Bailey Beach Week 2015: The Trek Home

We got to our hotel in Raleigh, NC at about 10pm. The plan was to get to bed as soon as possible so we could wake up at 4:30am to make it to the airport in enough time to catch our 6:25am flight to our connection in New York (you end up with crazy flight plans when you go for the cheapest flights.). Ryan and Brady were exhausted from our day at the beach and quickly settled into the sleeper sofa and fell asleep. Camden got a little too wound up at the idea of sleeping in a big bed with his brothers and ended up in a pack and play after getting out of bed and wandering around the hotel room a few times. Once he was situated in his pack and play he went to sleep quickly as well. Zach set the alarm on his phone for 4:30am and we were both asleep in a few minutes. It had been a fun week and a long fun-filled day!

Fast forward to 5:17am... Brady woke up to use the bathroom and startled Zach awake. It sure didn't feel like we had been sleeping very long but luckily Zach looked at the time on his phone and shot out of bed. The alarm hadn't gone off! Our flight was set to leave in an hour! And we still had to return our car to the rental place! (After further investigation we realized that Zach's alarm was set on a M-F schedule- seeing as it was Sunday morning when we needed it, this was no bueno.) 

We quickly gathered our things and Zach took to the bags to the car while I stayed back to get the boys in gear. I got the boys up and their shoes on and then we waited. I assumed Zach would come back to the room to get us once he had the car packed. After a few minutes of waiting, however, I decided to just head out to the car with all the boys to see what was taking so long. As we left the room and turned down the hall we saw Zach, in a total panic, banging on the exterior door of the hotel. He had left his key card behind when he took the bags and he was locked out of the hotel- thank goodness we decided to leave the room when we did! He was never coming back!

Thankfully, we had stayed at a hotel that was close to the airport so we zipped over to the car rental place and quickly unloaded the car. We made our way across the parking lot (with car seats in hand, remember.) to where the airport shuttle had dropped us off just a week before. As we were setting our bags down, an employee asked if we were waiting for a ride to the airport and pointed us back across the parking lot to an empty shuttle stop right next to where we had dropped our car off minutes earlier. The shuttle had been there when we dropped the car off and now it was gone! Once again we gathered all our things and with three tired little boys in tow worked our way back across the parking lot to wait for the next shuttle to take us to the airport. 

The shuttle finally came and, after making an unnecessary stop at an airline no one needed, finally got us to our terminal. Zach printed boarding passes while I got in line to check our bag. At this point I was convinced that we were going to miss our flight. Hope was restored, however, when I got to the front of the line and the attendant said she had 3 minutes to get our bag in the system before it would lock her out. Whew! We got the bag checked and headed over to security. While on my way to the security line I faintly heard someone saying, "Ma'am! Excuse me, ma'am!" I turned to see one of the baggage workers following me. She said, "Are you missing a carseat? You left it over here." I about died. Zach had raced ahead with Ryan so I made my way back to the baggage check alone with Brady and Camden to retrieve the booster seat Zach had set down when he was printing our boarding passes. 

I grabbed the seat and fumbled my way to the security line where Zach and Ryan were anxiously waiting for us. We made our way through security with what I thought was no incident. Zach told me later that a TSA agent tried to call me back for a random body search. I was so focused on getting to our plane that I didn't hear him and just kept walking. Zach frantically explained that we were about to miss our flight and left. No one chased us down or arrested us so I guess the crazy look in Zach's eye did the trick. Add that to your list of travel tips! You're welcome.

We raced down the terminal, as much as a family of five with children ages 2-7 can race at 6:15am, to our gate. As we got closer we heard a page, "Can the Bellows party please report to Gate [whatever our gate # was]" We walked straight on to the plane and to our seats. Only there was a woman in my assigned seat, you know, just to keep things interesting. Turns out she was looking at her seat assignment for her connecting flight. She was embarrassed and apologized and moved to her correct seat- no judging here though! After my seat mix up the week before I was just happy to see someone else make a seat assignment mistake too. As I buckled my seatbelt I glanced at my phone. It was 6:20am. A freakin' miracle. 

The ironic part of our whole travel fiasco in Raleigh was we rushed to get on a plane that would take us to New York to wait for 3 hours until our next flight that would finally take us home. We got breakfast at Shake Shack- if you can call fries and chocolate shakes breakfast (desperate times people.)- and then camped out for the next 2 and a half hours. Camden and Zach spent most of their time sleeping while Brady, Ryan and I tried to track down some batteries for a toy I packed that had run out of battery life mid-trip. 

Finally, we were able to get on the plane and our flight was empty! It was such a treat. Camden, Brady and I shared a row. Brady's fever was coming back so he was happy to just play on the iPad and then took a much needed rest and Camden spent the next hour finishing up his nap followed by fun times on the iPad while Brady slept. They were excellent on the flight and it felt so good to be able to relax and know we were almost home!

We got to Salt Lake on time and were able to quickly retrieve our checked bag. We caught our bus to the long term parking lot where our van was parked. Ryan finally fell asleep on the bus ride to our car. He stayed asleep until 5am the next morning. I'd say he was tired!

All the boys were asleep by the time we pulled into our driveway around 4pm. They all transferred to their beds from the car and stayed asleep until the next morning. If that's not a sign of a great family vacation, I don't know what is!