All Together Again . . . Briefly

On Wednesday, Bob took the day off, and we had a "date day", as we drove into PA to meet my parents, Aunt Claire, and the girls at Cracker Barrel.  Unfortunately, they got stuck in a terrible traffic jam around Wheeling (an unfortunate omen for travel that day, for sure), so they were about an hour later than expected.  Bob and I had a perfectly lovely drive heading west, with hardly any traffic at all!  We were driving the Sienna, which was a wonderful change of pace from driving the big van.  I could drive that little van forever I think!

The girls looked so adorable in their matching Grandma/Grandpa camp outfits--so many people commented on them and asked if they were all sisters.  They definitely look like they are all related!

We had a lovely lunch together, and all too soon it was time to go out to the vans to switch stuff around.  After a sad goodbye, we got into our vans to head our separate ways.  Bob and I were parked facing I-70, and when I looked over there, I couldn't believe it--traffic was at a standstill heading west this time--just the direction my parents and their crew were heading!  Dad ended up creeping along until the next exit, where they bailed and found a different route back to Wheeling, so that didn't end up slowing them down too much.

They all got dinner at McDonalds, and then dropped off Aunt Claire, Emily, and Elia at the Columbus airport so they could catch their flight back to Dallas . . . or not.  Mom and Dad waited around a little bit, and Aunt Claire texted that the second leg of their flight was going to be delayed.  Eventually Mom and Dad started home, and when they were about halfway there, Aunt Claire texted with the terrible news that their flight wasn't going anywhere that night because of mechanical problems, and she was waiting in a huge line to find out if they would be able to go to a hotel! They eventually got put in one, but it was far away, it was late, they were all really exhausted, they didn't have any luggage, and the flight was going to leave at 0600 the next morning!  They slept but couldn't catch the 4:30 shuttle bus, so they had to take a taxi to the airport.  Eventually they got there, where they had to fly down to Tampa and then up to St. Louis before finally getting back to Dallas.  What a nightmare!!  Emily and Elia were real troopers the whole time, and Aunt Claire deserves some kind of medal for her efforts!  She flew back to Salt Lake really early Friday morning, and I'm sure it will take a month for her to recover from this whole adventure, LOL.

So we were all back together again for a few days.  Micah and Drew were so thrilled to have the girls back!  But it didn't last long, because this afternoon Nathan left for the USAFA summer seminar.  His flight got delayed as well, but it did eventually take off about 2 hours late.  At least it was a direct flight, so we didn't have to worry about connections!  He was really excited about this week, so hopefully he will have a really fun time!  I imagine that, like with the girls, we will miss him, but he will not really be missing us at all, LOL.