West Palm Beach

So...we got all packed up and ready to head home after a great Disney vacation but there was one problem...a GINORMOUS ice storm hit DFW and we got stranded in Florida.  We went to the airport and saw that our flight was the ONLY flight leaving Florida to DFW.  Hallelujah!  Well, by the time we checked in and walked to our terminal it got cancelled.  Mondo stood in a super long line to find out what we needed to do.  Guess what?  If we took a short flight over to West Palm Beach there was one flight going out to DFW.  Yay!  Problem solved!

So we hopped on the airport tram and jumped across the airport to a new terminal.

We enjoyed a snack and little game/video time.



Then it was time to board...and we walked out to this...tiny...plane.  Now I'm not a good flier on a good day.  But then you want to put me on this?!  Holy cow, I was freaking out.



This was Ethan's "scared face".  He doesn't like the take off.  I don't like any of it.  And it didn't help that it was SUPER HOT in there until the tiny plane took off.

See Caleb's sweaty head?  He passed the time by reading what to do in case of emercency.  Good plan buddy.

But then he passed out before we even took off.  So we were on our own if there actually was an emergency.

We survived the short flight over to West Palm beach.  But wait, you ask, why is there a picture of you on the beach when you were supposed to fly directly to West Palm then from that airport go straight to DFW?

Yep, you guessed it.  As soon as we landed and walked into the airport we saw that that flight was cancelled too.  No more flights that day to DFW.  Period.  Great so now we're stranded in West Palm Beach.  Not too shabby I guess.  Well, except that our luggage was tagged for DFW and was still stuck in Orlando...which is hours away from West Palm.  And all of my makeup and most of our clothes were in that bag.  The only way we had more than what we were wearing is because our main bag weighed too much at the airport so we dumped a bunch of dirty clothes into our backpacks.  Yes, God was watching out for us on that one. 

After a lot of tears (from me) we decided to suck it up and go with it.  After all, we were stranded at the beach!  We got a hotel and took a shuttle to a shopping center and bought some shorts for us to go to the beach in.  The boys had a great time making sand forts and swimming.





At night we popped some popcorn and watched a movie in the hotel.  Just like home.

The next day we were all ready to come home.  But...wait for it...we were stranded again.  All flights cancelled that day as well.  And here's another kicker, we had to leave our hotel because we only booked for one night and the next night the hotel was fully booked and they wouldn't let us stay.  Can you believe that?!  Cue more tears for Wendy.  Cue "hooray" from the kids who were happy to be stranded at the beach for one more day!

So what did we do?  Headed to the beach again!  Not much else to do...

The boys had another great day playing in the water while poor Mondo was on the phone with the airlines...for HOURS.

I tried my best to focus on the fact that we were hanging out on the beach while all of my friends were literally iced in their homes.  But, we had been gone over a week.  My mom (who was barely recovered from a knee replacement) was having to slid over to my house (luckily she lives only a few streets away) and take care of my dogs.  I was so stressed out that she was going to slip and fall and I was also stressed out that my poor dogs were cooped up for so long.  Oh, and remember, I'm stranded in beautiful West Palm full of beautiful people who carry their dogs around EVERYWHERE and I have NO MAKEUP and I'm living in shorts and a t-shirt with my hair in a wet ponytail.  I'm not usually a vain person...but come on!!

Our second hotel was wonderful to us.  Mondo had mentioned to them that the next day was Caleb's 6th birthday and he would be spending it stranded away from home.  When we came in from the beach that day they had left him a piece of cheesecake, some popcorn, and a signed card from the hotel staff!  Cue more tears again for me!

The next morning was Caleb's birthday and we were determined to get home!!  Mondo was dad of the year.  While the boys and I were still sleeping, he snuck out and bought Caleb a "present".  He went to a gas station and got all of his favorite snack food and a card.  Seriously, what would I do without that man?!  Caleb was super excited about it too!

We were finally able to get a flight later in the day....and we prayed that it wouldn't get cancelled.  We went out to eat at Chili's which is Caleb's favorite restaurant.  He enjoyed some chippies and salsa for his bday lunch.



After waiting around the airport for most of the day...we got on a plane...but it was headed to Chicago  .  We had to fly there and then from there to DFW.  I know, makes no sense but we were willing to do anything to get home!!  When we landed at that airport we were so worried that the flight to DFW was going to be cancelled...but it wasn't!  Hooray!!  We finally boarded that plane and flew HOME!  We didn't get to DFW until around 9pm.  Then it was way too icy for anyone to come pick us up so we had to take a cab.  Oh Lord, that cab ride was something else!  The ice was still super bad and our taxi driver was freaking out!  I prayed our way home.  It was NEVER so good to be home!!!