Tuesday Travel Log

I kinda laugh and roll my eyes when Shawn says he doesn't travel much for work.  I know he is comparing himself to the sales guys who are out of town for 5 days a week, every week...but when you compare it to most people...he still travels (atlease a couple days out of the month).  Now I am not complaining.  He has a great job, that of which I am thankful for.  I can handle it when he is gone, but it doesn't negate the fact that I still miss him.  Every so often we get the opportunity to 'tag a long' on his business trips. 

At the beginning of March, I got a call from him while he was at work.  They were setting up a training class in London, and wanted Shawn to be a part of it.  He wanted to know if I wanted to come and bring the kids.  The wheels started going, and we figured out how we could make it possible.  Between Shawn's job and my job with the airlines our kids have been blessed to go many places...and this was no different.

Shawn had a conference he was attending in Dallas.  He left on Sunday, Apr. 11.  Our plan was to meet him on Wednesday, and then fly out of Dallas on Thursday to London.  Plans changed when I called to list us on our flight (oh the joys of standby)...the flight we were hoping to leave on was overbooked and the chances of all 5 of us to get on the flight were not good.  Wednesday looked better so we decided to shoot for that and see what happens....little did we know what lie ahead. 

On Tuesday I got our bags packed, picked Caden up from school, and headed straight to the airport!  We arrived in Dallas that night, and met up with Daddy.  In the morning Shawn went to the remaining part of the conference while we hung out at the hotel.  We even were able to get some lunch with our old friend Lisa.  I hadn't seen her in forever.  It was great to catch up, and see her new little baby, Noah. 

Soon we were off to the airport yet again to see if we could get ourselves to London.  At ticketing, the agent told us it looked okay.  It was going to be tight, but we may be able to get on.  So we checked our bags, and had high hopes as we headed to the gate.  Our hopes were deflated when they paged our name only to tell us that there was no chance we would get on the 7:35pm flight. 

My mind started to reel.  I was bummed.  I packed our kids up and flew all the way to Dallas, and now I am going to have to turn around and go home.  My plans of seeing my kids playing in London were gone.  I now had wished that I would have just stayed home.  Yet we waited to see if the inevitable would happen.  Boarding came and went, and we were left at the gate.  Luckily there was a flight at 9:05pm...our last chance to get there.  It still looked bad, but we hoped against hope. 

I began following the two little ones as they ran back and forth the 'moving walkways.'  My eyes kept wandering over to the gate hoping to see our names would be 'cleared.'  Slowly one by one...IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!  We were so happy!  We would get to London after all! 

They started boarding, and shortly after they made an announcement.  A volcano had just erupted in Iceland, and they would have to suspend boarding until they were sure it was safe to travel.  Soon they started boarding again...then stopped it again....and finally they were sure we could go, and boarded the whole plane. 

I sat down in my seat, and let out a sigh of relief. 

We actually we made it! 

I was so glad!  The flight went wonderfully. Thomas slept almost the entire time!!

Then we landed...they shut down the airport indefinitely.

That was when I thought to myself...What in the world did we get ourselves into!!

Our family seems to be traveling alot lately.  I figured that I would devote Tuesdays to share our Travel-Log.  If you would like to join along feel free!!