Hang On It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride...

Our trip back to the States started out in fine fashion as Addison sensed that we were going to be doing something big because she woke up at 3AM Friday morning ready to go.  I should have known that this would be a precursor for how the day was going to be.  Upon our arrival to Heathrow, Addison decided that it was dire to carry her blankie into the terminal and after 3.2 seconds it was on the ground soaking up mud.  We started to feel a little lucky when we went to check in because there was hardly any line, but that was short lived when we got the bad news that our flight was being delayed about 1 1/2 hours due to fog.  Luckily we were able to get our hands on some vouchers to the AA "Admiral's Club" so we did our time there - it didn't seem to be the most family friendly place because we got some interesting looks from all the "business-class" travelers.  I did take this time to clean up what I could of Addison's blankie in the lounge bathroom since I knew it was an essential travel tool for her. For the most part our long flight home went pretty well, both kids traveled pretty well and Addison watched "The Bee Movie" about 5 times without any sound because she didn't want to put on the head phones.  

Once in Chicago, we got excited again because their weren't near the lines and confusion through immigration that we dealt with last year.  We got to go through the "family" line at security and were followed up by our ISE friends the Tranel's who were on the same flight as us.  I know that security is a "good thing" but it is not family friendly AT ALL!!!  You have to take off your own bags, coats, shoes along with your kids and for a 2 year old who is love with her new boots and it isn't fun stripping her down when she clearly doesn't understand why.  We also had our two car seats with us to run through and after Kevin went through with Addie to start collecting all of our stuff on the other end, I was left behind with Harrison and the stroller.  Now at Heathrow they just let us push the stroller through the metal detector, but in Chicago they expected me to collapse it with a 4 month old in my hands and plop it up on the conveyor.  There were 3 TSA agents just looking at me and waiting.  Thankfully Amber Tranel was right behind me so I could hand Harrison to her while the TSA agents watched me fold down the stroller and mumbled mean words under my breath.

We rushed off to catch our connection to Cedar Rapids.  We got loaded up on the plane with two kiddos that were clearly sick of traveling, but we assured them both that we were going to see momma and papa soon.  At the time we should have been pushing off the pilot announces that we needed to wait on some paper work to be filled out so it will be a few minutes before we can take off.  Then a few minutes later he comes on and says well, folks we think it is going to be faster to get to Cedar Rapids if we get off this plane and get loaded on the one just next to us. Okay...we just got the kids strapped in their car seats and calmed their crying down...now we have to unload the plane.  As we are getting off the plane the pilot makes another announcement that the plane we are supposed to be moving to actually hasn't landed yet and should be arriving in 20 minutes.  After 30 minutes we reloaded the new plane.  At this point we had been traveling 20 hours and we were so tired and ready to be home.  Once we got to CR, Addison was in melt down mode and just wanted to sleep.  I brought her and Harrison up to the gate and waited for Kevin.  I waited a long while and then slipped back to see what the hold up was and saw a horrible sight.  Kevin was holding on a piece of our stroller and frantically trying to open the main part. Our stroller was in pieces...the doubles kit was broken off and the back axle was bent really bad.  We popped Addie in the stroller the best we could and cautiously wheeled her down the terminal.  The greatest part of the day was about to happen as our family anxiously waiting for us, but our blood was boiling at what put the cherry on top of our "perfect" day.  Kevin headed to the AA desk and got a huge run around from them about their policy not covering damage to strollers, even checked gate side.  

In the end, even though we had a rough day it was great getting to see my mom and dad, my sister, her husband, and my little nephew that I had been dying to see.  My brother was waiting at the house for us.  It is great to be home!!!! More to come as we find out about our stroller....