Texans, Wedding Bells & Snowstorms!

This past weekend I got a chance to escape the cold, and flew down to Dallas for my cousin Teresa’s wedding. It was supposed to be a quick trip, fly in fly out…

Teresa’s wedding was beautiful. Definitely one of those weddings where the love between the bride and groom filled the room with warmth and happiness. Six of the eight cousins on my mom side are pretty close in age, and get together once a year or so, and it was a blast to get everyone together for such a fun celebration.

Meanwhile, at home, Casey was bracing for a snowstorm and enjoying his first time being alone with Gavin for more than a day. And yes, that snowstorm threw a wrench in the “two day getaway” plan. As we turned on CNN early Sunday morning, it quickly became apparent that we were not going to be flying into Minneapolis. Over a foot of snow was predicted and blizzard warnings were popping up all over the state. Luckily, I received a text that our flight was canceled and quickly called the 800 number provided to get myself, my mom, and my grandmother back home.

“I’m sorry, but all flights are completely booked until Tuesday.”

Uh oh. That’s two extra days. Now lets be honest, I was not at all disappointed to be missing out on the snow and was happy to spend another couple of days in warmer weather…but I had never been away from Gavin for that long! Much less, that far away!But we filled our extra time with shopping and food and quickly Tuesday morning arrived.

As we boarded the plane (after waking up at 4:30 a.m.) I was so excited to be getting home in just a couple of hours. But of course with my luck, that didn’t happen. We sat on the tarmac, at the gate for two hours. Issue, after issue arose and the mechanics were getting on and off the plane. At many points, we were all wondering if this flight was going to just get cancelled as well. And with two days (Sunday & Monday) of cancelled flights across the country due to the storm, I was worried it would be another 48 hours until I could even get another flight. It didn’t help that one of the issues was the mechanism that fired up the engine.

Finally, we took off…landed…and drove to my mom’s house where one of my cars was parked. Dead battery. Wonderful. I hadn’t jump started a car in a few years so I didn’t want to deal with it myself, so AAA was called. After an hour (plus) of wait time, the car was started and I finally hit the road.

And now the radio didn’t work. Seriously? No way was I going to drive for an hour plus in my car with no music! Apparently when the battery in Casey’s SUV dies, a security code has to be entered to turn on the accessories. But I was so excited to get home, the last thing I wanted to do was pull over and dink around with it. So I made half the drive, luckily found the four digit code and was able to rock out the rest of the way.

Is it possible for a kid to have a noticeable growth spurt in 4 1/2 days? I couldn’t believe how much bigger Gavin seemed. Casey had to run out the door to his office, so there I was. Unbelievably sleep deprived. Luggage to unpack. Cleaning/shoveling definitely needed to be done. And a two year old staring at me, wanting entertainment. But all I could muster was some playtime with Gavin and laid on the couch half awake.

But today, I’ve been productive. Have caught back up on sleep (kind of). The driveway is shoveled, the laundry/dishes are chugging away, and the vacuum has been running nearly non stop. It feels great to be home, and the short getaway definitely got me reenergized.

And as a side note, its my birthday week.  :)