Leaving on a Jet Plane!

There was an article in the Economist that said 70% of flights in the United States were significantly delayed in the last year. I believe them. :-)

Alec says "let go, Mom, so I can look at the airplanes!"

So we decided to go out to Utah for a fun little vacation to visit family with what remained of Nick's vacation time. We had the flights perfectly timed out so Nick would work a half day but still get to Utah with time for the kids to play and then go to bed at a decent time. Ha Ha! What fools we were to think we had any control over what time we would ACTUALLY get there!

Elyssa, feeling a little warm in the terminal, but still happy and content!

Alec saying "Plane! Plane! Truck! Plane!"

We arrived right on time and were at the gate 20 minutes early, only to learn that our plane had a flat tire... and would not be able to take off for at least 5 hours because apparently there weren't any spare tires at the airport (even though Des Moines Airport is supposedly a maintenance hub for the airline we were on). After standing in line for over an hour with the two babies and talking on the cell phone to airline representatives for 20 minutes we were set on another flight... but our baggage might not make it. What! I have two babies! What is in the bags is in those bags for a reason! I need those bags! After some kind prodding our bags were moved and confirmed for our next flight. Great! We'll only be an 1 1/2 hours late. We can do that. No play time for the kids. Just put them straight to bed.... wrong! That flight got delayed also due to bad weather in Chicago. Finally the airline put us on a flight to Dallas and then from Dallas to Salt Lake putting our arrival time at my parents house for 1 AM. Yikes!

Elyssa says "Ha ha! My Daddy is so funny!"

Alec "cheesing" for the camera.

Despite it all our kids were ANGELS and didn't throw fits or cry on the plane or in the terminals or anything! It was amazing! Alec smiled and said "hi!" to everyone he saw! He even called a few people grandpa! I think my kids fly better than most adults. I feel extremely blessed to have such good little travelers. I can only hope they continue to travel so well as long as we are so far away from family. Amazing that in the time we got from our house to my parents house, you could add three hours and we could have driven. :-) I just have to note that despite all the trouble getting there all the flight attendant and airline employees were extremely helpful and friendly. Still I felt very grateful that none of our flights were delayed on the way back home! I guess we were just part of the lucky 30%!

The kids, happy as can be, on the airplane at 10:30pm (11:30 pm our time)!