Living in the Airport

So we just returned home from an Awesome trip to Virgina and Duck Beach with my family. It was so fun we all loved it! ( pictures of the trip coming soon) The Plane ride to get there by my self with three kids Not so Fun!....

I was going a few days earlier than Jeff so i could make it to my brothers Graduation. My original flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30 am have one layover in Cincinnati and then end up in Richmond at 4: 30. A few hours to spare before 7 pm graduation party. I left my home at 7:15 am to have enough time to drive to the cities, drop my car off in the park and ride and check in at the airport. About 20 mins from Airport i get a call on my cell that my flight arrangements had been changed and now i have 2 layovers in stead of 1 and would be arriving in Richmond at 9pm. I was so mad i did not want to miss his graduation. I get to the airport have to pay a man to help me with all my luggage to go talk to a representative to see if there are any more flights that will get me to Richmond earlier. The lady tells me there is one threw Atlanta but i only have 2 Seats left and you need three! So i keep my flights and went through security (always fun with the kiddos by myself). Check in at my gate again to see if any other ways to get there sooner. But the Delta worker said this is the only option. So this 10:30 flight was delayed until 1:30. Luckily the airport had a kids play area to help pass some of the time. We finally board and get to Cincinnati. I check with the lady to find out which gate i need to go to next. So she gives me a print out of my whole itinerary and i race to the next flight which is across the airport and leaves in 30 mins. We finally get there and they are still boarding so i was relived that we made it. I hand the guy my stuff and he looks at me and said Um You don't have any seats on this flight.

WHAT?

I don't understand i have talk to a million people, had multiple messages on my cell phone that this is what my arrangements were. He tells me sorry they booked you on an overbooked flight there are no seats available and the next flight out is tomorrow morning at 8 am. At this point he can see my tears starting to come. I was so mad and did not understand what happened. He calls another assistant to come help me while he finishes boarding the passengers with seats. I am holding Caden tight and fighting back tears and she is typing a million miles per hour. She finally stops and said i can get you on a 9 pm flight tonight. At that point i was thinking I have already missed all of the graduation and I would take anything tonight, i did not want to sleep there. She said sorry i don't know how this happened and gave me a few food vouchers. Again we get to hang out at the lovely Airport for many hours. Totally missing the graduation- the whole reason why i am traveling alone.

Luckily Cincinnati also had a great play area so the kids did really well considering the circumstances. This was also the day the Michael Jackson died so there was lots of interesting news playing on CNN on the Airport TVs.

We checked our gate out a few hours early making sure we indeed had seats this time. We ate played. I was talking to Jeff on my phone telling him about my day and how it could not get any worse. But I spoke to soon. It started thundering and lightning and they were not letting any planes in or out of Cincinnati until it stops! Of course - perfect! We waited out the storm and thankfully it stopped and we did finally get on a plane at 10:30 pm just a few hour delay. All the kids fell asleep on the plane. I had to wake them up when we got to Richmond- (always fun, they are so happy when they are woken up in the middle of the night and have to walk) We arrived about midnight and were so excited to see my Dad waiting for us!
What a day! Crazy! I don't know if i will be flying any time soon! or at least not by myself or have any layovers!
Here are a few pictures of the day. The kids really did have fun! I am so grateful for the people who thought to put in a children's area! THANK YOU!
Minneapolis-

Now in Cincinnati

watching a little Disney Channel