The Hughes Zoo: March 2008

As you probably gathered from the title of our last picture post, we were in Texas last weekend for Jacqui (Bill's cousin) & Alfredo's wedding. It was a weekend full of festivities and we enjoyed seeing family and introducing Tori to the whole bunch. As always, our Texas visits are never long enough.... We would have loved to visit with everyone for much more time.

As mentioned, it was a FULL weekend.... and it got off to a rather stressful start. Normally, I wouldn't post about such matters, but this is too good to pass up.

Our flight on Southwest Airlines was scheduled to leave at 6:50pm from LAX. Those of you unfamiliar with LA and its glorious traffic.... it can take anywhere from 40 minutes to 3 hours to get to the airport from our house. After a later start than planned, we were on our way. Traffic was moving along swingingly... Until it stopped. For about 5-6 miles, we were going 10 MPH. I kid not. (Very fun when you have 2 kids in the car, one of which is READY to eat!)

At 6:05pm, I called Southwest to see if there was ANY chance that the flight was delayed. At that point, we were still a good 3-4 miles away--which I was projecting to be at least 40 minutes at the rate we were going. The sweet customer service representative told me it wasn't delayed, but that they would continue to check bags until 20 minutes before departure. That gave us exactly 25 minutes to get to the airport and get our bags checked.

I'm not sure how.... I think it was reminiscent of the parting of the Red Sea, but somehow, God made a way, and we arrived at the curbside at 6:27pm. We catapulted (literally) out of the car, Bill started throwing bags on the curb. I grabbed kids, carseats, stroller, carry-ons, etc.... SO MUCH STUFF. Again, God made a way... there was NO ONE in the curbside check-in line. I shuffled the items a few at a time to the counter, huffing and puffing, explaining that we were 20 minutes from take-off. The guy seemed confident that we could still make it.... I had my doubts.

While I'm checking all the luggage (4 suitcases, 1 carseat, 1 pack-n-play-- 6 ITEMS TOTAL), Lexy was an angel. She seemed totally unfazed by the frenzied state I was in. She hung close to the stroller and just played with her dolls.

It was now about 6:37.
The security line was our next challenge.

More answered prayers.... Because of our stroller, we had to take the elevator, which drops you off at the FRONT of the security line.

For those of you who have never had the joy of traveling post-9/11 with children, let me just dispel the myth.... there is no joy. :) Getting all of your paraphernalia through that little opening on the X-ray machine while holding one kid on your hip, the other's hand in your hand, and still knowing where your boarding passes are after it all is a small miracle. Again, PTL.

Why was I going it alone in security, you might ask? Silly me. I forgot to mention:
BILL HAD TO LEAVE TO GO PARK THE CAR. Yes, bless his heart. I cannot imagine the adrenaline that must pass through your veins as your car pulls AWAY from the airport at 6:37 knowing that your flight is leaving at 6:50.

So, the girls and I made it through security and ran to our gate, which, again.... God's graciousness, was only the second one in the terminal. I'm not sure we would have made it if the gate had been farther down.

I figured that if I got to the gate with the girls and sort of "stalled", we might be able to buy Bill some time. I took my time putting the gate-check tags on the carseat and stroller.... And as calmly as possible tried to put all the loose odds and ends into the diaper bag. This is all going down at about 6:47pm. There is NO ONE left in the seating area... EVERYONE is already boarded.

I nonchalantly called Bill's cell phone, fully expecting him to be a good 10 minutes away. Miracle of all miracles, he answers and says, "I just got through security." Lo and behold, I see his face across the corridor.

As the phone was ringing to call Bill, for the first time the thought "What am I gonna do if he doesn't make it?" finally ran through my head. I began listing off all the hurdles I would encounter: hotel reservation--in his name; rental car reservation-- in his name; entertaining TWO kids on a three hour flight by myself WITHOUT the portable DVD player that Bill was carrying.... NIGHTMARE. I would have been stranded at the Houston airport at 12:30am local time with two kids and 6 BAGS.

So, we gather our belongings and head on to the plane at 6:49ish. Due to Southwest's open seating process, we had no assigned seats... And being SO LATE meant that there were no two seats together. It took THREE announcements over the intercom by the flight attendant to get a volunteer to change seats. Bill and Lexy sat together, and I sat in a seat across the aisle with Tori in my lap. The stress of it all surely showed on our faces because no sooner had our rear ends hit the seat, the flight attendant (an absolute angel) was right there saying, "Can I get you guys a drink, my treat?" :)

I cannot believe we made it.
Short re-cap= arrived at airport at 6:27 pm for a 6:50 pm flight and MADE IT!
Unbelievable. I plan on writing Southwest a "WELL DONE" note.
Oh! And I forgot the next miracle-- ALL 6 OF OUR CHECKED BAGS MADE IT, TOO!

Crazy beginning to a crazy weekend. I'll post more (with pictures!) later.