We got to the airport around 5:30a since our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:06a. We checked our bags and headed to security. I love flying with kids because we got to bypass the seriously long lines at security and headed to the Family area. They are a lot nicer and actually let us take our time getting everything ready and through the scanners.
We got to our gate about 6a and had about a half hour to kill before they started boarding. So I strolled with Allen to Starbucks {the second one we saw in Washington the whole time we were there!} and got Dave and myself some coffee and the kids some pastries. Around 6:30 is when our perfect morning came to a screeching halt... I knew something was up when our plane still wasn't at our gate at this time..
"For the passengers of flight 406 headed to San Francisco, There is a mechanical problem with the flap on the wing. We have no idea when it will be fixed. It could be 10 minutes or 4 hours, we just don't know. We will keep you updated."
I almost cried, Literally! This was the first time that I can remember as an adult that I have had a delayed flight. It was especially stressful because we had no idea when we would be getting home and we had one hyper kid, one sleeping kid and one crabby kid.. {i will let you guess, but those are in birth order..}
Around 7a {remember, our flight was supposed to leave at 7:06a} we hear another announcement:
"We are currently trying to move passengers with no checked luggage to other flights. If you would like, you can go to United Customer Service and try to get onto another flight or connecting flight. We are sorry for this inconvenience and are trying to get everything working."
My ass ran over to Customer Service and waited in line. There were two people ahead of me and within 3 minutes of waiting in line, 50 people were behind me.. phew! It was finally my turn! The lady was going to try to get us a flight straight to Sacramento, but Alaskan Airlines was at its max. So she decided to just keep us on our flight and then Protected us on a flight that was taking off to SFO at 2:15p and printed us tickets. Let me remind you that it is only about 7:15a.
I heard music to my ears at about 7:50a:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, The plane is fixed and passed all of its test runs. We will start boarding in 15 minutes! Thank you everyone for your patience and understanding!"
We were finally on the plane and in our seats at 8:15. The flight was a lot smaller since 30% of the passengers took other flights, which was nice! We were ready to go.. but the plane wasn't. We sat at our gate for about 30 minutes. The kids were getting cranky and I was personally getting really frustrated! At about 9a we finally pull away from the gate and we started down the runway/tarmac. We then come to a stop and then the pilot comes on the loud speaker:
"Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. Due to San Francisco's weather, SFO is only letting a certain number of planes head there per hour. So we will be waiting for about 15-20 minutes. Sorry for the delay and we should be taking off soon."
So let's recap for a minute... We took off from SeaTac 8 minutes before we were scheduled to land in San Francisco.. Just freaking lovely!
DJ and Allen slept for about 45 minutes while we were flying, then all hell broke loose.. Everyone was crabby and hungry.. I forgot to pack their snacks in the diaper bag and they were pissed! The one thing I hate about United is that they do not provide snacks of any kind during a flight under 4 hours. Just Drinks. I asked if I could purchase any of the food and they said no because it was for first class only.. I was beyond livid! So I decided to just let the kids scream and cry and fight.. I was mentally exhausted and just didn't care.
About 11:30 we hear the pilot come on the loud speaker again with some more shitty news that we would have to wait about 20 minutes to descend. So we flew in circles around Point Reyes. I was so ready to get off of that plane, I could feel the walls caving in. The fog was insane in San Francisco and we finally landed around noon. We had to taxi in and wait another 15 minutes to get to our gate.
I have never been so happy to get off of that plane in my life! The kids too! Dave's cousin Carol was at the airport to pick us up and was such a blessing! We kept her updated with everything and she was totally okay with it. She knows how airports are, her husband works for united. I got the kids in the car and they were so excited to see her! They told her all about Santa and their presents. Dave got the luggage and stroller in the car and we were finally headed to our car!
Poor Allen was so tired, he cried himself to sleep. We transferred the kids and everything else into our car {without waking Allen up!} got some snacks and at 1pm we were on our way HOME!!! About half way home, we finally saw sun!! It was amazing! It was cloudy and rainy 6 out of the 7 days we were in Seattle. Allen woke up about 3/4 of the way home, he was a tired little guy! Dave started getting really tired at around 3p and was dazing when I yelled at him "Dave watch the road!" and he pulled the car back into our lane. We almost drove head-on into a K Rail. From then on out, I watched him like a hawk. It really jolted him and his adrenalin was racing. I told him to pull over and I would drive.
We walked into our house at 3:30p. That was a total of 11 1/2 hours. Our journey was unbelievably tiring but I am glad that all Five of us made it home safely. Reagan passed out around 6:30 and didn't wake up until 6a this morning! I have already done a total of 5 loads of laundry and am now going to go through all of the kids toys and clothes..
Did I mention that I am so happy to be home?!?
Oh and a certain little boy will be ONE in SIX DAYS!!!
