the adventures of flying

it's been so long since i've posted! maybe one of my new year's resolutions can be to post more! we had quite the interesting holiday break. we had a great time in south dakota visiting family even though it was very short. santa and his elf stopped by grandma's house and visited us and my nephew, tayson, got to tell santa what he wanted. my cousins and i all decided to go out one night and thought it would be fun to all ride together. twelve of us packed into a van and had a great time. we also celebrated with joe's family on sunday night. time just goes way too fast!

the day after christmas, joe and i flew to florida for a wedding. little did we know, it would be an interesting trip that tested our patience, endurance, and faith in the airlines! of course, the day after christmas is the busiest travel day of the year and that's when we were flying! our flight was late taking off and that meant only a 35 minute layover in chicago-o'hare. joe and i ran from one end of o'hare to the other and did make our flight. we then flew to charlotte and finally to fort meyers. we arrived but our bags did not. this was the first time in my flying history that i did not pack an extra outfit in my carry on! great timing. we made a trip to target to get some necessities and waited and waited. after calling, swearing, yelling, and drinking to cope with the situation, our bags finally showed up two days later! the weather was absolutely perfect while we were there--85 degrees. we went on a mini cruise and got to see several dolphins and the naples bay area.

our journey home started on sunday when we left fort meyers at 12:55 p.m. we were looking forward to longer layovers so we wouldn't have to run through the airports. we got into charlotte at 3 and were supposed to leave at 5:25. well, at 7:45 we were just leaving the gate which meant we would have another close call when we arrived in chicago. joe and i made it to our gate in chicago and were feeling good about almost being home! we took off for our 29 minute flight but it seemed a little weird we were still in the air after 40 minutes. finally the captain said that we were over the quad cities but it was very foggy so we would need to circle a while to see if the fog would lift otherwise we would need to go back to chicago. we thought he was joking but obviously he was not---that is exactly what we had to do. once we arrived back in chicago, we had to get a hotel room and then fly out on monday morning. what a trip!

flying is quite an experience and you're surrounded by a whole host of different people--it seemed we saw it all. for example, on one flight we were surrounded by synchronized crying babies and on one flight we were right across from a couple who just couldn't quit making out and touching each other. wonderful. i still absolutely love flying but i have promised myself not to fly out of chicago-o'hare unless it is the very last resort. what a mess that place is! is anything ever on time there?!

anyway, happy new year and hopefully less drama next time we fly!