We woke up DETERMINED to have an easier travel day! We were going to get to the airport extra early. Luckily, our flight was a little later {but still early} so that helped too. Mark and I got up at 5 and got everything ready. We got the kiddos up around 5:30 and got them dressed and ready to go.
As we were all about to leave, Mark happened to check his phone and he had a message saying that our flight had been DELAYED. Boo. We checked and it was just delayed until 9:00 and so we were just going to let the kiddos watch some cartoons and wait to go to the airport. About an hour later we receive another call that our flight had now been delayed until 1:00! WHAT?!
No fun.
We got some breakfast and then decided to go and find a park to play for a bit – and kill some time. We found this awesome park close to the airport and the kiddos ran and played. We also decided to do our drawing for our next family trip! I am always so excited to find out where we are going to explore next!
TEXAS!
We are excited and can’t wait to plan our next trip!
We arrived at the airport at 11:00 and returned our car and got some lunch. The Baton Rouge airport is actually pretty small. There are only nine gates, one “restaurant” and one store. We went through security and sat down to have some lunch. Benjamin was definitely better when I was up and moving so while Mark and the other kiddos ate, I walked back and forth between the gates. While doing this, I noticed one of the departure lists now had our flight leaving at 3:00!
SHOOT ME NOW!
I was definitely getting a little frustrated! This was supposed to be an easier travel day!
I went back and told Mark and we were both just confused as to what was going on and why we hadn’t received any information about WHY it kept being delayed. We now had several move hours to kill in this itty bitty airport.
It actually worked out pretty okay though. They had the dinkiest little “playroom” which was just a room with two arcade games and some bead toys on the wall. But we had it all to ourselves and it was nice to have a place to kind of keep the kids. Plus, BONUS, it was right across from our gate so Mark and I could keep tabs on what was going on.
The kiddos did AWESOME and had a better attitude than a lot of the adults did! The plane was delayed again and we weren’t even given a time. A lot of people left upset after that but we didn’t really know what to do. We decided to just wait it out. All of a sudden a little before 4, they started loading us up!
We were so excited to finally get going! All three of the kids seriously did awesome. I was so proud of them for just rolling with everything and being so patient.
We finally got to Dallas {where we had an hour layover}, grabbed a quick bite to eat and boarded our next plane. We landed in Salt Lake at 8:30 {which felt like 9:30 to us going from central time}. Once we were coasting to the gate Sarah was pretty done. But I couldn’t blame her – we were all definitely tired and she had been up since 5:30 with no nap.
LONG DAY!
Jacob and Sarah both lost it waiting for our luggage. Jacob was on the floor “tired” and Sarah was crying hysterically in her stroller until she fell asleep. Benjamin {bless his little head} was as happy as could be. He had been a champ ALL day!
We hauled our three car seats {Mark is super human}, stroller, two bags, and three kiddos {each carrying a backpack} onto the shuttle and to the car. Sarah pretty much got into her car seat and immediately was OUT! Jacob wasn’t far behind.
We finally pulled into home around midnight and crashed!
One thing that I kept thinking of during this very long day was that it is all completely worth it. This tradition we have started with our family is probably our very favorite one for Mark and I – and we hope it will be for our kids as well as they get older. It takes some sacrifice to be able to go on these but it is all worth it. We are creating life long memories with our family and that is worth it all to me.
I can’t tell you how many times I heard on this trip that “we had our hands full”. And they are definitely FULL! But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was filled with such love for my little family on this trip. I love us. Even if it is crazy and tiring it is also very sweet and wonderful. This is us and I know I will never regret our decision to make these trip a priority.
Can’t wait for next year in Texas!
