Take Me Down In A Blaze Of Glory

Love my Bon Joviness???? Well, day one of vacation and we are still in Hawaii. I'll give a total recap of our evening just so I can come back here and read this and two years from now still get pissy about it.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Security sucked, but when does it not suck. I will say though, it's the first time I haven't had to have my purse searched by hand! I must have done really well packing this go around. We got through security and it was about 10:15PM Hawaii standard time. Luckily we had about fifteen minutes before they started closing up all the shops and whatnot, so we scored some Starbucks (yes coffee for a midnight flight...hindsight it was my savouir) and popped a squat for some rest before trekking to the back end of the aiport with me of course carrying all the bags because my kids are wimps and their backpacks were hurting them. As we sat there starting to relax because all that was left to do was get on the plane and go to sleep I heard what sounded like beads scattering all over the floor. Yep, Gillian snuck one of my bracelets out of the house, was fidgeting with it and broke it into a thousand little pieces. Great start to a trip. I think she was more upset that she broke something of mine than she was about getting yelled at by her dad. Anywho, that was butter compared to the rest of the night.

We get back to the gate and our friend that just so happened to have booked the first leg of her flight on the same plane was already there with both of her kids asleep in their chairs. At least I had some company until we boarded the plane. She was in the bathroom with her youngest when they came over the intercom to announce familes traveling with children under the age of 5 to board (I'm gonna be so sad when I lose that perk!). Once B came out of the bathroom we all grabbed our bags and went to get in line behind first class. First class got on the plane...and then they shut the door. We stood there with four kids that we had to wake up to get on the plane. 5 minutes passed. 10 minutes passed. Finally a flight attendent announced that they were no longer boarding at the moment and that we all needed to take a seat. Strange??? So we go and sit down. By the way did I mention it was a midnight flight?

30 minutes pass and then they made their first announcement. The pilot found something while he was running his diagnostics and needed maintence to come in to look at something. It would be a few minutes before they could board us. Next thing we know there are two fire trucks sitting on the tarmac next to the plane. Another 30 minutes pass and they make another announcement that they are waiting to hear something and they would let us know as soon as possible how long it would be. By this point in time our flight should've been up in the air already. I knew we were going to be missing our connecting flight in Phoenix. Another 30 minutes pass and the first class passengers are now being taken off the plane and sent back through the gate. They make another announcement. There was a small jet fuel leak that they found. They knew how to fix it and it would be at least 30 minutes before we can board. And then the man said stupidly over the intercom "Hopefully they can fix it". I've never seen so many people in one room screaming "hopefully" at one time. That gives you sour tummy when you are about to fly over the ocean. Hopefully should never be used by a flight attendent. It should be banned from their vocabulary.

After another HOUR and me being completely delirious at this point laughing until I cried and hallucinating about donuts, they came back on and said "they've decided to drain all of the fuel from the plane" okay...not comprehending what this means yet "draining all of the fuel will take about 5 hours, so at this point your flight is cancelled." Yep, the stupid plane caught fire...they put it out found the leak fast enough for it not to freaking explode thank goodness. So we had to drag 4 sleeping kids yet again back through the airport to get our luggage all the while one of them is screaming and crying because they want to go see their grandma. I was on the verge of tears myself. We were on the slow end of getting to the baggage carousel so we were one of the last to get the information to get our flight changed. It pushed us back to not be able to leave until Sunday night (another midnight flight ya!). They thankfully allowed us to push back our return date by two days so we won't be cutting our trip short in the end. We just get to unpack and repack which sucks. We got home at 3:30. At least I stripped the beds and put clean sheets on before we left the house earlier that night.

Dad said that it's probably best because it's very windy and only 4 degrees today. Talk about a shock to the system. Oh and that the snow's almost all gone...just little blobs all over the ground. I don't think that would've impressed the girls much.

I guess I'm off to two days of movies and board games with the kids. And my Christmas shopping time got cut off by two days. Maybe now if I wasn't completely prepared I will be by the time we actually leave. I just wanted to be home.