Our Palm Springs Vacation

We were so blessed this year to be able to go on a warm vacation.  When Dean and I made the decision for me to stay at home with the kids we knew we would have to give up many things..... vacations were on that list.  The last few winters my parents have started going away to a warm location and renting a house for a month.  This year they allowed us to stay with them in Palm Springs for 10 days.  Since they graciously pay for the accommodations and we were able to use Airmiles for our rental car, all we had to pay for were the flights..... and T can still fly for free!  We were so excited to be able to get away.  We did not think we would be going on any big family holidays until I went back to work after the kids were in school.  But, we were very happy to find ourselves in sunny Palm Springs this year :)

The weather was amazing!  Sunny and warm every single day.  We didn't see a drop of rain the entire time we were there.  Staying in the house made the vacation very doable with two little kids.  They had their own room!  They did a great job of sharing a room together and it was really nice for Dean and I to have a room to ourselves.  The house had its own pool which L really enjoyed.  She jumped in the first day and then she was a fish for the rest of the week.  Now that she is older and pretty confident in the water she is happy to swim by herself (with water wings) and I don't always have to be in the pool.  Plus, the pool had a great shallow end where she could walk around with water only to her waist.  Then there was the hut tub.  The pool was a hit but the hot tub won gold ;)  Both kids loved the warm water, especially cause Grandma was always willing to go in with them.  Grandma is not really a cold water person.... which is putting it pretty mild. lol.

We usually spent the mornings sightseeing or shopping (more on that in future posts) and the afternoon was spent by the pool while T had a nice long nap.  Then........ wait for it........ my mom cooked us supper every night.  Sigh.  I was more than happy to clean up the kitchen after she cooked.  After eight years of cooking and cleaning up every meal, there was nothing I appreciated more than my mom's cooking for an entire week.  I know I may be sounding a bit dramatic, but you have no idea how much I enjoy my mom's cooking :)  The second best thing to a week of her cooking was that in the evenings my mom would put the kids to bed and Dean and I could go out...... by ourselves...... in the evening!  That doesn't happen very often these days.  Dean and I took advantage of that and went to the evening street fair, the Cheesecake Factory, or sat outside in the hot tub with a bowl of popcorn and glass of wine.  Yep, best vacation ever.

Airplane Adventures

Today when I walked in the door of my house I have never felt so excited to be home.  We had a wonderful vacation with my parents in Palm Springs (more on that another time) but we did not have much luck with airplane travel.  On the way down to Palm Springs we did catch both our planes on time and our baggage all arrived with us.  We had to connect through Denver to get to our final destination.  Our flight to Denver went quite well.  L was a fantastic traveller!  She sat quietly and colored, read books, ate snacks and watched a few shows on my iphone.  T was a different story.  On our first flight he didn't cry or fuss but he also did not want to sit still, no matter how many new toys and snacks we gave him.  Oh well, we made it to Denver without much trouble.  Our flight from Denver to Palm Springs was later in the evening and T was tired.  He didn't know what to do with himself.  Finally he just started crying.  He screamed for about 5 minutes when I heard (actually the whole plane heard) a man two rows behind us scream, "Shut your f*****g baby up!"  I was ready to give that guy a piece of my mind.  Did he really think that if I could make T stop crying I would just choose to let him scream?!  After looking back and realizing how big that man was, I decided it was better for me to just keep my mouth shut.  Dean grabbed T and walked up to the front of the plane.  Luckily there were some nice grandpas sitting at the front and they played with T until he finally fell asleep quietly.  I was a little shaken up but then a whole bunch of people around us took turns telling us that they understood and it was no big deal, especially cause it was only 5 minutes.  God bless those people cause they sure helped this mother feel better :)  Once T was sleeping we had a nice quiet ride until landing.  The plane landed in 50mile an hour wind.  I have flown quite a lot but I have never had a landing like that.  Scary.  When the plane finally stopped applause broke out.  My parents met us at the airport and all feelings of that not so good plane ride disapeared and our wonderful vacation began.  Oh, and we found out later from the flight attendant that the man who yelled at me was drunk and on his way to rehab.  Sheesh.

As we all know, all good things must come to an end.  After spending the morning shopping and part of the afternoon sitting by the pool, we headed back to the airport 10 days after we had arrived.  We knew our flight was delayed but United was not telling how long the delay was.  It turned out that the delay was almost two hours.  We figured we would not be making our connection in Denver so I spoke to the United agents in Palm Springs and they booked us on a flight for the next day out of Denver in case we did not make our plane that evening.  Well, since everyone on board was connecting in Denver that plane flew fast.  Really fast.  I didn't know they could do that but they managed to shave almost a half hour off the length of the plane ride.  When we arrived in Denver we ran (I mean ran!) accross the airport just in time to watch our plane leave the gate.  Sigh.  The poor guy running with us was trying to make his connection because his wife was in labour.  Needless to say, he missed the birth of this son and he was mad.  Poor guy :(  It sucked missing that flight but I figured that we had another one reserved the next morning so it wasn't the end of the world.  When I arrived at customer service we discovered that the United agent in Palm Springs booked us on a flight two days later!  That's when I almost cried.  All the flights to Winnipeg the next day were booked solid.  So I tried getting connections from any airport.  Over an hour later (and kids melting down) we finally got tickets to Chicago in the morning and then we would connect to Winnipeg from there.  We then waited 20 minutes for the shuttle to our hotel to arrive (thankfully the airline covered that) and then took a half hour ride to the hotel.  We arrived at the hotel around 11:00 at night and the kids were loosing thier minds.  Once we were in our room L just passed out cold on the bed but T screamed and screamed and screamed.  That's when I finally cried.  I was supposed to be in my bed at home with my kids snuggled in their own rooms.  Instead I was in a hotel room with a screaming baby and no idea how to get him to sleep.  Finally Dean strapped on the Snuggly and took him for a walk.  Thankfully that worked.  I cried on the bed and finally fell asleep.

Early the next morning we woke the kids up and headed back to the airport.  We went through security and straight to the United customer service desk to see if there was any way we could get on the direct flight home.  By some miracle they found two seats available on the direct flight.  We took them.  I would rather take one flight with the kids by myself then have to deal with two more flights and a layover in Chicago.  The kids and I said goodbye to Dean (who was still going the route through Chicago) and headed for our gate since our plane was boarding soon.  I was almost at our gate when I realized that I had Dean's passport.  I turned around and ran with the kids through the airport swearing under my breath.  I found Dean (thankfully I knew his gate number) gave him his passport and then ran back through the airport to my gate.  I arrived sweating and out of breath with tired crying children, but I was on time.  As we were boarding the plane I just kept praying that God would help the last little bit of this journey to go well.  Thankfully, God knows when we cannot handle anymore.  L was an angel on the airplane and T played nicely with some plastic cups and the lovely lady accross the aisle and then fell quietly to sleep.  Somehow my iphone battery that was almost dead played a movie for L and lasted way longer than I ever thought it could.  We had a nice smooth landing in Winnipeg and then a lovely grandma on the plane stayed behind to help me get off the plane with the kids by carrying all my bags for me.  Then a nice man helped me unfold our stroller at the gate while another kind women held my baby for me.  We breezed through customs and my brother-in-law and niece picked us up at the airport in a van they borrowed from some other great friends who had car seats since ours were on route with Dean.  I have never felt so much relief walking into my house.  The kids and I had a nice afternoon walking to the store (it was over 20 degrees when we got home!) to buy milk and bread and then playing in the backyard with our favourite neighbours :)  My brother-in-law picked up Dean for me later in the day and one of our bags actually made it home with him!  After all the re-routing we were not expecting any of them to make it.  The airline borrowed us some carseats until they find ours.  Hopefully the carseats and our last piece of luggage make it home soon but at this point I don't care.  I'm just happy to be home to beautiful sunny Winnipeg with no more airplane rides in the forseeable future :)