Being the cheap people that we are, we selected a flight itinerary that put us getting into Baltimore on Christmas Eve at 11:00pm... gross. We woke up on Christmas Eve and had a relaxing morning opening presents from each other and doing some last minute packing. I went to get my cell phone to pack it and noticed that I had a message. It was from United, our connecting flight in Chicago had been canceled. They booked us on another flight, putting us in Baltimore even later than before. Awesome. Luckily my husband is amazingly smart and called the airline. He was able to get our connecting flight changed to an earlier one that would fly into Washington D.C. When we got to SLC airport we found out our plane was delayed. Our new connection was going to be tight in Chicago already, so this delay was not okay.
Our connecting flight in Chicago was supposed to leave at 6pm. The flight from SLC landed in Chicago at 5:25pm, we were thinking we were sitting pretty. False. The plane sat on the runway for another 25 minutes while they waited for a gate to clear for us. Zach called United and checked on our connecting flight, good news: the gate we were going into to was only two gates away from the gate our flight was leaving from and, according to United, the flight was now leaving at 6:10pm. They finally let us get off the plane and Zach and I literally ran to the gate (it was a scene straight out of Home Alone) only to find the door closed. Zach then proceeded to bang on the door. I was sure he was going to get arrested, so I went and sat down a safe distance away from him as to avoid being guilty by association. Soon a man came walking out of the door and very defensively informed us that we missed the flight and it was already gone. It was 5:55pm. Every flight we saw that day had been delayed and yet the one flight we needed to be delayed left EARLY?! The man re-booked us on a flight that left 3 hours later. Zach was furious. I was hungry and tired and quite upset too. We proceeded to spend the next three hours in the airport with Zach on the phone with United getting more and more frustrated trying to communicate with their customer service department in INDIA! (He did manage to get us two coupons for $100 off our next flight with United... haha, yea right, like there's going to be a "next" flight) After a short time I realized that I might die if I didn't get something to eat so we went to McDonalds. In the end we got to Virginia, but I don't see us flying with United again anytime in the near future. Zach's parents picked us up from the airport and we got to the Bailey's house a little after midnight.
After a few short hours of sleep it was Christmas! We spent Christmas morning at the Bailey's. The Bellows are very organized in how they open presents. The Baileys are not. I have to say I kind of missed ooooing and aaaaing at everyone's presents like we do at the Bellows' house.
Below is the requisite unflattering picture of me on Christmas morning. As you can see, Lindsey got a robe, a hat and a scarf, leopard slippers and a little polar bear. Zach got a knife... thanks mom. I don't know why he thought it would be cute to hold it to my neck during the picture, but some things have no explanation.
During the rest of our trip we saw The Great Debaters and I Am Legend. I quite enjoyed The Great Debaters, but hated I Am Legend. The boys seemed to think that watching horrifying zombie people go after normal people and adorable dogs was a great way to spend two hours. Typical. I am not at all embarrassed to say that I had to leave the theater at the most intense scene and I can safely say that I hate scary movies.
Movies were not all we did at home. We also spent a lot of calories going out to eat. In nine days we ate at McDonalds, Otanis, The Cheesecake Factory, Baja Fresh, Applebees, Damons and Pei Wei (twice). When we weren't going out to eat, we were eating delicious meals prepared by our moms. Long story short; we were terribly spoiled when it came to food and somehow our cold cereal and ramen just don't compare to mom's cooking. Sorry Zach.
I went shopping with my mom and grandma on numerous occasions and now have a whole wardrobe of maternity shirts... thanks mom! We spent many nights playing games and talking and catching up... I LOVED it!
Moral of the Story: Vacation is sooooo much better than real life!
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