Where Dreams Come True

Shortly after losing Kenny Pops' we started discussing what Christmas would be like this year.  It would be the first year without both Mimi and Pops and although the house has not sold yet, no one wanted to go to their house to celebrate together.  We (we, meaning Amber and myself, the masterminds of all excellent ideas) decided that this year we should be crazy and just do Christmas totally different and escape it all and surprise the kids with a DISNEY CRUISE!!!  When Amber was home in October we would put the kids to bed and then secretly start crafting the Disney t-shirts. We had some awesome ideas and designs and they were a labor of love! The surprise element was very hard for me - not because I can't keep a secret, but because I can't lie to my kids and I had a perpetual fear that they would ask me questions that I would not be able to answer honestly.  A week before Christmas the questions started coming "when are we going to see Stella and Briggs?" Well "soon" was an easy honest answer, but trust me they got harder.  So here is the story of our plan and how the events unfolded...

On December 27 at 3:30 AM (I told you we would have our turn) we woke the kids up and announced that we were going on an adventure!  The suitcases were already in the car, all they had to do was change clothes.  We started driving to the airport and the questions starting coming! We arrived on time and got checked in for our direct flight to Houston.  The boat was going out of the Galveston Port on the 28th, about an hour ride from Houston.  We were instructed to get our seat assignments from the gate agent, which we didn't think anything of because that often happens when we travel with the kids and they have to rearrange a few things to make sure the kids have seats next to us. The gate agent told us to wait and they would call us.  They make an announcement looking for a volunteer to take another flight and offer $300.  They begin boarding and I have never seen a gate empty so fast in my life.  Elizabeth looks at me and says "mommy we don't have seats yet" I assure her it is fine and about that time they call Brandon to the desk.  From a far I am sensing that their conversation is getting a little heated and I am starting to worry just a bit.  He returns to announce that the flight is oversold and they don't have 4 seats on the plane and will not issue us seat assignments.  I distinctly remember looking at Brandon and saying "That is absurd, we have tickets, we have seats on the plane"  His look is not so confident, so I charge up to the desk to have my own little talk with the gate agent.  I start with the nice approach (let's find a solution together)...no luck...I cry and share our sob story (Amber refers to this as pulling the dead parent card)...no luck...well now I'm just plain mad - how do you split up a family of four who is trying to surprise their kids with a Disney cruise?! I insist that our luggage be pulled off the plane and they find us a flight where all 4 of us can be together.  After a few minutes of searching for a flight and oh by the way we are now dealing with the manager it becomes very obvious that rebooking 4 tickets is going to be next impossible on Sunday December 27.  Our best chance is for me to fly with the kids now and let Brandon find a later flight - it will be easier to find just one ticket. I now have to insist that our luggage be put back on the plane because he will most likely be flying standby and we can't lose our luggage!  So we kiss Daddy goodbye and I get on the plane with the kids, our 3 carry-ons and 3 checked bags.  See you in Texas!

We take off and I start to have a little anxiety about flying to a new place by myself with the kids.  At this point I realize that he has all of the cash (I maybe have $15) and he has no idea what hotel to go to.  Lesson learned...make sure everyone has the travel plan and money.  We land in Houston, it takes  forever to find the United baggage claim (very confusing!), but we find it and all of our bags are there, hooray!  I get us a taxi and we get to the hotel.  I approach the hotel front desk and tell them they could be the light of my day if they have our room ready.  Of course they will be more than happy to check....um this will be more difficult because you have adjoining rooms booked...but oh yes we can make this happen...finally we have a room! I check with Brandon and he is on his way to Chicago and definitely has a ticket for the 7pm flight and is on standby for two others.  Oh great, this is all going to work out!

I put on my brave face and decide that we should go explore the city since Amber's family won't be in for another few hours.  There is park within walking distance.  Between the hotel provided map and my phone, we walk to the park and even find a cafe to have lunch.  I answer a few questions about the people sleeping on park benches and we are all good.  The skies were a little over cast and I was worried about rain so we head back to the hotel.  At this point I am basically feeling like I have conquered the world.  Then Amber texts me to say their flight has been diverted to Austin.  Diverted? I get distracted with the kids for a bit and then start thinking why is their flight diverted? So I look at my weather app and Houston is under a tornado watch.  Awesome, we are on the 10th floor in a city I don't know and my family is all supposed to be here with me and they are not and I need chocolate!! I take the kids to the shop downstairs to get a treat, they are closed.  I tell them to sit in the lobby and I calmly (truly, very calmly) go over to the gentleman who checked us in and say "I understand we are under a tornado watch,  I am from the midwest and tornadoes are not new to me, but I did live through an F4 two years ago so I need to know the plan. Does this hotel have a basement?" The manager overhears and steps over to assure me that yes there is a basement and should the need arise to take cover security will come get us and escort us to the basement.  Perfect, just needed to know there was a plan.

Pretty cool park- spinning tops after an artist 

Look Mom even found us food!

We are doing good- Mom is taking on Houston!

Weather is not so great...

Ok it's now 6pm.  Campbell's are still stuck on the tarmac in Austin and guess what, so is Brandon! He got on the first standby flight but was also diverted to Austin.  We are staring to get hungry again, so I call for a pizza to be delivered.  The original plan was that we would all be together by 2pm and Mickey was going to call them at 6 to let them know that he would be seeing them  'real soon!'.  We are onto plan D by this stage of the game.  The Houston airport finally reopens and because the Campbell's pilot was about to time out their plane got off pretty quick.  They arrive at the hotel about 9pm.  We have a precious video of them arriving and the kids seeing each other.

I am certain room service smoothies taste better than any other!

The guy who was sitting next to Brandon on his flight is a pilot and because their current pilot did time out he ends up flying them to Houston.  They had been on the tarmac so long that they had to give them a gate to allow passengers to get off and get food.  Brandon texts me about 11pm and says he is on his way.  I tell him there is a key at the desk, I'm going to sleep.

I wake up at 2am and realize that Brandon still isn't in the room.  I call him and he says he is in the taxi on his way to the hotel.  The one piece of luggage that he had, a carry-on, they forced him to plane-side check because he was last one on the plane there wasn't any space in the overheads left.  When they pulled into the gate at Austin the grounds crew unloaded the entire plane's luggage.  Brandon had been at the airport for hours trying to find his suitcase.  By the time he arrived at the hotel I was in the bathroom wearing the hotel bath robe (because my pj's were in the lost luggage) and I'm borderline hyperventilating. I've held it together all day and of course I am glad that all 8 of us are finally together but now they lost our suitcase?! It was all just too much for me.  We then begin the task of figuring out what was in the lost suitcase.  Well good news for Brandon, he didn't have anything in there! Not so good new for the rest of us.  Elizabeth and I had no pj's, underwear, or socks, the kids had no crocs and flip-flops, the Disney shirts were in there, costumes for pirate night, all of my shorts and skirts, most of EB's outfits....man we packed a lot of stuff in that little carry on suitcase!

Our advice would be to make sure you keep track of any little piece of paper the airline may give you.  I usually use them as a bookmark or a place to put my gum, but thank goodness Brandon knew where it was because it was the only thing to help find the suitcase.

So our perfect trip didn't start out so perfect, but we were determined to rebound!  Amber and I ubered ourselves to Target the next morning, dropped $400 faster than I've done before (she is a bad influence on me!) and tried to replace the items that we could.  I bought the world's worst granny panties (by accident!) and was made fun of the whole entire trip.  But we had pj's underwear, shoes and some new clothes to get us through.  Secretly, I was still holding out hope that our suitcase would magically arrive at the port and be waiting for us...I tend to set myself up for disappointment.

We arrive back at the hotel just in time for Mickey's phone call.  We gather the kids on the bed and Amber puts her phone on speaker and Brandon starts recording this magical moment.  We are relying on this phone call to announce to the kids that we are going on a cruise.  EPIC FAIL! The phone call was horrible, the kids did not understand it all and at the end Mickey says "See you real soon pal!" and Stella says "Mickey is coming here!" Briggs says "Can I have Grant's iPad back?" and our kids are just confused.  We spell it out for them that we are going on a Disney cruise and there is now some level of excitement.  Grant and Briggs put on their matching Disney shirts and Stella and Elizabeth put on their brand new Arielle shirts that we had just ripped the Target tags off of!  I bought myself a Mickey shirt too - thanks United!  And we headed down to the lobby to catch the SuperShuttle!! Let the vacation begin!

Goofy photobombed the kids - we had only been on the boat 10 minutes!

They cut the kids food!! 

Minnie sighting! 

Pillowcases for the characters to sign - luckily Auntie Amber was in charge of those! 

The girls took a drawing class

Family 3D crafts (we would not repeat this particular activity!)

Mickey Bars! 

Lots of Mickey Bars - the chocolate on them is so good! 

We made a stop at Key West - we mainly just got off the boat to look for pirate shirts!

Paintings from the kids club

Grant competed in the Mickey 500.  You had to use veggies to build your car.

I wish I could add more pictures but our household is currently experiencing some technical difficulties that have accompanied our upgrade to El Capitan! My next goal is to put together a video of our trip, but for now this is the best I can do! It was a wonderful, and the kids want to know when we can do it again!