt returned.

Once again, we had a 7:30a departure from the house to get to the airport on time. It was really nice outside, so no worries. Grandma and Grandpa took us to Cedar Rapids, Olaiya got to play some Go Fish and then we said our goodbyes. There was a scoch of fog.

As our boarding time approached, we had no plane outside. Our take off time passed. No word. Then a plane arrives and things get in motion. We board the little cigar with wings and get set. No folks, we're about 1/4 mi. short on visibility. Okay. We sit on the plane for an hour. Fog's still bad. Alright, we'll get off and regroup when things clear up a bit. And it was at this point, the mama got angry. I've never been "that person". The one who's got a "flying's not fun" story. Okay, so there was the time we were on a red eye flight from San Diego to Chicago pregnant with Olaiya and I puked all over myself, our seats and the people in first class, but that's another story. I've never experienced delays. Never had a flight canceled. Never sat on the runway. Never had my travel plans altered. So I'm like, Seriously? We're doing this again? But hey, the gate shop had Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas and Mt. Dew, so everything seemed sunnier. And the sun did come out! Woowoo! Buuurn fog, burn.

So we board the plane. We're on the runway. And the pilot says, "I'm sorry folks. There's a VIP situation in Chicago and they've put a ground stop on all flights coming in and going out. We'll hope to take off in 20 minutes or so." (People had been watching CNN during interval gate time - it was the President.) So we waited. Got another announcement. And waited. Were served some beverages. Got another announcement and waited some more. And then the fog came back. Olaiya had just dropped her crayons and said, "Mom, I think we've got a problem here," and the whole plane cracked up (easy long term confinement crowd). After two hours of "20 more minutes" the pilot had us get off the plane.

So we go to the restroom. We make phone calls. We hang out at our gate. We get some snacks. We chat with the pilot, who's very skeptical at the idea we're going to be leaving Iowa in a plane that evening. We stand in line to rebook. Naomi finally falls asleep for a 5 o'clock nap. And our flight's canceled. Grandpa leaves to come back to get us. And we arrive back to Grandma's for some late night Mac before bed. Total time in airport/plane: 8 hours. Total "travel" time: 13.5 hours.

Next morning we leave at 7:00a, but this time we're headed South - St. Louis baby. Yeah, I'd had enough of the small airport, more-than-one-flight scene. One and done. We're driving the 3.5 hours - a relatively sure thing - getting on one plane and landing in DC.

And we did. Total bliss. Grandpa chauffeured us. The girls watched Cinderella (on a newly purchased DVD player...did I say we love Grandpa?). We curb side checked our luggage. We were given three seats. The girls slept. The flight attendant gave us home baked chocolate chip cookies as we exited the plane. And the Papi was there for the baby girls to run to when we landed safely at Ronald Reagan. Total airport time: 1 hour. Total travel time: 7 hours.

Can't get enough? Want to hear more details about our times and travel? A Shutterfly album is in the making...I'll let you know.