Clarks Reunite 2014: mad dash

All excited on the shuttle!

We were lucky enough to spend the last week in Utah visiting with family in the beautiful mountains. Before we get into the festivities, I wanted to jot down our travel experiences.

We started our adventures in the early morning with me waking up to feed Vivian at 4:45 am. We got showered, dressed and loaded up the car to leave for Atlanta at 5:30 am. Our drive went pretty well with only a huge rainstorm and a small detour to our hotel where we would pick up the shuttle. Our goal was to get to the hotel at 7:00 but we ended up not getting there until 7:10. No worries, our shuttle came and took us to the airport dropping us off around 7:40. We thought we were doing great to make our 9:05 flight.

Wrong. When we dragged all our luggage, kids, stroller and such into the airport we saw the Southwest lines three deep and curving around all the way to security. Immediately our stress levels sky rocketed. Would we actually make it?

Well we got in line and slowly inched along. Bored, Henry started exploring and opened the heart attack first aid station door. Sirens started blaring and Henry started crying. The paramedics came and were really nice to him and said it happened all the time. But we got lots of fun looks from the surrounding crowds of people.

Chilling in the Phoenix airport

We finally make it to the counter to check in and get on our way. Luckily Atlanta has a stroller security line that we got to go through. Its supposed to be quicker but we would soon find out its not at all quicker. But first, Vivian didn't have a boarding pass. As a lap child, she doesn't have her own ticket but only a boarding pass that should have been stapled to mine. Well, they didn't give us one. Steve and Henry stayed at security while I raced back to Southwest and pleaded with an employee to print me one without having to get back into line. I must have looked desperate and pathetic because I was able to zoom back to my boys within ten minutes. 

Sadly we spent the next twenty minutes in an agonizingly slow security line. The stroller line is also the wheelchair line. As we saw each minute pass and more and more wheelchairs whizzing past us, it was becoming apparent that we weren't going to make our flight. 

Once through security, we raced down the escalator--yes, I took the stroller on the escalator (twice!) and got on the next train to our terminal. We asked the people on the train if we could be near the doors as our flight was leaving in literally five minutes. Everyone was super friendly, moved out of our way and wished us good luck. 

Steve ran ahead with Henry and I tailed behind with Vivian--again on the escalator, if I had waited for the elevator we would not have made it. Henry lost his shoe at the top of the escalator and we were quite the sight, running to our gate. It was like that scene at the beginning of Home Alone. No joke. 

We made it with two minutes to spare. Phew!

Getting our wiggles out before flight #2

Once on board the plane, we had to convince someone to move so Henry and Steve could sit together. "You don't want this 4 year old sitting by himself," I said and a kind lady changed seats. I sat alone with Vivian and another family. The flight went well except my neighbor kept shouting as he was playing video games and it kept waking her up. She also had two blow outs and we only brought one blanket so she had to be swaddled in a poop blanket. Sigh. We had a layover in Phoenix and then made it to Salt Lake City; tired, hungry and grumpy!

I'll do a post on traveling with kids later but for now I am done. I kind of stressed myself out all over again just typing this up.